Transitions 101

A couple months ago, motivated after reading life is a verb, by Patti Digh, I went on a clearing, simplifying campaign, determined to put the finishing touches on our move here. Although to outside eyes we looked settled in, I knew there were boxes still unpacked, stuff crammed under the bed and in closet corners. Plus, from past transitions, I have come to believe that any true beginning requires a genuine ending. 

So I set upon my campaign with a vengeance. The result is magazine spread worthy, if I do say so myself. Every shelf organized, boxes labeled in fancy fonts ( label fanatics, you've got to get the Epson 300, such fun.), furniture repositioned, artwork exchanged.  Several trips to Catholic Charities, who may petition to have us declared saints!

Among the book shelves, organized by genre, of course, and balanced with favorite mementoes and even a degree of space, there is now one special shelf. It is home to a dozen books whose titles comprise my personal study guide to dealing with transtion. A dozen books that had been scattered throughout the house. Read over 35 years, dog-earred, underlined, one or two tear-stained, they provide a chronicle of changes managed well and not so well, as surely as any photo album. 

Seeing them on one shelf has inspired me to reread a few. I wonder if they will be as meaningful to me today? What would you add to this list?

• If You Meet the Buddha on the Road, Kill Him, by Sheldon Kopp
• The New Diary, by Tristine Rainer
• A Room of Her Own, by Chris Casson Madden
• A Conscious Life, by Fran and Louis Cox
• Flow, by Mihalyi Csikzentmihalyi
• Choice Theory, by William Glasser, M. D.
• Gift to the Sea, by Anne Morrow Lindbergh
• The Artist's Way, by Julia Cameron
• Transitions, by William Bridges
• A Simpler Way, by Margaret J. Wheatley and Myron Kellner-Rogers
• The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, by Jean-Dominique Bauby
• The Answer to How Is Yes, by Peter Block

The e-reader? Well, my most recent read, life is a verb, is stored on my Kindle. I may just have to get it in hardback - to place on the shelf.