Making Choices

I especially enjoyed Chapter 4, "Parents and Siblings." Alexandra writes, "We don't choose our parents, but once we've become adults we have the choice of how we are going to react to them." As an eldercare author and educator myself, I know all too well that we never parent our parents, and this book (particularly this chapter) offers sound advice on creating healthy adult relationships. Joy Loverde, author of The Complete Eldercare Planner (Times Books)...www.elderindustry.com.

This is a book about having the courage to choose a life instead of letting whatever comes along make the choice instead. It made me want to take a closer look at what I'm doing to see if I am making real and earnest progress toward what I most want to achieve in life. This book helped me to realize that what I want takes time and gives some helpful suggestions on where to find missing hours. The book talks about how debilitating it can be to live passively. I really enjoyed this quote from the first chapter, "The person who passively sits back, who waits and sees, will never feel too terrific about life because there will never be much electricity, satisfaction, or fulfillment in it. Nothing works out when nothing is going on." So, if you occasionally feel that you could be sitting in a huge vat of peanut butter unable to get what you want, this could be the perfect book for you.

I recently read this book and am buying it for my daughter as she sets off for college this fall. It is by far a book I will always treasure. It brings such contentment when reading. Such grace, as all Alexandra Stoddard books do. It truly is a book everyone should read. It is very thought provoking and really has some beautiful quotations throughout it.