David’s Comments (group member since Dec 21, 2016)

David’s comments from the Paths to Wholeness group.

I just found this in my inbox. Jon Morrow is a popular blogger and teacher of blogging, and he's just launched a new, personal blog. Jon, I was surprised to find, is a quadriplegic. In this first post on his new blog Unstoppable he tells his truly inspiring story and also teases out 7 principles that have helped him not only persevere, but triumph.

https://unstoppable.me/life-lessons/

David

NOTE: This post is written by Lynde Young [moderator]

I am an artist (digital, sculptor, and painter). I published some poetry, too many years ago to remember and lost the original manuscript along the line after too many moves. I also have an academic manuscript that needs expanding.

I too am a mandala artist and would like to do a coffee table style book that combines my art and poetry.

http://www.lyndeyoung.com
https://www.pinterest.com/lyndeyoung/
http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/ly...
https://www.facebook.com/lynde.young/

I am also CEO of https://www.SocialServicesDatabase.com, a non-profit social services listing site designed to help people find assistance to help themselves and to help providers easily find help for their clients and consumers in the southern area of Georgia and growing.

I also had two brushes with death over the years. The last one changed my whole life course direction.

Welcome to the group, Lynde. Because you are introducing yourself to the group, here. I am copying your post to the Group Member Introductions folder, so others can find you.

- David

I'm a writer, photographer, and therapist living north of Boston. My websites are:
http://davidbookbinder.com
http://flowermandalas.org
http://transformationspress.org

My blog is:
http://davidbookbinder.com/photoblog

My book pages are
http://transformationspress.org/paths...
http://transformationspress.org/52-more

I need to think more about what I'd like to say here, so more to come, but I do want to say that many of the people who have most influenced me I encountered in the pages of their books or in exhibitions of their work. As I took in their thoughts, ideas, experiences, and imaginings, my interactions with them felt like a personal relationship. I think it is this personal relationship with art, and especially with writing, that led me to become a writer and photographer. In a small way, by passing on the best of what I know, I am paying back a debt to the long-dead authors and artists who have given so much to me.

As a therapist, I accompany my clients on the sometimes smooth, sometimes rocky journeys of their own paths to wholeness. We form a bond, and I serve as both companion and guide. They trust me because they know, as the late Leonard Cohen put it, “I’ve been where you’re hanging, I think I can see where you’re pinned.” In my book Paths to Wholeness, I hope to engender a similar sense of accompaniment. My path to wholeness began with a brush with death that altered, physically, emotionally, and intellectually, who I am. In this book, I worked hard to distill the best of what I’ve learned on the two-decade quest since then, from my career as a psychotherapist, and in the many years I have been on the planet. It is my attempt to offer what I've gleaned in the same spirit that authors and artists from the past have shared their teachings and experiences with me.

- David

This folder is for group members to introduce yourselves. Provide a link to your website, if you have one, talk a bit about what you'd like to get out of this group, provide any background you like, mention what you like to read.

Let's start to get to know one another.

NOTE: Comments to this thread are closed. If you want to introduce yourself, please click "Member Introductions" and then "new topic" to start a new discussion in this folder.

Raymond Moody's Life After Life: The Investigation of a Phenomenon - Survival of Bodily Death was the first book on the subject that I read after I began to figure out that I'd had a near-death experience due to a medical error in 1993. Several others followed, as well as a subscription to the International Journal of Near-Death Studies, membership in a group of near-death survivors, and eventually, transitioning from a PhD program in English to counseling psychology. That experience is at the heart of my recent book, Paths to Wholeness: Fifty-Two Flower Mandalas.

All these years later, it's still not clear to me exactly what the meaning of an NDE is, but Moody's book did a credible job of documenting the phenomenon, one I still find more valuable than the extraordinary claims of those who have more recently, and famously, written about near-death experiences.

This folder is for discussions about spiritual resources that have helped you become more self-actualized. The primary focus is on books, but other resources, as well as personal stories, are also welcome.

NOTE: Comments to this thread are closed. If you want to start a discussion on Spirituality, please click "Spirituality" and then "new topic" to start a new discussion in this folder.

This folder is for discussions of self-help books or other resources. Its primary focus is on psychological/spiritual self-help, but other kinds of self-help resources are also welcome here.

NOTE: Comments to this thread are closed. If you want to start a discussion on Self-Help, please click "Self-Help Tools" and then "new topic" to start a new discussion in this folder.

This folder is for discussions about resources that have helped you become more resilient.

NOTE: Comments to this thread are closed. If you want to start a discussion on Resilience please click "Resilience" and then "new topic" to start a new discussion in this folder.

This folder is for discussions of any source of inspiration. If you're discussion topic doesn't fit into one of the other folder topics, please post it here.

NOTE: Comments to this thread are closed. If you want to post something that inspired you, please click "Inspiration" and then "new topic" to start a new discussion in this folder.

This folder is for discussions of books and other resources that have helped you develop your creativity. "Creativity" can refer to anyone in the performing or expressive arts, including but not limited to: painting, photography, other visual arts, writing, sculpture, architecture, music, and so on. But it can also be interpreted in many other ways. My profession, psychotherapy, is also creative, and so are many, many other creative things people do with their lives.

NOTE: Comments to this thread are closed. If you want to start a discussion on Creativity and Art, please click "Creativity and Art" and then "new topic" to start a new discussion in this folder.

This folder is for stories about our personal Paths to Wholeness.

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This is the folder for book, event, and other promotions such as giveaways here on Goodreads or elsewhere. Please create a new discussion topic for each promotion.

NOTE: Comments to this thread are closed. If you want to post a promotion, please click "Member Promotions" and then "new topic" to start a new discussion in this folder.

Joseph Campbell's masterwork The Hero With a Thousand Faces changed my understanding not only of literature and mythology, but also of story in general, both in media and in my own and other's lives. In this thread, it would be great to share something of our responses to the book, and also, perhaps, some of our own Hero's Journeys.

- David

This group is for readers and writers to discuss the books and related resources that have helped them on the road to self-actualization. I'm hoping people will contribute not only information about books that have been teachers for them, but also how they have been influenced. In addition, this group welcomes discussion posts that more broadly discuss their personal paths to wholeness, including poems, stories, essays, and other writings.

NOTE: Comments to this thread are closed. If you want to make an Announcement, please start a new discussion thread in this folder.