5 comments about Finding Your Own North Star: Claiming the Life You Were Meant to Live.

1. Joanne Scaglione, Author: Living The Secret Everyday: My Secret Workbook
   Loved this book. In an easy-to-read writing style Ms Beck does a beautiful job of showing the reader that no matter where he/she is he/she can get to wherever he/she wants. A joyful and abundant life is awaiting for you if you stay focused and don't limit yourself by limiting thoughts we've grown up with or society has taught us.Excellent tips, strategies and exercises.



2. I am in the process of working with a professional coach and she recommended this book. I have found it to be very helpful in guiding me to deeply reflect on what I REALLY want as opposed to what I think I should want. Martha Beck is very funny. She provides exercises to stimulate thinking and move forward. Hooray!



3. This product was shipped and was in excellent condition. Would do business again and recommend highly.



4. Her humor and intelligence amaze me with every book I read of hers. I'm a big fan. This is a timely book for me as I try to sell my business, raise 2 young boys and figure out my next career move. I share the main points of this book with all of my friends. There is a reason why Oprah publishes her work every month in her magazine. Martha Beck speaks to me a lot in this book and I am listening.



5. Finding Your Own North Star: Claiming the Life You Were Meant to Liveis a life changing book. Beck's examples are all ones we can relate to no matter where we are in life.

5 comments about Steering by Starlight: Find Your Right Life, No Matter What!.

1. That's How the Light Gets In: Memoir of a Psychiatrist by Susan Rako, M.D. The title comes from a song by Leonard Cohen: "There is a crack, a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in." Rako's book is very insightful, inspirational, and a pleasure to read -- wonderfully well-written. The writing simply flows.



2. Martha Beck is an inspiring life coach. I love her books. They tend to move me forward in life and give my hope.



3. I just love Martha Beck's writing style. She takes high-level concepts and makes them easy to understand. I've tried reading another very popular book with a similar message (you can probably guess which one), but I just couldn't get it. What Beck does best is offer real-life examples along with easy-to-understand metaphors for these concepts. This book came into my life at a time when I was dealing with a pretty dark depression, and I have to say that they exercises have helped me keep my focus on the life I want instead of re-playing the never-ending loop of negativity. If you're not ready to dig deep and take a good hard look at yourself, you won't like this book. We've gotten out of trusting ourselves and our intuition due to so many voices out there telling us what we should be. Ms. Beck helps you get in touch with who you are at your very core. She is very upfront that the work it takes to get there is often painful. But the end result is worth the work.



4. Steering by Starlight: Find Your Right Life, No Matter What! by Martha Beck is an empowering,wonderful book. Beck is a Harvard educated life coach.
   
   She writes: "My goal in writing this book is to help you find your deepest sense of purpose--to give you back to yourself, since you are the ultimate arbiter of your own fate."
   
   Throughout the book, there are lots of stories about her clients that illuminate her theories. Many might seem fantastic and over-the-top to the uninitiated, but as someone who has experience with many of Beck's work, I can assure you they are real.
   
   Beck writes about our three selves--essential, social and stargazer. The stargazer is the higher or true self; it is the self imbibed with the knowledge of true destiny and purpose in life.
   
   The book is filled with exercises to uncover our destiny and purpose. She discusses three stages:
   
   *Dissolving: when you remove the blinders that prevent us from seeing our destiny
   * Dreaming: When we begin to align ourselves with our fate, we will experience magic, coincidences and more
   * Daring: Learning the work to make our destiny happen
   
   Beck mentions The Secret and how the essential message is "everything you think about happens." She struggled with that and came up with this: "thoughts that come from the core of peace are magic, versus thoughts from our shallow outer limits of our psyches have little power." I love that!
   
   She writes: "Living space is a powerful metaphor for your life. Whether you know it or not, you can't change your life without changing your home, and vice versa." I loved this, as it was a bit of coincidence/magic for me--I recently read Harmonious Environment: Beautify, Detoxify and Energize Your Life, Your Home and Your Planet and the book has allowed me to change my house/change my life!
   
   This is a clear and concise guide to learning how to access your higher self, live proactively and reach your goals.



5. Books was awesome! It really helped me to understand some of the stuff that's going on in my head. I especially love her exercises! I've read the book from front-to-cover and now I'm slowly working on doing each exercise for 30 days. I highly recommend this book for anyone who have read Martha's other books.

