On that tablecloth-covered picnic table outside my lake retreat cabin, were three great new just-published books. Great reads all and all focused on discovering our authenticity and our ability to express it …. emotionally, creatively and with empathy and vision. Tools for transformation!

Rising Strong, the Reckoning, the Rumble, the Revolution, the latest by Brene Brown. From the back cover: “The irony is that we disown our difficult stories to appear more whole or more acceptable. But our wholeness – even our wholeheartedness- actually depends on the integration of all of our experiences, including the falls.”

Big Magic, Creative Living Beyond Fear, from Eat-Pray-Love Elizabeth Gilbert. Her back cover says, “Creativity is sacred, and it is not sacred. What we make matters enormously,and it doesn’t matter at all. We toil alone, and we are accompanied by spirits. We are terrified, and we are brave. Art is a crushing chore and a wonderful privilege. The work wants to be made, and it wants to be made through you.”
And I say we are all artists in our own ways.

Louder Than Words, Harness the Power of Your Authentic Voice, Todd Henry. Todd is asking us what unique message we have to share with the world and how we examine the deep self-knowledge necessary to communicate it. “Remember that your work is not about you, it’s about the impact you create and the value you deliver to those you serve. This all begins with an empathetic vision.”