This fast-paced, upbeat call for concentrating on the positive should appeal to manifesting fans.
A writer looks at using the power of focus to manifest benefits in daily life.
The central conceit of Brennan’s slim nonfiction book is the idea of employing passion and focus as fertilizer in order to prime the soil of daily life to grow the qualities each person wants. “Simply by being aware of where we place our focus, we can contribute to the reality we are growing,” she writes, “which is why focus is fertiliser.” A key to priming this process is shifting the need for external validation to internal confirmation and concentrating on the specific object in mind, then determining whether the focus involved is positive or negative. Finally, readers should examine the direction of the focus: Is it internal or external? Brennan advocates marshaling internal processes of attention, presence, and appreciation in order to build the concentration required to create this personal fertilizer. “If we focus on the object of our task—our success,” she writes, “we can demonstrate our passion and effectiveness, and others will believe our intentions.” The main problem Brennan addresses throughout is the risk of a disconnection between the inner self and the outer realities—hence, the vital need for focus. “If we are not connected to our self and the moment,” she writes, “we are not able to access our highest potential, which includes creativity, resourcefulness, and resilience.” The narrative the author presents is compassionate and warmly autobiographical; she stresses that it’s never been more important to be in the present moment than in the midst of Covid-19 and all its accompanying tensions. Readers unfamiliar with the whole subculture of “manifesting” will find some of Brennan’s assertions bewildering, as when she asserts that “the human brain does not understand the difference between positive and negative” or when she echoes the sentiment that “our experiences are the results of our thoughts and feelings.” But manifesting aficionados will find the author good company.
This fast-paced, upbeat call for concentrating on the positive should appeal to manifesting fans.Pub Date: Jan. 4, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5043-2406-9
Page Count: 100
Publisher: BalboaPressAU
Review Posted Online: May 24, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Whatever happened to the discipline of ethics? At a time when moral questions tend to be argued with more heat than light, Kidder offers practical guidelines for a coherent and mindful approach to ethical dilemmas. In the early morning hours of April 26, 1986, two electrical engineers, working at the control panel of Reactor Number Four at Chernobyl, overrode six separate alarm systems to see how long the turbine would free-wheel when the power was removed. For Kidder (Shared Values for a Troubled World, not reviewed), the ensuing catastrophe is a parable of why ethics matters. Founder of the Institute for Global Ethics, he deals not so much with the problem of choosing between right and wrong as with the daily dilemmas of choosing between right and right. Should I always tell all the truth? Should I divulge professional information that may help others but will certainly ruin an individual's life? Kidder spotlights the contemporary concern for ethical standards in corporations while guiding us through the thought of Aristotle, Kant, Bentham, and others. He posits four models for dilemmas of right vs. right: the clashes between truth and loyalty, individual and community, short-term and long-term goods, justice and mercy. He goes on to propose three principles he believes will enable us to resolve moral dilemmas: consideration of the likely consequences of our decision, knowledge of the laws of conduct, and adherence to the Golden Rule that we should do as we would be done to. Finally, Kidder lays out a practical scheme for approaching problematic situations and looks at complex modern questions such as computer hacking and ways of combatting AIDS. He offers no answers, instead giving readers a program for energetic self-reflection. A brilliant and practical synthesis that squarely faces all the issues and can be grasped by the thoughtful nonspecialist.
Pub Date: Jan. 24, 1995
ISBN: 0-688-13442-4
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1994
BOOK REVIEW
Lyrical tale of the survival and triumph of a small farm amid the suburban sprawl of southern California, with writing as rich and satisfying as the taste of a ripe melon. Fairview Gardens exists amid tract housing, malls, and endless miles of freeway. Ableman (founder of the Center for Urban Agriculture; From the Good Earth, not reviewed) tells of how the farm made peace with this suburban world and how this world came to first tolerate and then embrace this oasis of connection to the land. It hasn—t been easy. Homeowners do not rest quietly with manure spreaders hard at work near their backyards; Ableman resents, albeit with grace, the imprecations of the modern world onto the land he manages. Yet, over time, the farm has become accepted as an eccentric neighbor, at first as a convenient place to buy good, healthy food and then as a repository of the dying knowledge of what is to be learned from working the land. Ableman’s writing on these lessons—perseverance, patience, humility, a feeling of empowerment when one eats what one grows—forms the heart of this work. It is writing of inspiring joy, without the overblown “cosmic” rhetoric that often mars such paeans to nature. Along the way he offers some valuable tips to farmers, on mulching, watering, weeding, fighting city hall. Today Fairview Gardens is a public place, not a bucolic back-to-nature vacation spot for the few. It stands not apart from the community but within it, no small reason for its survival in the face of hungry developers. It remains a thriving farm, but also a place where people, especially children, come to experience the land. Among a sprawl of books incessantly issued and hyped, this small, wise volume quietly calls us to read and be renewed. (50 color photos)
Pub Date: July 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-8118-1921-3
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 1998
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