5 comments about The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom, A Toltec Wisdom Book.

1. This book was really thought provoking. Keeps you reading and wanting more. Some of these types of books can be very dry reading and hard to get through, not this one!!!



2. This book is a wonderful book so full of insightful knowledge, yet so simple that anyone can read it quickly. I highly recommend this book to anyone for personal and professional development.



3. This book is very well written and easy to understand. It is a quick read, and I will reread it often to keep the material fresh. The message is simple, yet very profound. It truly opened my eyes and my heart to an awareness that had made a huge difference in the way I treat myself. Most of us don't realize how we are silently killing our own souls by the way we think; this book helped me to realize and change a thought process that released negativity I didn't know was harboring in my soul. As a result, it freed me and opened the path to a higher level of enjoyment and satisfaction in my life. I will purchase many more copies as gifts for friends ... what great joy it will bring me to know that I gave someone I love the ability to be kinder to themselves, along with the tools to truly enjoy life!



4. The Four Agreements by Ruiz is certainly one of my most referred to volumes in my library! This man says things that so many folks mouth over and over and he says them with such authority and gentleness that they resonate deeply with your heart.



5. This has been one of the most helpful and enlightning book for me and my family in recent history.

5 comments about Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion (Collins Business Essentials).

1. One of the great myths about modern society is that we can divide it into two non-overlapping parts---the private and the public. The private sphere is the purported locus of all affective, emotional commitments, while the public sphere is a realm of impersonal, purely instrumental, social interaction. In the private sphere, the story goes, we live, love, grieve, and sacrifice, while in the public sphere of markets and politics, we act to gather the material prerequisites to a fulfilled private life.
   
   This myth was buoyed up in the mid-twentieth century by the vision of vast tracts of middle-class housing where neighbors were strangers ("and they were all made out of ticky-tacky and they all looked the same"), by the cult of public conformity ("the organization man"), and by such urban myths as women being raped and beaten in public while spectators did nothing.
   
   We now know that this bizarre viewpoint is miles from the truth, and that public life is imbued with a rich nexus of emotion-laden, poignantly human, social relations. Even strangers meeting for the first time engage in characteristically human emotional interactions, and the quality of social life depends critically on the tacit culture of conformity to particular norms of social interaction among people in public capacities.
   
   Chaldini's book is a classic contribution towards analyzing these tacit social relations among strangers. His take on the issue is that we are all vulnerable to being manipulated by our mental weaknesses, and we should learn to be on guard against this manipulation. This is a very good point, but it hides the deeper point that manipulation is just the pathological side of basically healthy approaches to interaction with others in society. Humans are intensely reciprocal, and will sacrifice to repay good with good, and bad with bad, at personal cost, even when dealing with strangers they will never see again (we call this "strong reciprocity"). We have a strong tendency to social conformity, thus respecting others by our willingness to follow their lead. We want to be liked, and we are more willing to sacrifice on behalf of people we like, even if they are strangers. These and other behaviors are what make us human. Cialdini's point is that these predisposition can be used against us, and we must be careful to protect ourselves from this.
   
   The various elements of the psychology of persuasion are so well-known today, partly due to Cialdini's influence (the first edition was 1984), that I'm not sure I learned anything new from reading this book. But, he is a fine writer and tells a good story, making the reading worth its while.



2. I first heard of Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion from a graduate school professor. He declared that reading it changed his life and that it would change mine as well. I didn't believe him. It took me seven years before I finally picked up the book. And now I'm sorry I waited so long.
   
   Influence explains the underpinnings of how the American marketing machine works. Cialdini explains that modern humanity has developed shortcuts to decision-making in order to deal with information overload. As a result, we have a reflex of sorts that kicks in for certain situations, such as the need to reciprocate favors, the desire for rare goods, following likable leaders, determining whom we should listen to, following the rest of the crowd, and maintaining consistency in our public persona.
   
   As a teenager, these pressures to conform are front and center, but as adults we forget the compromises we made in the transition. "Are you a follower or a leader?" Cialdini explains that there are good reasons to be a follower and that, in most situations, it's perfectly acceptable to do what the rest of the crowd is doing. But there are situations in which our natural inclinations can be exploited, and there are scenarios where following the herd can lead to catastrophic consequences. Recognizing these behaviors in ourselves is an important part of survival, so that when modern life throws something at us unexpected, like an accident or a door-to-door salesman, we know how to react.
   
