Welcome to Sunday Morn Musings.  This is my weekly free fall – writing about whatever it is that occupies the mind on a Sunday Morn.  The idea of a “no topic” posting is the stepchild to a blog I used to write:  Four O’Clock Thursdays which is still up there if you want to check it out – more likely, I will republish some of those posts here over time.  On Sunday Morn Musings the topic may be about blogging but  probably not.


Welcome to the first edition of Sunday Morn Musings.  A weekly post without a niche, continuity of topic or an agenda of any sort… well, that last one is not true.  There is an agenda.  It is to share, to tickle, to even provoke – the main thing is, I hope that my Sunday Morn Musings will get you to thinking, and hey, maybe I’ll be able to throw in a bit of humor here and there, or at least some witticism –  that would be a major for me, I’m not known to be a ha ha type of person, it is one of those things I try to work on as I keep entering the annual humorous contest at my Toastmaster club year after year and have  yet to win the top spot and to move on to the next level of competition … I just think that the club I belong to has a lot of “ringers”, at least that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it.

It’s a grey sort of Sunday morning.  The kind that makes you want to sit curled up on your sofa with a good book in one hand and  a cuppa still steaming coffee and indulge in some good reading.  I like reading.  I love books.  My spare bedroom is both my office and  a “library” a wall lined with shelves and shelves of books.  I have always wanted to have a real library in my home, you know, the kind where the books go from floor to ceiling and from wall to wall and of course there would be one of  those ladders that moves on a track so that you can reach the top shelves of your library.  Hmmm…. how would I categorize them, organize them?

As it is my books are currently organized in my own higgledy piggledy way.  Books I buy and read for pure pleasure: the best sellers, the authors that I like, the autobiographies and historical novels, the literary prize winners  - they are all at one end of the wall slid onto the shelves alphabetically by author.  I try to leave wiggle room at the end of each shelf so that I don’t have to go rearranging the books when yet another is added and needs to be slid into the proper alphabet slot.  It’s getting tighter and tighter.  I think I am going to have to buy another bookshelf and start on another wall … and that would mean a lot of rearranging!

At the other end I have the books that will make me grow – personal development, financial savvy type stuff, internet marketing.  I have made room at the bottom of one of the bookshelves for the internet marketing courses that I have bought, and the myriad of CD’s  - takes up 3 cram filled shelves if you must know (and then there are those that reside on my computer). This second grouping of books is relatively new in my life.  I have always been an avid reader of mysteries, romance, history and intrigue and even a bit of sci fi but the books on personal growth, on getting ahead in life were introduced to me well into my adulthood.

How did I get introduced to this genre of writing and what is it about these books that keeps me  going to the bookstore for more?  Certainly they are not particularly well written – at least most are not, no Pulitzer Prize winners amongst this lot, even if they have hit the bestseller list. Years and years ago, my personal trainer Nina casually mentioned that she was reading The Artist’s Way and recommended that I read it too. Now Nina – you’ll come to know her here – is one of the most gentlest of people that I know, yet, there is nothing ambivalent about her.  She has a quiet way about her that means business. Of course I went and bought the book.  Of course I immersed myself into it.  Of course I did the exercises.

Thus began my addiction with the  self improvement industry. If you haven’t read The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron yet I cannot recommend it highly enough. It is a great excursion into self re-discovery.   Get your own copy.  You’ll want to write in it and as the years pass, periodically you’ll want to pull it off the shelf and do the whole dang thing all over again!

What about you?  Do you have a bookshelf?  What books have you got there?  Do you have a favorite?  Or is it a CDshelf (my husband has one of those).  Is it mostly music?  Of course, why bother with a cdshelf anymore – there are mp3 players and ipods and all sorts of gadgets.  Share your thoughts on books and authors and music and artists. Best………………Valentina