"Riding Outside The Lines"

More Misadventures
with the Metal Cowboy
by Joe Kurmaskie

Synopsis:

In Metal Cowboy, Joe Kurmaskie explored the byways and back roads of America from the seat of his bicycle, befriending unforgettable characters and spreading his addiction to life along the way. Now in Riding Outside the Lines, this modern-day Don Quixote — with a healthy dose of Dave Barry thrown in — takes on the world in a wild joyride through foreign postal codes and fantastic new states of mind.

Whether he's weekending in the buff after accidentally stumbling into a nudist colony, kicking back with a gun-toting ex-bounty hunter, or wrangling with an overly emotional Irish mother, Kurmaskie captures with insight and good humor the optimism and beauty of the folks around him. Riding Outside the Lines will convince bikers and non-bikers alike of one vital truth: You've got to ride for the sake of the ride.

My Review:
His first book, titled 'Metal Cowboy' was a collection of bike stories from his many road trips. With 'Riding', Joe's still has tons of hilarious stories to make you snort milk out of your nose. [laughing] It's not so much a book about cycling, but snapshots of this wonderful world in which we live in and those we meet along the way. This is some of the best short-story non-fiction I've ever read, ever! How's that for my Highest Recommendation!!!

Riding Outside the Lines available at Powells.com

Other books by Joe:
Momentum Is Your Friend
Metal Cowboy

Links: MetalCowboy.com

“The Barn at the End of the World”

The Apprenticeship of a
Quaker Buddhist Shepherd
by Mary Rose O'Reilley

Book Description:

Transcendence can come in many forms. For Mary Rose O'Reilley a year tending sheep seemed a way to seek a spirituality based not on climbing out of the body but rather on existing fully in the world, at least if she could overlook some of its earthier aspects. The Barn at the End of the World follows O'Reilley in her sometimes funny, sometimes moving quest. Though small in stature, she learns to flip very large sheep and help them lamb. She also visits a Buddhist monastery in France, where she studies the practice of Mahayana Buddhism, dividing her spare time between meditation and dreaming of French pastries.

Meaningful Quotes:
“Breathing in, I become a flower... Breathing in, I become a mountain... Breathing in, I become water, reflecting all things. Calm water...” Thich Nhat Hanh

Buddhism is a recipe for making oneself into an infinitely compassionate being...

“...the practice of mindfulness is a sneaky way to have a rich life.”

Thich Nhat Hanh

“When we breathe, that is normal. When we practice, we bring mindfulness to breathing. Breathing is always breathing. Right mindfulness becomes one with breathing and gradually transformation occurs. When we breathe with mere recognition, quite naturally breathing becomes slower. When we dwell in sitting still, the quality of breathing is different, feels light. This is the joy of meditation. There is letting go and freedom in that. Thus we nourish ourselves. Body and mind calm down and we smile.
  We smile out of our inner calm and that takes the calmness deeper. The breath is a rest between past and future. We bring our mind home to our breath. Only our breath brings about oneness of mind and body. Breathing in, I am aware of my whole body.... We invite our breathing to embrace our whole body. This is the beginning of love, compassion, of understanding. Calm and harmony embrace our body. When five or ten minutes pass this way, my body is calm. This is mindfulness of body.
  Next we practice so that feelings become the object of practice. Peace helps us to dot he work of healing. First we have to put our body at peace, then we turn to our feelings. We feel joy because we see that the path is helping us. Breathing in, I fell happy.... We need these resources of calm and peace; only then can we recognize our unpleasant feelings. We embrace them. We do not blame or oppress our suffering. Embrace a feeling like a little child. Who is going to look after your unpleasant emotions if not you? We must not let the child be alone. Right mindfulness increases our resources. Our healing gets easier. That is the dharma, that mustard seed. Water it so it can grow. Embrace your suffering with your deep and calm breathing. You don't need to do anything else.
  Mindfulness does not force, does not invade. When we're sad, when we're angry, this is the way to practice: I breath in and know I am sad / Breathing out, I smile with my sadness....
  Don't judge, don't scold yourself. Just be with the feeling. When we have embraced our anger or our sadness in calm, we will begin to see its root. That is wisdom, and that is what liberates us from pain. Right mindfulness is presence, body/mind in the here and now. We can only recognize something when we are present, and then we can embrace. We make it calm when it is painful, but if it is already beautiful, we make it more beautiful: full moon, sunset. Stopping is essential to looking deeply.”

Thich Nhat Hanh

The Barn at the End of the World
available at Powells and Amazon

“Transform Your Life”

A Blissful Journey
by Geshe Kelsang Gyatso

Synopsis:

We all share the potential for enormous self-transformation and limitless happiness, through travelling the inner journey of a spiritual path. The author invites us in this book on our own inner journey, and shares with us some of the universal spiritual insights he has gained along the way.

Meaningful Quotes:
Just as water cannot gather on mountain peaks, so good qualities and blessings cannot gather on the rocky peaks of pride.

Self-grasping and self-cherishing are the root of the tree of suffering. Delusions such as anger and attachment are it's trunk, negative actions are it's branches, and the miseries and pains of samsara are it's bitter fruits.

...we need to engage sincerely in the practices of giving, moral discipline, patience, effort, concentration, and wisdom (the six perfections).

Patient acceptance not only helps us, it also helps those with whom we are patient. Being accepted feels very different to being judged. The automatically become tight and defensive. But when they feel accepted they can relax, and this allows their good qualities to come to the surface. Patience always solves our inner problems. But often it solves problems between people as well.

Transform Your Life available at Powells and Amazon

“The Secret Life of Bees”

by Sue Monk Kidd

Book Description:

Sue Monk Kidd's ravishing debut novel has stolen the hearts of reviewers and readers alike with its strong, assured voice. Set in South Carolina in 1964, The Secret Life of Bees tells the story of Lily Owens, whose life has been shaped around the blurred memory of the afternoon her mother was killed. When Lily's fierce-hearted "stand-in mother," Rosaleen, insults three of the town's fiercest racists, Lily decides they should both escape to Tiburon, South Carolina--a town that holds the secret to her mother's past. There they are taken in by an eccentric trio of black beekeeping sisters who introduce Lily to a mesmerizing world of bees, honey, and the Black Madonna who presides over their household. This is a remarkable story about divine female power and the transforming power of love--a story that women will share and pass on to their daughters for years to come.

Meaningful Quotes:
I started appreciating mother nature, what she'd done with the world.

I realized it for the first time in my life: There is nothing but mystery in the world, how it hides behind the fabric of our poor, browbeat days, shining brightly, and we don't even know it.

“Well, you know, she's really just the figurehead off an old ship. But the people needed comfort and rescue. So when they looked at it, they saw Mary, and so the spirit of Mary took it over. Really, her spirit is everywhere. Inside rocks and trees and even people. But sometimes it will get concentrated in certain places and just beam out at you in a special way.”

People, in general, would rather die than forgive. It's that hard. If god said in plain language, “I'm giving you a choice, forgive or die.” a lot of people would go ahead and order their coffin.

“And whatever it is that keeps widening your heart, that's Mary too, not only the power inside you but the love. And when you get down to it, that's the only purpose grand enough for a human life not just to love – but to persist in love.

The Secret Life of Bees available at Powells and Amazon

Other books by Sue Monk Kidd:
The Dance of the Dissident Daughter
When the Heart Waits
God's Joyful Surprise