   I mentioned that reading this book filled me with rage. I'm not angry at the author, but at all the people who now, with the gift of hindsight and Cialdini's guidance, I realized manipulated me.
   
   I'm mad at the magazine salesman. He got me to buy two years worth of a magazine I didn't want by relying on my desire for consistency after I provisionally agreed to buy a subscription for what I thought was one year.
   
   I'm mad at the Saturn dealer. Despite the "no haggle rule," he used the trick of authority where he "checked with his boss" for a better deal and then pressured me into buying it.
   
   I'm mad at the real estate agent. He used the trick of scarcity to show me terrible, run-down houses to make me feel better about the house I ultimately picked.
   
   And that's what's so interesting about this book. Cialdini wrote this book for US. Not for managers, salesmen, or non-profit volunteers. He wrote it as a defense! And yet everything from reviews on the book's cover to reviews right here on Amazon tout this book as a must for marketers. That's completely against the spirit of what Cialdini wrote - each chapter ends with "how to say no" and while the advice isn't always sound (he essentially tells you to, ya know, not fall for the tricks) it's certainly welcome.
   
   It's a bitter irony that marketers have turned a book about resisting marketing into yet another marketing tool. Now that I've read this book, there won't be another magazine subscription, car, or house I buy without a fight. Buy it today so you can start fighting back too.



3. This was a great read. It opens a new way of explaining the world, it forced myself to scrutinize some of my decisions and methods of thinking...
   
   Great book.



4. When I read this book a few years back, I found it eye opening about the involuntary aspects of how people are persuaded. Cialdini does a brilliant job of story telling to illustrate the use of his 'six psychological secrets' in the way products and services are marketed.
   
   The book is readable, and, at least for me, filled with AHAs. Much of it was already familiar, so this piece of his work has already made its way through society. But in a time when campaign advisors and counselors to politicians are using these ideas to foist bad policy on an unsuspecting public, the time has come for we the people to catch on to just how easily we've been decieved, and how to protect ourselves from further deception.
   
   When i was working on my own book on this topic,Insider's Guide To The Art Of Persuasion I found reference to this seminal work everywhere. What Cialdini called secrets, I call signals, because they are no longer secret but are in wide employ.
   
   Cialdini's greatest contribution to the literature is his guidance in how to protect ourselves from being manipulated to act against our own interests. He talks of the 'click-whirrr' response and the role it plays in this. Over and over, he emphasizes our diminished mental activity when presented with persuasion signals. I can't imagine how a person would ever see or hear these signals in the same way after learning about this.
   
   The only thing that would make this book better is a refresh of it that included more current examples. Many of the examples he used harken back to the time of my childhood (50s and 60s) when the rough use of these types of approaches was just catching on. These days, the persuasion signals have been honed to a fine point and, in light of the increasingly fundamental role of marketing and promotion in the success of any business or idea, I'd be very interested in learning how his thinking has advanced on his subject.



5. To put it briefly this is an invaluable book to understanding many of our behaviors relating to influence but it is written in a way that keeps you completely engrossed in it, nothing dry here. I agree with so many of the reviews here on this book. It is just excellent and if I were to have kids this would be something they would have to read. Having your wife read it is a good way to get her to stop buying thousand dollar canvas bags from Louis Vuitton also... CANVAS ..sheesh they should be laughing :-)

3 comments about Arriving at Your Own Door: 108 Lessons in Mindfulness.

1. Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R1KY4RUSMO5PFN *****
   This little book is lovely as a gift for someone, especially yourself. It contains excerpts from Jon Kabat-Zinn's masterpiece "Coming to Our Senses", a tome about mindfulness and meditation. In this video I open the book, show you the layout and read two different quotes. I've kept the video to about two minutes in length. This is a book that anyone interested in living more serenely and more alive can enjoy, whether or not you've had the pleasure of reading the main book that it was excerpted from. Highly recommended!
   *****



2. A thought provoking, meaning filled book. The type of book you can carry with you and read a passage when you can or placed somewhere in your home so it reminds you to pick it up and read a passage every day. Makes a wonderful gift.



3. I have only just received the book. I can tell it is going to be a keeper!

2 comments about The Winners Manual: For the Game of Life.

