This is a day abundant in wonderful books that support women.  Another that I want to be certain you are aware of is a book by Victoria Moran.

I have known Victoria since my days working with Richard Carlson, author of Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff, and it’s all small stuff. She is a gem full of lightheartedness, humor, and insight. She has lived a charmed life no matter her circumstances. She has always been determined to see and experience the best, no matter what sadness and challenges beset her. I join another wonderful women, Jennifer Louden, in her praise of Victoria and her work. Jennifer, author of Comfort Queen, says that Victoria’s  essays are ‘healthy comfort and inspiration at its finest.’

Victoria has written a sequel to her beloved best-seller Creating a Charmed Life. Her new book is Living A Charmed Life and if you buy it today, you get all kinds of goodies. But one way or another, I wanted you to have a taste of her wisdom and goodness so here’s an exclusive excerpt from her new book to charm your day.

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Excerpt from Victoria’s New Book: Wash the Dishes with All Your Heart

In a charmed life, the best thing going is what is happening now.

Even the most dazzling lives are punctuated more by commas and periods
than by exclamation marks. You virtually guarantee a charmed life when
you can give yourself as fully to doing the dishes, and tending to the
other miscellanea that make up your day, as to some grand adventure.
This is because you can count on the dishes. They’ll be there alongside
the grand adventures, and if no adventure is immediately forthcoming,
the dishes won’t let you down. Besides, feelings of enthusiasm,
excitement, and positivity about anything and everything attract
adventures to a life the way an open bag of trail mix attracts bears to
a campsite. They just can’t stay away.

About fifteen years ago, I picked up a severe case of flu while
traveling and it kept me in bed for a month. I’ll never forget the
first night I washed dishes after I was better. It was the most
delectable experience: warm water halfway up to my elbows, and
slippery, shimmery suds to play in. I momentarily wondered if the high
fever had addled my brain–I mean, please: dishes?–but if it took
being addled to feel this extraordinary, I didn’t want it any other
way.

During the first few weeks of getting back into life, I was having
these ah-hah moments during activities once inconsequential in their
ordinariness. “Wow, driving a stick is really fun!…What did they put
in this hot cider? It’s amazing!…The sunset was so beautiful I pulled
my car over to look at it.” Smitten with my new way of seeing things
but questioning its normality, I called one of my mentors, a woman
named Gladys Lawler who was nearing ninety and always knew the answer.

She told me that everything seemed so stunning because I was in the
moment. “When you’re in the moment,” she explained, “everything is
exquisite because you’re truly experiencing it.” Life, I learned from
Gladys that day, ought to be this way all the time, but we’re so used
to being removed from the present by keeping our minds one place and
our bodies another that these periods of resplendence are uncommon. She
also told me that I’d be back to the old, disconnected way of being
before long, but that since I now knew that being truly present was
possible, I could remind myself to go there again.

Her prediction was correct. As soon as my full strength returned, I was
back to busy mode: scheduling, planning ahead, multi-tasking. But even
now, the otherworldly beauty of that convalescent time can come back
when I’m washing dishes. I have a dishwasher these days but I often use
the sink just the same. It gives me the opportunity to stand in one
spot and focus on one cup, one glass, or one perfectly circular rubber
gasket that, in its modesty, gives me the use of my blender.

I recommend that you try some conscious dishwashing. Release all
judgment (“I always get stuck with the dishes…”) and just be with the
process. Run the water and be aware of the sound it makes rushing from
tap to sink. Look at the bottle of soap before you squeeze: what’s in
it? Do you like how it smells? Watch the suds as they build and billow.
Pick up a dish at random–your coffee mug maybe, or the bowl your
daughter used for cereal this morning–and regard it as a gift from a
grab bag. Have fun with it. Maybe it has something to tell you,
something to remind you of. Be with it and with every subsequent plate
and fork and measuring cup until the task is through.

Then give yourself as wholeheartedly to whatever comes next. In a
charmed life, the best thing going is what is happening now, even when
it’s scouring a skillet.

Lucky charm: The next time you do the dishes, feel the water, caress
the crockery, and be present with all that’s in you.

Here’s the link to buy the book and get the goodies:
CLICK HERE

There are extras bonuses today only and plenty if you buy later in the
week.

We hope soon to have Victoria visit us on our Circle Connections BlogTalk Radio show.

From my heart I encourage you to seize this promotional opportunity and support Victoria in the birth of her new book.

Joy-fully,

Rhonda