Living with Gussto promotes positive energy through gratitude, nature, fun, love, music, art, and highlighting those who do the same - oh...along with some bagpipes.
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Isolation Shorts
2020 Arrives and then...
What can a person do when suddenly all plans are cancelled, all trips are cancelled, restaurants, schools, stores, and even churches are closed? Weird sociological stuff, like toilet paper shortages and mask conflicts arise because we need to keep our distance and not spread germs.
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2020 came in with a bang and just never let up. Even worse, we could not meet with others to process this year. Suddenly we all found ourselves with lots of time and nothing to do. Isolation Shorts is a book of short readings that observe our world and try to process the events, emotions, and reflect on life, the state of the soul, and how to improve our world when stuck in the house.
During isolation, I found myself journaling the events and my responses, reading the Bible, and reflecting on my life, actions, and beliefs through the lens of the Bible teachings. I was reading Forward Day by Day and different Guidepost books, and their use of bible verse and devotional reading for thought inspired the idea to write a short piece, go to the Bible and other spiritual books for guidance, then use a verse to introduce the reaction reading, and follow it with a "well now that you know this, what are you going to do about it?" type of thing.
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When I taught, I realized that the most powerful teaching or staff development created a dissonance, reflection, and change. In Isolation Shorts, this became Reflection and Response followed by a prayer for moving forward. The readings may inspire, anger, but mostly they bring us together through recognizing how we can help one another get through this stuff. We may feel alone, but we are not.
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Feel free to check out some of the Shorts on my blog, and if you would like a signed copy of the book, click here.