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"What if the question is not why am I so infrequently the person I really want to be, but why do I so infrequently want to be the person I really am?" This is the opening question to The Dance. And like a thematic melody, this is the thread that holds Oriah Mountain Dreamer's book together, as she encourages readers to stop trying to change who you are and simply remember that "who you are is really enough." There are many reasons Mountain Dreamer is such a popular author (her debut book, The Invitation, was a soaring success), the main one being she doesn't pretend to have all the answers. Instead her warm, conversational writing shows us how to "live the questions," as the poet Rainer Maria Rilke once beckoned us to do. When Mountain Dreamer yells at her 19-year-old son, even after vowing to be patient, she asks herself, "Why [do] I repeatedly fail to live the intentions that matter to me? I want to know how to narrow the gap between the sincerest desires of my soul and my daily actions." Living these questions isn't easy, but it is the only way Mountain Dreamer wants to dance. Her chapters explore topics such as greed and money, creating love relationships, overscheduling, and solitude. At the end of each chapter she suggests a fitting mediation or exercise. --Gail Hudson
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
From Publishers Weekly
On the heels of her bestselling debut, The Invitation, Mountain Dreamer has written the gentlest of spiritual self-help books urging readers to slow down, let go and dance. Her central theme is that who we are is enough (loving enough, compassionate enough) and that only fear prevents us from accepting this liberating truth. Another recurring theme is the importance of learning to hold and keep others in our hearts in order to dissolve the divisive us-and-them dichotomy that deadens empathy. Each of her 12 chapters is followed by a practical meditation for readers to internalize and implement her ideas. If these lessons sound heavy-handed or high-minded, Mountain Dreamer delivers them in the most engaging and personal way. Her writing is intimate and conversational, its greatest strength being her use of illustrative anecdotes. Sometimes she draws from the lives and experiences of individuals she has spiritually counseled, but most often she tells stories about herself. These are not the exhortations of a wise and enlightened spiritual guru, but the true-life struggles of a multifaceted woman who is a divorced single mother of teenage boys, a lover, a spiritual guide and a writer. Her occasional use of profanity is entirely gratuitous, but she writes disarmingly of her own hurts, blunders and embarrassments, including her failures to take her own advice. The fact that she does so "without self-recrimination" demonstrates her effort to heed the message of the book and accept herself as she is. (Sept.) Forecast: Even readers who usually eschew New Age books enjoyed The Invitation, which has sold nearly a quarter of a million copies and received a nice spike in sales after the author's appearance on Oprah last year. Mountain Dreamer suffuses this gift book with the same broad appeal; it should easily sell out its first printing of 68,000. HSF plans national advertising and a five-city author tour.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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First Sentence
The advantage of the written world is that I can tell you here near the beginning what was only revealed to me near the end: I write these words to name myself-to name each of us-worthy of going home, worthy of having our longing met, worthy of awakening in the arms of the Beloved. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
The advantage of the written world is that I can tell you here near the beginning what was only revealed to me near the end: I write these words to name myself-to name each of us-worthy of going home, worthy of having our longing met, worthy of awakening in the arms of the Beloved. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
In reference to Me,Me,Me! (Seattle Washington),
By A Customer
This review is from: The Dance: Moving to the Rhythms of Your True Self (Hardcover)
I haven't even read the book yet and still I know that on these pages of reviews it has deeply enlightened six other people and yet one (me, me, me from Seattle Washington) has only three sentences to offer with no further explanation. If her book can enlighten even one human spirit then it must deserve 5 stars from me. Her opening poem for her other book "The Invitation" in itself was quite captivating and stirring to the soul. I believe in her beautiful contributions to reading in helping anyone deepen the conscientiousness of their own spirit and soul.
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Gift,
By
This review is from: The Dance: Moving to the Rhythms of Your True Self (Hardcover)
I received Oriah Mountain Dreamer's The Dance as a gift from a friend.?? And what a gift it is.?? It has given me the freedom to be who I am.?? I no longer have to prove myself good enough by always doing more and more.?? I do not have to be pushed by suffering in order to be the person that I want to be.?? Oriah writes, "We discover that who we really are - compassionate, gentle beings capable of being with every moment - has always been enough."The Dance has opened my eyes to a new world.?? It is a world filled with countless wonders.?? I, now, appreciate even the tiniest molecules of oxygen, hydrogen, and carbon dioxide as they caress my skin.?? I am aware of precious moments of shared silence with others in an elevator or waiting room.?? Oriah has shown me how to pay attention and recognize the beauty present within my everyday life. Unlike other self-help books, The Dance does not guarantee success through a series of "proven" steps that promise to transform my life.?? I don't have to wake up two hours early everyday to exercise and meditate.?? Instead, I need to slow down and let go.?? Oriah writes, "It can bring tremendous relief and rest to let go where we are trying to hold on, trying to keep the same those things that by their very nature are constantly changing."?? The Dance was first a gift from my friend. It has multiplied into many gifts from Oriah Mountain Dreamer. Here's my gift to whoever is listening: read The Dance. You'll be glad you did. Jenni Schaefer, author of Life Without Ed: How One Woman Declared Independence from her Eating Disorder and How You Can Too(McGraw-Hill/Contemporary Books - Feb '04 release)
5.0 out of 5 stars
"Slow Down and Let Go",
By Carole Tyson (Seattle, WA United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Dance: Moving to the Rhythms of Your True Self (Hardcover)
I was so taken with this book that I read it in one day, staying up much past my bedtime! Oriah writes from her heart and her experiences - she acknowledges her frailties, doesn't gloss over the complications of life, and suggests skills to learn that could help a person learn to "Move to the Rhythms of Their True Self." I was captivated by the beautiful poetry, energized by her suggested meditations, and through her writing, realized just how much I need to slow down! I have not read "The Invitation," but will do so in the near future. In the meantime, "The Dance" goes with me wherever I go - to be read again and again and again.
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