1. This excellent game plan for the gridiron of life was 23 years in the making.
   
   Over that time period, coach Jim Tressel has utilized such a manual for his Youngstown State and Ohio State teams. And this book is the guide presented to players at the start of each season.
   
   The main source that inspired Tressel came from the home; his father, Lee, was a long-time head football coach and athletics director at Baldwin-Wallace College in Berea, Ohio. Lee was nationally-renowned in the coaching community for his work with young people. But Lee also had a "head coach" in reaching out to others.
   
   "She (Lee's wife, Eloise) typed the practice schedules for my dad's teams, because at a small school the athletic department didn't have money for a secretary. She sewed the players' names on the back of their jerseys at Baldwin-Wallace College for many years," writes Tressel, in a section on living with an attitude of gratitude.
   
   "And her service was always motivated by a perspective of gratitude," he continues. "She was grateful that her husband had a chance to coach and to have an impact on all those young men. Because of her service and her involvement in the community, she was selected as an outstanding citizen in the city of Berea long before my dad was."
   
   Each day will bring additional challenges, which may lead someone to tackle new avenues and goals. "(I)f a player says, 'I really want to excel at football, but I feel that medicine is my life's calling,' we help that player map out a plan to make it to medical school. It might be medical school, law school, or some other career path, but we want to help every player achieve his goals," writes Tressel.
   
   "Executing a plan to reach our full potential takes a lot of preparation. We must first uncover all the hidden things that can help or hinder our putting that plan into action. Excellent preparation takes tremendous commitment, focus, and discipline," he adds. "The willingness to do what it takes to execute that plan will yield excellence, but it doesn't just happen. Achieving excellence requires a great deal of hard work."
   
   With proceeds from the book to benefit the renovation of The Ohio State University main library, Tressel is making sure that a foundation in books will be available to every OSU student and researcher using the college's vast library system.
   
   Tressel is a successful coach who has led teams to five national titles. But the book is an inspirational guide to strive to be the best in any situation, on and off the field.



2. One Moment Changes Everything: The All-America Tragedy of Don Rogers
   I'm West Coast born and raised. Too often we fans, and sportswriters, get caught up in regionalism and bias. We may call it "loyalty", but that's a nice word for what often comes across as petty whining because our coach, team or region isn't constantly praised by the media. It's nothing terminal, that is, until we take those perceived slights personally. In the writing of my book about former Cleveland Browns' star safety, Don Rogers, I had the opportunity to gain an insight into what I will admit was a foreign people: football fans of Ohio. So it was with a slightly more enlightened perspective than, say, I would have had some years ago, that I read "The Winners Manual" by Ohio State head coach, Jim Tressel. Never mind that the proceeds from the book go to the school's already amazing library. That's just the icing on the cake. The book is a how-to manual for organization, and road map into the mind of Tressel, a man who excels in one of the toughest jobs--including being in the highest levels of politics--that a person could ever have.
   
   I believe we bend ourselves toward our goals, and it isn't any one thing that gets us there. If your looking for insight into the great Jim Tressel, this book will help. But if your looking for a guide in which to help you live a better, more organized life, The Winners Manual is a must-read, along the lines of some of John Wooden's best books, and books by the best and brightest CEOs this country has produced. Learn from, and surround yourself with winners, and success will follow.
   
   Ohio is the country's center in so many ways, but I've come to know it's football fan base as, by far, the most loyal and informed in the country. And in every sense, Tressel is the CEO of a multi-million dollar corporation that insists on excellence performed under a powerful and exacting microscope. I think he succeeds admirably. And this book can both help you understand how he does it, and how you too might get the most out of your life, as well.

No comments about Money, and the Law of Attraction: Learning to Attract Wealth, Health, and Happiness.

5 comments about The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.

1. The premise of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is that there are 7 habits which can dramatically improve a person's professional and social life. These habits include: 1. Be proactive. 2. Begin with the end in mind. 3. Put first things first. 4. Think win/win. 5. Seek first to understand, then to be understood. 6. Synergize. 7. Sharpen the saw.
   
   Covey's philosophy of using honest open communication, fairness, integrity and human dignity as a baseline in all relationships is sound powerful advice. The book is well written with excellent insights and wisdom.
   
