Wisdom Letters now a free e-book.

The Wisdom Letters has been available as an e-book for Kindle, Nook and other e-readers (for $2.99) for some time. Now I have also made it available as a free PDF download. You can get it here. (or click on the book cover above.)

Tom

My second book, I think.

Honestly, I am not sure if this is my first book or my second book. It's the first thing I ever wrote, and it was first published as a PDF book nearly a decade ago, before the lexicon had a word for e-books, and way before we had Kindles, Ipads and Nooks. Now, of course, I have "Love in a Minor Key", a book of verse, in print, so in a way, this could be my second book.

Now I have reformatted it so it can be downloaded and used on virtually any e-reader: Kindle, Nook, Ipad, even old Sony e-readers.

The Wisdom Letters is a gathering of essays, stray thoughts, poems on life, faith, humanity's quirks. Reader's of the first edition called it "Inspirational", "Just what I needed.", and "the kind of thing that draws you in."

A print version is in the works, and should be available soon. I'll let you know when it is available, in case, like me, you just like to have real books on the bookshelf to read, loan out, and make your house feel like a library!

You can get The Wisdom Letters here. 

Tom Atkins

My first book: Love in a Minor Key

I have published my first book of poetry.

Titled "Love in a Minor Key", it is a collection of love poems, true to the tenderness, pain, and entire range of emotions that we somehow try to encapsulate in the single word of "love". Available in paperback or hardcover, the book is illustrated throughout with my own photographs, much as I have done on this site for the past few years.

You can learn more, preview it, or buy it here.

And yes, the picture above is the cover.

Tom

Thoughts: On motivation

Long time readers with extraordinary memories might remember a post from a couple of years ago where I talked about A Whle New Mind by Daniel Pink. It was, for me, a capturing and quantifying with facts some thoughts I had felt for a long time about the changing nature of work. It still remains the book I probably buy and give away to colleagues and friends more than any other.

Pink is about to come out with a second book, called DRIVE, the surprising things that motivate us. He talks about the general premise in this talk to the TED conference and he's done it again.

I've long realized that I seemed to have different motivations in work, more looking for intrinsic things than external things. As long as the money was good, what I did, and how I got to do it was as important, if not more so, than the raw dollars I made doing it.

I thought I was weird. Turns out I may be pretty normal.

Do I think it's important? Yeah, I do. Because it turns some "common knowledge" about motivation on it's head and yet, backs it with a diverse array of facts. And I think it's important because it has implications not just for work, but anywhere you want to motivate people, in the family, or in church leadership... anywhere.

So check out the video, or take the time to read one of his books. I'm already in line for DRIVE!!

Tom

Art is a Way of Knowing

This morning I began a new book, Art is a Way of Knowing by Pat Allen, subtitled A guide to self-knowledge and spiritual fulfillment through creativity.

I have long been interested in the link between spirituality and creativity, first led to think about it when I read Julia Cameron's "The Artist's Way", and I have read and even taught on the subject off and on for over a decade. I have noticed in my own situation, that my spiritual life has paralleled my creative life. When I was actively and positively creative, my spiritual life and that feeling of being close to God was also active and positive.

Which feeds which? Does the creative spirit open me to God, or does God's spirit open me to creativity? I don't have that answer, but I do feel the two are indelibly connected. Here is the passage in Art is a Way of Knowing that snagged me. In the section before, Pat Allen talks about how she had always kept images. She says...

"I did this, I think, because I felt in a way that I didn't exist. My existence was marginal, uncompelling, because my feelings, necessary fora sense of meaning, were missing. Art making is my way of bringing soul back into my life. Soul is the place where the messiness of life is tolerated, where feelings animate the narration of life, where story exists. Soul is the place where I am replenished and can experience both the gardens and graveyards. Art is my way of knowing who I am.

It is very possible to give a very convincing portrayal of life even with one's soul in exile. Only the meaning is missing. When I first began doing work with images, there were times I thought I was insane, so unfamiliar to me was the chaos of human feeling. I have felt split off from sunlight and laughter even as I stood in the sunlight and laughed with friends, and thought no one else ever felt this way. Images have allowed me to reclaim some of what was lost in growing up, the ability to have feelings fully, and in the moment. I don't believe that art cures or fixes, rather it restores the connection to the soul, which is always waiting to be reclaimed."

I have lived in the place she describes, and so these two paragraphs in the preface, told me I needed to read this book. Not an artist? Then substitute the word poetry (what I write) or music, or gardens or woodworking or ... You get the idea. Creativity, that part of God that we all have in us, part of his image in us, is part of the connection between us and God.

I just started the book, so I can't tell you how it works, how well it's written, or what change it might have on me as I read it, but it was worth buying the book to read this one passage, and be reminded of the real power of creativity, it's ability to help us reconnect with soul.

I bought my copy new at the Northshire Bookstore. They probably have more there. They also have a used copy for sale at a good discount, if you wanted to order it.