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Life is a Verb: 37 Days to Wake Up, Be Mindful and Live Intentionally By Patti Digh
By Rita Cook
Patti Digh's book "Life is a Verb: 37 Days to Wake Up,
Be Mindful and Live Intentionally" is a response to what she did when she took a good hard look at how she was living her life. The catalyst for her life changing thinking came because of the death of her stepfather who had just 37 days to live when he found out he was dying.
What would you do if you had only 37 days to live?
A mindful question - not easily answered.
Digh decided to ask herself what she would be doing if she only had 37 days to live and, based on her award-winning blog, this book "Life is a Verb" goes into the details. She realized too that living the best 37 days of your life wouldn't be quitting a job, traveling the world or even giving up, just living life to full intention is what her conclusion came to be in the end.
But, what intention - that was the next question?
This book "Life is a Verb: 37 Days to Wake Up, Be Mindful and Live Intentionally" offers 37 witty, literary and inspiring life stories that illustrate the six core principals for living without regret no matter if you have five days, 37 days or a lifetime. The end results are for sure; Say Yes More Often, Trust Yourself, Slow Down, Be Generous, Speak Up and the best one, Love More.
With three parts and nine chapters in "Life is a Verb: 37 Days to Wake Up, Be Mindful and Live Intention-ally," Digh opens the book with a bit about who she is and her experiences as well as explaining the 37 days and how she came up with the idea. While the opening is a bit slow as you continue to read you will find the all-important nuggets of wisdom that this sort of book offers. In the Introd-uction, Digh notes "Always carry a pencil" and then goes on to explain why (not a bad idea, actually).
"What if our lives are books," she notes, "What is the sign of our presence? Are we pressing into the margins our interpretations and questions?"
Digh also offers what she calls Action Challenges throughout the book keeping the reader engaged in the words and the actions. For example, a focused free-write in which she asks the reader to write, write and write some more everything they would want to remember if their memory were being erased in five minutes.
She also peppers quotes from writers, politicians and other wise folk such as Michelangelo "The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it," or "I will not take "but" for an answer" - Langston Hughes.
In the end who we are comes through as we discover and rediscover ourselves in 37 days and the ways we would choose to show we existed at all.
One of my favorite actions was writing for three minutes on who I was when I was 13 years old then taking a look at where that person went, what turns I have taken and what part of that person remains - good questions and truly even better answers.
Digh, whose popular blog on the same subject became well-known around the world is a speaker on diversity and leadership issues and her comments have appeared on PBS, in the "Wall Street Journal," "The New York Times" and "USA Today."
Her book is indeed an inspiration asking the first question for the rest of your life, what would you be doing if you only had 37 days to live? Only you can decide. And, as George Eliot is quoted in the book as saying, "It's never too late to be what you might have been."