   The Re-Discovery of Common Sense: A Guide to: The Lost Art of Critical Thinking



2. Nutshell review - This is an excellent book whose lessons and insights can contribute to all aspects of your life. Excellent.



3. We had the privilege of hearing Dr. Covey in person at The University of Michigan when this book was first published. It instantly became one of the most important books we've read and used in our teaching. We give this as a graduation gift to our college students to help them to be effective as they start their new life. Covey is the master of story-telling and bringing his habits to life.
   
   Author, "Trust is Everything: Become the leader others will follow"



4. I actually purchased these cards in error, thinking that they were the book.
   
   When I received it, I was disappointed.
   
   When I read them, I was delighted!!!!
   
   They encourage great focus and act as a boosters at the start of the day - pick up a card, read the back also or just read the front in the extremely pleasant font, and make yourself more effective and generally a better person.
   
   A lot of these points made are quite obviously (although some are a lot more subtle and extremely cleverly presented) but fundamentally, it helps to make you a balanced and better person, which then obviously spills into your personal and business life.
   
   They are the closest thing you will get to a quick fix - where a book requires you to be motivated to focus to read it, these are available at all times - pick one up from your desk before a meeting, browse through one or two while on hold for a phone call - you can only benefit if these ideals and tips sink into your subconscious!



5. I agree with the other commenters who have given this book negative reviews and who appear to be more critical thinkers than the author himself.
   
   This book was clearly written on auto-pilot; it is constructed on a string of cliches and half-conceived insights and analysis. It is entirely clear the author has little to say. The book is an insult to probing, intelligent minds. A total joke!

5 comments about You Can Heal Your Life (Gift Edition).

1. This book just jumped out at me. It is so healing and refreshing. If you are on the path for Mind, Body & Soul, this book is a winner!!!



2. I got this audio book very fast and it was in excellent condition. Thanks a lot.
   
   Take Care
   Have Fun
   B.L.Morgan



3. I just finished YOU CAN HEAL YOUR LIFE by Louise Hay and would recommend that you
   get the print version, if just to see the beautiful work of artist
   Joan Perrin Falquet . . . it will increase you enjoyment of this
   bestselling self-help book that was written many years before
   THE SECRET became such a success.
   
   One other recommendation: Skim the book first . . . then read
   the chapter, toward the end, where Hay tells her life story . . . it
   will put things in perspective and show you that she really
   puts into practice what she writes about ; e.g., in this passage:
   
   * We need to choose to release the past and forgive everyone, ourselves
   included. We may not know how to forgive, and we may not want to forgive,
   but the very fact that we say we are willing to forgive begins the healing
   process. It is imperative for our own healing that "we" release the past
   and forgive everyone.
   
   I found myself reading and agreeing with just about everything
   the author wrote . . . but perhaps my favorite part was her list
   of ailments and the emotional causes for each, along with an
   affirmation to help overcome the illness . . . she recommends
   you follow this four-step approach whenever you have a physical
   problem:
   
   * 1. Look up the mental cause. See if this could be true for you. If not,
   sit quietly and ask yourself, "What could be the thoughts in me that
   created this?"
   
   2. Repeat to yourself, "I am willing to release the pattern in my
   consciousness that has created this condition."
   
   3. Repeat the new thought pattern to yourself several times.
   
   4. Assume that you are already in the process of healing.
   
   Whenever you think of the condition, repeat the steps.
   
   So, for instance, when it comes to multiple sclerosis:
   
   * The probable cause is "mental hardness, hard-heartedness,
   iron will, and inflexibility." The healing "thought pattern" would
   involve saying this aloud: "By choosing loving, joyous thoughts,
   I create a loving joyous world. I am safe and fee."
   
   The concept may seem far-fetched to some, yet if you are
   ready to accept what Louise Hay has to offer, it may well
   work for you. Do give it a try.



4. I obviously have a different view of Western Medicine than the major rebuttal against Ms. Hay's book. Several years ago, I was diagnosed with cancer and given less than six months to live. When I walked out the door of my Dr. office, I never looked back, nor did I ever return for further treatment. As I write these words several years after the fact (and in good health) my decision was to walk away from Western Medicine, and the hegemony it asserts over our lives.
   
   Afterword, I embarked on another journey by accepting responsibility for my own healing. I travelled to remote corners of the world and worked with indigenous healers, sages, and holy men and women; I began to explore the mystery of spiritual healing that Ms. Hay advocates on behalf of.
   
