Maybe you are looking for some low key self help and some antidotes to know that you aren't the only one?
So I have done MOPS (Mothers of Pre Schoolers) child care for the entirety of last year here in D.C. I was really intrigued by this book because I wanted to learn more. Plus, just as important, the cover is pretty and the book has a cute name. Shallow maybe, but awesome nevertheless. Haha.
I went to the first MOPS meeting of the year and found out it is more like a guide for the next year. I thought that I would learn more about her personal story- and that I did a little bit- and about why she started MOPS and so forth.
When I realised it was the guide, it was interesting that I could see into the next year of MOPS.
Some of it I can see are very deep antidots and food for thought. Others feels a little fluffed. Which I have mixed feelings about. Not because she was trying to write it that way but because that it has it came across to me personally. And maybe that is a good thing. Maybe it is because I was worried that the responses to the questions at the end of the chapter would not create anything more than fluff answers. Of course, this isn't totally true.
After watching the video and seeing her speak (and referencing her book quite a bit) I understood more where she was coming from and it was a much more beautiful place than just fluff. It was ways to make light of many things including those of darker situations.
One strong story she told and did so well in the book was about her father. Like losing her father. That was something I can imagine being traumatic for anyone especially for someone about to walk down the aisle without their father next to them. She wrote this story so well that I was welling up tears at the soccer practice itself.
There is a Q&R (Questions and Responses) sections that allow you to internalise the process, the chapter, and what you have either learned or had a reaction to what she was saying. She gives you questions to think about.
What I realised too both with reading the book and realistic practicality of being in MOPS that the answers can vary grately. They can be superficial fluff and deep hard crap.
I love the idea of the year-- which is being able to stop dividing who we are and excepting all of who we are in totality. Being able to be comfortable in the dark. That we are one with the dark if we allow it to be and that is where we grow the most.
I have to say today that I did not expect to want to be near tears with trying to go inwards and try to put it into socially understandable words. Like, seriously... You don't understand... Like, seriously, I don't cry easily. It takes a lot.
Have no clue what got me thinking, "Wow, this woman is giving so many women permission to be real with who they are. The good, the bad, the ugly. They aren't separate beings that have nothing to do with each other. They are one. We are all one. I am one." She did it somewhere in reading this book. Not that I really needed the actual permission but hearing it is so freeing.
When on page 60, she starting talking about how she cussed, she had me. Hahaha. Don't judge me. We all cuss, I am pretty sure. She says that she was trying to be something different than who she was. Instead of just flat out accepting who she was and I can completely relate.
I am not sure if it comes with age and with good teaching and guidance. I am getting there though. This is such a good book for helping to guide you a little farther on your journey to be all of you. Mandy, I hope one day to meet you and to become friends because you are rad!
Go get this book (especially if you do MOPS) because it is a good easy read to do.
*Received this book in exchange for honest review*
No comments:
Post a Comment