Thank you for joining us for Glen Ivy Hot Springs’ Winter Book Club.  This season, we journeyed within to meet, befriend and listen to our own selves, in order that we may learn to meet, befriend and listen to the world around us in a new and more compassionate way.  In Seven Thousand Ways to Listen, Mark Nepo shows us that becoming more attentive to the world around us requires becoming more attentive to ourselves, and learning to accept and honor all of the emotions and experiences that we carry within.

I hope that you enjoyed this season’s book selection.  Until next time, happy reading and warm water wishes…

This week’s reading provides us the opportunity to see how others reflect back to us who we are:

I recognize each person I come across because I am each on any given day.  What matters is whether I shun those who bear my flaws or help them up; whether I turn away when this larger presence seems too strong or keep my birth-eyes open; whether I find a way to meet what is incomprehensible and somehow draw strength from it. 

Knowing that each person we encounter is somehow showing us parts of our own personalities can be a daunting realization, especially when applied to people who challenge us or who we just don’t like.  Are you able to bring to mind someone with whom you struggle, and then see how they are simply showing you parts of yourself that you wish were different?  Is your first reaction to this exercise, “No, that can’t be true”?

Nepo also makes reference to the meaning of the phrase, “I believe.”  These two simple words actually mean, “I give my heart to this.”  Are the things you say you believe in the things that you want to give your heart to?  The question seems simple at first, but time spent in quiet consideration may bring different insights. 

Next week we continue our journey within, so that we may be more present in listening to the world around us.

Until then,

Happy Reading & Warm Water Wishes,

The Glen Ivy Librarian

The title of this book, Seven Thousand Ways to Listen, leads us to believe that we will be learning tangible skills that allow us to be more present for others – to hear, understand and validate what others are communicating to us.  However, time and time again, the author leads us inward, to the quietness that lies within us.  This is a place that we often neglect, feeling it selfish to spend time with our own selves. 

This week’s reading selection is decidedly focused inward, to a place of confronting life’s confusion, wounds, twists, turns and prickly feelings.  It seems that if we are to learn to listen to the world around us, we must first be willing to listen to ourselves and our lives – but not only the parts that feel good. 

Take a moment to reflect on how you felt while reading these chapters.  Were you comfortable reading about the times that life doesn’t feel good, or did you want to put the book down or skip ahead to future chapters?  Think about this in relation to your life and how you handle challenging situations. 

Until next week,

Warm Water Wishes…

This week’s reading guides us within, to a deep silence where we are able to listen to the rhythm of our own lives. On the road to our center – our authentic selves – it seems natural that we first encounter our broken places – the tender, unhealed spots where we still hold fear or anger. To truly discover the sweetness of life, we must journey to these places of vulnerability, and, if we are brave enough to listen to them, we will discover a new depth of living. As Nepo suggests, it is in facing death that we discover life:

…every trouble wants to draw the very best of you into the world.

The paradox of finding undeniable good in the most difficult life circumstances is a paradox that Nepo explores with kindness and a compassionate knowing. He talks freely of how nearly dying from cancer led him to a deeper connection with life. It is in facing death that Nepo discovered the connectedness of life; it was, in fact, the paradox of life and death that revealed universal oneness:

My inability to see clearly led me below my own conflicting opinions into the sea that holds all thoughts.

…And being in relationship with paradox is what leads us into transformation.

As you read these chapters, were you led to recall difficult times in your life that in the end brought you joy or a deeper understanding and connection with life? Were you able to explore this concept as a possibility while you were going through the difficulty of the situation, or was the revelation only in hindsight?

These chapters dealt primarily with embracing and listening to times in life that are challenging. How did you feel while reading this section? Was it uncomfortable? Were you able to listen to the thoughts and emotions that were being stirred within you?