   At the point I walked away from the Western 'box' so common in our contemporary moment, I also walked away from my fear based belief system. Death will eventually come for all of us. None of us will escape it. It is also nothing to fear as we are eternal beings.
   
   The main rebuttal against this book is mired not only in the fear of death, but also of the fear of a fully embodied life. It fears responsibility for the underlying causes of disease. It fears change, and it fears transformational outcomes. Its primary belief is that health is the sole domain of medical science, and that our life choices do not contribute to our condition.
   
   Now, here is a secret the medical establishment wants kept under wraps, but with indigenous healers, and spiritual healers (or spiritual knowledge that leads to healing) is that healing is an inside job. Once a healing is introduced, the subject has to also change the life style choices that led to the health dysfunction; if the subject returns to the old habits, the condition will return too. Spiritual healing does not offer a magic bullet, it provides another chance to change. The change is up to the person undergoing the problem. If the courage to change is weakened, so to will the healing be reversed or rendered illegitimate.
   
   The aim of spiritual healing is to transform the underlying causes. And the only savior you will find in this process is oneself. This is the prime focus of Hay's work.
   
   In the final analysis, only you can decide which direction to go. No one can do it for you. The only one you can save is yourself!



5. Although I looked at this book from a skeptic perspective because of all the ideas of our thoughts creating our reality, etc, I could not help but be inspired by Louise. She seems to just basically live a simple life and find happiness within herself, and always emphasizes that we can also be like this, and everyone deserves to be loved for the person that they are. I am definitely going to try some of her tips.
   Some of the ideas about diseases being caused by negative thinking were a little hard to swallow. For instance, cancer and other ailments are supposed to be caused by all these pent up feelings and unforgiveness that we have bottled up...it is just a little hard for me to understand how a newborn could be born with a disease or a small child could get a disease. It's possible that there is more to it though than what is discussed in the book. I definitely think you should give some of her ideas a try, because just hearing Louise or reading her words and seeing what a difference she has made in people's lives is enough to show that she must be doing something right.

5 comments about The Last Lecture.

1. This book is amazing! It shows how we take life for granted everyday. It made me laugh, it made me cry, but what it did most was truly inspire me to not worry about the little things.



2. Heartfelt advice for everyone. I will be sharing this book with all of my children ages 25, 21 and 9. Randy's words will live on. A must read for teachers.



3. Don't use a highlighter in a library book. This is a book that should be bought not borrowed. There are so many life lessons and words of wisdom that you find yourself wanting to highlight sections to come back to, to ponder the simplicity of words and the deeper meaning that they portray.
   
   Randy Pausch has terminal pancreatic cancer. He has 3 to 6 good months left. He has 3 very young children, two of which will grow up with no true memories of him. A wife that is strong and yet terrified, a family that wants to spend every last moment with him, but yet Randy must put on his final lecture. The one that each professor has, the last one that will portray who and what they have learned and become.
   
   Randy chooses "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams" as his theme, not what you would assume a computer geek to pick.
   
   There are so many laugh out loud moments that you begin to question if it's appropriate to laugh at a dying man, but I think that is the point, life is funny, those moments that make us what we are, are humorous. Without being preachy or religious Pausch leads us through his life, and how with a little imagination you can achieve your childhood dreams and leave a great legacy to you children at the same time.



4. Although I had expected a print version of the Pausch live last lecture, this little book of uplifting life lessons was a surprise and equally inspiring. I have suggested it for my book club during a season when we are otherwise busy and need a quick read.



5. I am an eight year cancer survivor and was deeply moved by Randy Pausch's You Tube lecture, as well as this book. Randy gets personal and shares what I feel are invaluable life lessons that we all should live by, whether we are terminally ill or not. It is all about attitude and choices. All ages need to read. It puts your life in perspective. I believe that kids can really see what their future could be as workers, professionals, parents, etc. and what they can pass on to their kids.... I buy this book for friends that are graduating, retiring, etc. I plan on recommending to our school system to be required reading... My prayers are with Randy and his precious family, as I know what a cancer diagnosis can bring. My husband lost his first wife from cancer and his kids were 9 and 13 at the time. Life is a gift. Live in the present and use your gifts to the fullest.