What I’m reading
The Glass Bead Game
By Hermann Hesse
In my early teaching days, I was introduced to Hesse and he had a profound effect on me as a teacher and writer. This book is about education in its purest form: achieving enlightenment through academic devotion. Replete with love, humility and gentleness of spirit, Knecht becomes the head of an intellectually elite organisation, yet leaves this position to tutor his friend’s boy. It is inspirational.
The book I loved as a child
The Magic Faraway Tree
By Enid Blyton
My younger sister was reading this book when I stole a peep at it and couldn’t put it down - it was truly magical. In the Enchanted Wood, there stood this wonderful tree. You climbed its never-ending branches into other worlds. The tree was a porthole into other realities, other possibilities and other ways of seeing things, all alternatives to conventional perception. For me, that doorway has always remained ajar.
Read this before you die
Embraced by the Light
By Betty J Eadie
Some years ago, while down in the dumps, this book rescued me. It is a true story about a lady (Betty) who had a near-death experience. Her journey into heaven is beautifully described and it is a revelation - talking about the many mysteries surrounding death and offering hope for an eternal future. Full of love, it is not contrived - it is utterly believable and a source of great comfort and joy to me. Interestingly, it has some scientific validation and is claimed to be a credible first-hand account. I now understand the phrase “when one door closes...”
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