We will continue reading and listening next week. Until then,

Warm Water Wishes,
The Glen Ivy Librarian

This week’s reading opens us to the possibility of deep listening – listening not only with our ears but with our entire being.  Nepo reminds us that although “the brain may be located in the skull, the mind is located in the entire person.”  As such, true listening involves more than the ears – it involves being present and open with all of our senses.

Being present in this way not only opens us to deep listening, but also to a particular kind of vulnerability – one in which we, at some point, lose our separateness of being to experience the Oneness of the Universe.  As Nepo quotes Andre Gide, “If you go deeply enough into the personal, you reach the Universal.”  To experience this type of listening, assumptions and “stories” of how our lives are or should be must dissolve.  Nepo says that this opens us to experiencing true joy – the joy of connection:  “Our aim is not just to “get it together” as an individual, but to be a clear, integral cell in the heart of the world that keeps the Universe going.”

Nepo talks about our “internal argument with the world.”  Are you able to identify with this statement?  What are your internal arguments with the world?

Have you ever experienced deep listening – the kind of listening that happens with your entire being, not just your ears?  How did you feel in that moment?

Until next time,
Happy Reading & Warm Water Wishes
The Glen Ivy Librarian

We begin the journey of 7,000 Ways to Listen by going within and remembering how to listen to ourselves and our inner world. It is only by reconnecting with ourselves that we can be present for others. It is only when we pause to embrace and listen to ourselves that we feel our connection to all of life.

So at the deepest level, the most essential level, listening entails a constant effort to feel that moment where everything touches everything else, a constant effort to live below the sheer fact of things. This fundamental listening invokes a commitment to keep what is true before us, so we might be touched by the life-force in all things.

On page 18, Nepo notes, “When fully here, we touch what is before us – life-force to life-force, essence to essence. When asleep or numb or moving too fast, we touch only touch surface to surface.

Inevitably, when we begin to really show up in our lives, to be fully present instead of lost in thoughts of the past or future, things begin to shift. The first moments of connection to the here and now feel blissful, but soon we begin to notice the areas of our lives in which we are not living in alignment with our true selves – and in that moment of realization, change begins.

The moment we awaken to know that we are lost – to realize, as Jung says, that the ego is not master in the house – then we have begun the journey. – Helen Luke

Nepo tells us that experiencing our broken parts and feeling lost is actually a great gift. Have you found this to be true in your life? Have there times in which you felt utterly and completely lost, but later realized that these times lead you to exactly where you needed to be?

As you read through the first section of this book, were you inspired to pause, to be fully present for a moment? Did you find the practice of being fully present in the moment enjoyable or did it feel uncomfortable?

Winter provides a time of respite; a quieter space to enter deeper into ourselves to reflect on our lives and relationships.  If we allow ourselves to sink into the relative idleness of these shorter and grayer days, we can also choose to embrace a new level of openness and understanding to the world around us.  It is from this orientation – from the centered quietness of our own being – that we can begin to listen deeply to the world around us.

So often we are distracted by the noise of the world, the non-stop chatter of electrical devices, freeway noise, the less than meaningful conversations passing by and through us – that we forget to listen.  In fact, we may fail to remember what listening really is.  Not merely hearing spoken words, listening is absorbing the fullness of any moment in life; it is taking in words spoken, intonation, emotion, body movements, and the feelings and energy of any given situation.  Listening is the act of honoring the spoken and unspoken; to really listen, one must engage their entire being in the moment as it presents itself, without judgment or a desire to change it in any way.

This winter, we embrace the special silence that the season brings, and we turn our focus inward in an effort to better listen to the world surrounding us.  Author Mark Nepo guides us through Seven Thousand Ways to Listen:  Staying Close to What is Sacred, as we
turn down the static heard by the outer ear, and begin listening to the deeper rhythms of life heard only through the silent repose of the inner ear.

In the upcoming weeks, we will read and discuss Seven Thousand Ways to Listen and how the lessons and techniques presented in this book are impacting our lives.  We hope you will join us.

