Deliberate Acts of Kindness : Service as a Spiritual Practice

Rating:
Summary: Answering the Call
Review: A thoughtful, *funny* look at service as a spiritual practice! How many authors would write about being "tenderized" after a total meltdown of mind, body and spirit? Or gently remind you to listen for the "call waiting" of service? No pious prose here. But lots of gentle, tender, thoughtful help along your own way-- from recognizing the beep from your higher self to making sure that service stays within healthy boundaries to tips to fight burnout. A great book for anyone exploring commitment or already involved with a cause.

Rating:
Summary: Hey! I'm the author...
Review: And there's some stuff I want you to know about me and my book.

First, if you know anything about book publishing, you know that it's like elephant gestation. IOW, it normally takes at least two years before a book *idea* makes it into print. I'm telling you this because I happen to think it is very cosmically weird that I proposed this book *way* before the horrific events of 9/11/01.

This leads neatly to my next point: I'm a sociologist by education and training,which certainly led me to suspect that service would be the Next Big Important Thing after decades of unrelenting "Me" focus. Especially among aging Baby Boomers like moi.

As for identifying service as a spiritual practice, I credit years of traipsing the path to spirit and...well...I explain more in the "Foreword."

I hope you enjoy reading my book and that it inspires you to get involved in--or deepen your existing--service to others.

Rating:
Summary: What the World Needs Now
Review: WONDERFUL!! The world needs this now more than ever! Good stuff about boundaries, and levels of service, and how it figures in religious traditions, as well as how to figure out whether the alleged call is of the heart or of the mind.

Reading this has helped me sort out intriguing doubts and questions I've been having about some of the service I've seemed called to lately. I got both clarity and affirmation from this wise guidance that I'll not only use myself, but to help coach clients.

What's more, the material is beautifully organized, and expressed with the delightful, tongue-in-cheek irreverent and eminently readable wisdom that is Gould's trademark as a writer.