77 essays (starting with "Eleven Guidelines for Pursuing Pleasure," with sections on Life's Pleasures, Finding Mr. Right, Again and Again, Figuring It Out, Digging Deeper, etc.
April Appetites - The three vases of lilacs won't fit on my desk, crowded as it is with unfiled papers, but I lean down to take them in, as a proud 10-year-old might exult in the smell of her first chocolate chip cookies.
Ah-h and Awe - I felt as uninhibited as a toddler dancing to Sesame Street songs..I simply was a child let out of latched gates.
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It All Happened on Monday - Come wander through my day with me, like a visiting out-of-town relative. I'd like the company.
Excerpt
Morning Glories, Pears and Old Comics - And even in my sick bed, having grinned through 12 weeks of comics, I experienced nurturance and accomplishment... The ordinary and mundane is not enough for me. I notice nuances, am curious about coincidences, ponder incongruities, and opt for stimulating opportunities. I sometimes feel a bit like a frog with its tongue ready to dart at the first sign of a fly.
5:30 am Thoughts about John - Am I ready for this? Oh, yes! This adventurer who can travel in SE Asia alone for three months, speak before audiences, run a rooming house, this woman can deal with the flutters of questions that escaped from their cage when I threw off the covers.
Deep Play with Richard - It might be fun for others to be voyeurs of our exuberance.
Can’t We Try Again? But it's hard to be holding the broken vessel of a relationship that could've been mended. I don't want to throw away the pieces. I don't want anyone out there in the world experiencing me as hurtful or unloving. How can fences be mended when the mending tools are withheld?
If this "go with the moment" boat capsizes, I'll get wet. But I'll learn where the rocks are and where the smooth water is. And the next trip down the river may be more harmonious because of what I learn now.
If our minds are holding us prisoner, what would parole look like?
Like many mothers, I would do things differently than my two do them. But I don't need to focus on the differences.
I found containers of memories tonight in the basement.
My inner Adventurer was hiking into the hills before the rest of me had even found my back pack and water and Power Bars.
(Musing in the tub) If that place of inner reverie leads to a Don Quixote charge at the windmills, I saddle up for the ride.
And how much more pleasure can you pack in life's daily suitcase?
My goal of being a syndicated columnist had a bucket of cold reality thrown at it. That's okay. I am committed to carrying the process forward. Reality is a contender, but no match for persistence and commitment. At least that will be my stance as long as my intention and action are on target.
Not having a planner for the first several days of the year made me feel like a painter without an easel, a kid without a toy, a kitchen without a stove. It's a way I have of keeping the days in separate drawers, of covering up and tucking in the experiences of the day.
But seeking a romantic relationship without self-knowledge is like filling a swimming hole with water before the concrete is poured. There is nothing to hold it in place.
Professional Reviews
Experiencing life as an art form,
Reviewer: "starnet7" (Canoga Park, CA United States) -
Ms. Vestan is a connoisseur of experience, pure and simple, which she raises to an art form. She never loses her childlike wonder and delight in enjoying the simplest of things. One minute it is found ingredients in the refrigerator for a meal, the next enjoying herself at a nudist camp and coming up with always intriguing observations. An entrepreneur of the spirit and relisher of all experience!
She has broken the book up into 8 sections, from "Tasting and Savoring Life's Pleasures" to "Family Matters: Pigtails to Gray Hair" to "Figuring it Out". You can read 77 delightful vignettes, like daily meditations, that will have you laughing, bring wonder, share raw honesty, and experience pure joy from events like a wheelbarrow ride. These 2-4 page pieces each draw the reader in as if addressing questions, feelings and delights with a friend. Do one a day for your reminder to openness! The words in her Dedication probably say it about as well as anything: "To all who are nurtured in their pursuit of meaning, who delight in everyday pleasures, who grow from open-heartedness, and who love themselves and others with compassion."
Her work on this book deserves praise for her delight, wonder, honesty, zaniness, and love that she relates beautifully through the stories of daily rituals. As her stories seep into you, you find yourself seeing, living experiences never even dreamed of, but suddenly enjoyed. It is a book of possibility. Are you stymied or stuck in your thinking or your life? Read these pages and be ready for openings into new possibilities! It inspires with its imagination, soothes with its tender care, jolts with its fascination of all that's around us. . I got a chance to experience great depth and breadth of living. Let yourself feel it all! Enjoy yourself on the journey!
Interesting and Inspirational
Reviewer: Tonya Monet (Marysville, Washington) -
I read the book Pleasures and Ponderings by Moreah Vestan a few chapters every night before going to sleep and found I looked forward to it each night. While at first it seemed like the book was fun and interesting but "all about Moreah", it soon became evident that she was just as interested in helping others as herself.I'm going to read it AGAIN and this time make notes on many of the books and websites she recommends Her very interesting, enthusiastic and tenacious hold on life and the self-improvement of body, mind and soul is an inspiration to anyone!
Democratic Dilemmas and Divine Inspiration examines the significance or relevance of the idea that the U.S. Constitution was, as many believe, divinely inspired. How much did that belief matter to founders of the nation and how much does it matter no
