@riverflows clues me in to a lot of great things in life. A generous spirit, she carries humor and a good nature with her, along with a kick-ass adventurous streak! Over the next two weeks, she's holding a contest where you can win some SBD just for sharing 3 books you're reading!

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The Rules

• Create a steembabble about the three books you're digging or hey - FORCED to read at the moment!
• Explain a little about what they're about, and what led you to read them
• Throw in a couple of photos to pretty it up a bit
• Refer back to this post in your answer
• Pop your post link at the bottom.

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Alright lady, I'm up for the challenge, but as I promised, I have to include:

Tokopa's new book Belonging: Remembering Ourselves Home

For the rebels and the misfits, the black sheep and the outsiders. For the refugees, the orphans, the scapegoats, and the weirdos. For the uprooted, the abandoned, the shunned and invisible ones.

May you recognize with increasing vividness that you know what you know.

May you give up your allegiances to self-doubt, meekness, and hesitation.

May you be willing to be unlikeable, and in the process be utterly loved.

May you be impervious to the wrongful projections of others, and may you deliver your disagreements with precision and grace.

May you see, with the consummate clarity of nature moving through you, that your voice is not only necessary, but desperately needed to sing us out of this muddle.

May you feel shored up, supported, entwined, and reassured as you offer yourself and your gifts to the world.

May you know for certain that even as you stand by yourself, you are not alone.

Love,
Toko-pa

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So begins Toko-pa's first book that is a treatise on her journey out of unbelonging into belonging.

I have long thought of writing a review of this book on our Steemit blog, but haven't done so yet. As someone who "eats" books- they rarely last more than a few days when I'm really into them- it is really something to say that I have been savoring this book and I haven't finished it over a span of a couple of months. I read it in chunks of 2-3 pages at a time like a meditation and my copy is full of dog-ears.

Toko-pa was someone I "discovered" through facebook (that dirty old habit I never earned a cent from) and I was moved by so much that she shared there. Her words have always spoken to me. She is known as an expert in Dreams... which as we know, if we can speak the language of dreams, we can learn so much about ourselves and our world. Following her as I have, I pre-ordered her book and have been "taken" by it ever since it arrived.

One of my favorite parts about her book is that it teaches me nuances about things I've always wanted to know in greater detail: things that people really don't write about very well -- like following your intuition and dream speak... how to manifest... and more.

"One of the practices I love most for dancing with disappointment is writing about that which I long for as if it's already happening, describing in great detail the well-being I have inside my new creation, looking around and saying what I see and why it's splendid. I like to sketch these out in drawings, however feebly, and fill them with poetry, focusing less on the form itself and more on the refinement of my feeling in the creation."

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and then,

"Listening to the dreaming is what puts us into right rhythm with the world. The rushed and busy heart is too closed to make a true encounter with life, but when we engage the dreaming in our quiet moments, or in relationship with others, we have beckoning power. We have the ability to perceive and shift the order of events, calling on the support that is already trying to reach us. This could be as simple as taking an afternoon away from work with the intention of being open to synchronicity, or lying your body down in the outdoors so you can feel the earth's support."

She writes with great passion and knowing about feelings of unbelonging that so many of us misfits experience and how we can bring ourselves back into a place of being seen, heard and known, first by ourselves and how to gain the confidence to bring our unique selves to the world.

As she writes,

There is a story wanting to come through every life, a story that connects backwards through time to our ancestors, our chthonic place, down to our bones, which are the bones of the earth itself. If we can, through our invitational presence, draw that story into the open for others and for ourselves, there is a chance that we can begin to live in alignment with our deepest contributive nature.

I could go on. I tell people that this book is an instant classic. Rarely am I so touched by a piece of literature that it comes alive for me while I'm reading it. Her book magically does this every time.

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The next book is another that I've almost written about a few times in a post:

Feeing Your Demons by Tsultrim Allione

I first heard about this book/technique from an old yoga/meditation teacher of mine who I admire greatly. She shared this article and maybe a phrase about it. Coming from her, I was encouraged to look into it. How glad I am that I did!

I am a person who has been to quite a few meditation retreats, yoga offerings and more of these alternative spiritual things geared toward teaching Westerners techniques toward greater peace, joy, health and wholeness. Besides energy medicine/reiki, which I've also studied and practice on myself, none of the techniques have brought me greater insight, relief and healing than this!

Illustrations by Carole Hénaff.

As it says in the link I shared above:

Feeding our demons rather than fighting them contradicts the conventional approach of fighting against whatever assails us. But it turns out to be a remarkably effective path to inner integration.

Demons (maras in Sanskrit) are not bloodthirsty ghouls waiting for us in dark corners. Demons are within us. They are energies we experience every day, such as fear, illness, depression, anxiety, trauma, relationship difficulties, and addiction.

Anything that drains our energy and blocks us from being completely awake is a demon. The approach of giving form to these inner forces and feeding them, rather than struggling against them, was originally articulated by an eleventh-century female Tibetan Buddhist teacher named Machig Labdrön (1055–1145). The spiritual practice she developed was called Chöd, and it generated such amazing results that it became very popular, spreading widely throughout Tibet and beyond.

I found this idea immediately intriguing as it was aligned with what I had experienced in meditation.

I decided to try the technique- which is listed on the website. As I said, I immediately- from one experience trying it- knew that this was a very good technique for me. I bought the book, too, and really enjoy it for the greater "backstory", history and guidance that Allione shares.

This technique, more than any other practice, has helped me get to the "roots" of my demons and nourish them instead of continually creating war with them (which perpetuates the states). Listening to my demons, understanding where they're coming from and what they need and then feeding them has truly changed my life. I think it will be a practice that stays with me for many years. In her book, she also details people who have been able to speak to physical disease demons too, like AIDS, and heal them or at least keep them at bay. Pretty amazing stuff- it may seem unbelievable, but it's really just a science we haven't learned yet.

I also love that this tradition has been passed down from a FEMALE Tibetan lama, Machig Labdron. It is pretty rare that a woman would've had so much "say" then and her teachings would be kept up until now!

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Lastly, Ini is sharing a book review about one he's reading now:

Stars Upstream: Life Along an Ozark River by Leonard Hall

This book has been sitting on one of our bookshelves for many moons.

It’s on loan from friends of our who took us on our first floating trip along our local waterways. They thought that we should give it a read. The book called to me last month and I’m glad I answered.

"One thing which makes the Current River unique is that it lives out its entire life within the heart of the Ozark highland and thus is always in character."

Stars Upstream is a unique book in that it chronicles a couple’s journey on a stretch of the Current River in Southern Missouri while seamlessly weaving in natural history, local lore and biological curiosities. I love how the narrative mimics the river in its meandering path through stories, facts and details of the ecosystem that the author clearly has deep respect. Written in 1958 it offers a great look into life in the Ozarks nearly 60 years ago, yet much of the biological information is still relevant.

Hall covers topics as wide ranging as springs, camping, fishing, canoe culture, ornithology, native history, politics, forestry and more. The book captivates the reader in the complete picture that is painted through the engaging story of life on Current river. Much has changed, but luckily the river was given the distinction as an Ozark National Scenic Riverways (first in the country) that has saved it from development and preserved the natural beauty.

It is of particular interest as we live near the Current River, but would be an interesting read for anyone interested in the natural world. I have learned a lot and am even more exited to explore the many spring-fed creeks and rivers that surround our home in Southern Missouri.

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Thanks for taking a look at some of our favorite books we're reading right now. Would love to see what you're reading! You could even win some SBD thanks to @riverflows!

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