Reading Schedule

February 6 

To My Reader
Beyond Our Awareness
Keeping What is True Before Us
A Reality That Keeps Unfolding
How Do We Listen to All That Is Not Said?
Being Lost

February 13 

In The Presence of Sages
Entering Silence
God Blinking
A Conversation with the Elements
One Living Sense
Deep Listening

February 20

How We Learn
Restoring Confidence
Honeycombs and Thinking-Strings
Going Back into the Fire
What Happens When You Really Listen
Being Articulate

February 27

The Call of the Soul
Seasons of Listening
Outwaiting the Clouds
Approaching the Dark Acre
Untangling the Net
Playing Hands with God
Knowing Where We Are

March 6

The Human Garden
How We Injure Ourselves
A Steadfast Teacher
In the Hut We Call the Self

March 13

Finding Birdsong
The Endless Search
Not Getting What We Want
The Stilling of Our Pain

March 20

The Mystery of the Moment
A Closer Geography
To Endure and Endear
Wandering Authentically
No Strangers in the Heart

I look forward to reading with you and listening to your thoughts about this very special book.

Warm water wishes,
The Glen Ivy Librarian

As we conclude our summer book club, we see the end of Gatsby’s dream of being with Daisy; now a dreamer without a dream, there is no place left for Gatsby to go except death. Until the very end, Gatsby refuses to believe that he cannot be with Daisy. Daisy and Tom are entangled, and neither desires to be released. Both Gatsby and Wilson have been destroyed by the women who chose to love Tom Buchanan – a fact that seems not to register with Tom.

The remainder of the novel shows Nick trying to come to terms with the conflict he feels surrounding the Midwestern values of his youth and the more flamboyant, visionary standards that were embraced by Gatsby. Nick seems unable to move fully into either arena.

What were your thoughts on the conclusion of the novel? Did your feelings regarding any of the characters change in the last two chapters of this book?

Until next season, I wish you happy reading!

-Director of Guest Experience Programming
Glen Ivy Hot Springs

In this chapter we see the end of Gatsby’s relationship with Daisy.   When Tom learns of the affair he becomes indignant and seems to forget his own infidelity.  By bringing up past events in their life, he seems to manipulate Daisy into believing that she has loved him all along, leaving Gatsby’s dream of a life with Daisy in ruins.  Tom is so sure that he has won the battle for Daisy that he allows her to return home with Gatsby.  Even though he realizes the affair is over, Gatsby’s love for Daisy persists, and he is willing to take responsibility for her misdeeds.  At the close of this chapter, we no longer see Gatsby reaching for the illusive green light, but rather standing alone in the moonlight – a metaphor for illusion and sometimes lunacy.

Did you feel sympathy for Gatsby as you read this chapter?  What about Daisy?

Next week we conclude our reading.  I look forward to reading your thoughts and observations.

-Director of Guest Experience Programming
Glen Ivy Hot Springs

What struck me most in this week’s reading was learning how deeply in the past Gatsby lives. He seems completely unable to function in the present moment; it is almost as if his life is built around the memory of the time he spent with Daisy. When Gatsby finally is able to meet with Daisy at Nick’s house, we see not a powerful, wealthy man, but rather a clumsy, nervous boy. Gatsby even knocks over Nick’s clock – symbolism for his inability to function in present time.

Despite the initial awkwardness of the meeting, it seems that Gatsby and Daisy may be rekindling their love. Knowing how glib and dishonest Daisy is, I had to wonder if she was feeling love for Gatsby or lust for his wealth. Although well to do, Daisy and Tom do not possess the wealth that Gatsby does. Daisy’s tears over Gatsby’s collection of English shirts caused me to pause and question the sincerity of her feelings. I found Daisy’s character to epitomize the shallowness of the roaring 20’s.

How did you feel when reading about Daisy and Gatsby’s reunion? Why do you think Fitzgerald chose not to reveal more details about their encounters?

Until next week, happy reading!

-Director of Guest Experience Programming
Glen Ivy Hot Springs