SARK is a best-selling author and artist, with 16 books in print and well over two million books sold, including Juicy Pens, Thirsty Papers. In this innovative resource, which features her inimitable handwriting and colorful designs, photographs, and art, she presents her homemade vision of "practical gladness" — along with down-to-earth ideas and ideals regarding the losses and changes we all regularly face. She laments the death of her mother, the demise of her beloved 17-year-old cat Jupiter, and the end of a romantic relationship. She also includes material on dozens of others who have journeyed through change and loss. The paperback is divided into chapters on:
• Glad No Matter What
• Waves of Love
• Yes to All the Changes
• Singing Through All the Storms
• Learning to See in the Dark
• Transformation Practices
• Portraits of Joy and Transformation Through Change and Loss
Although it eludes us when we're in the midst of it, SARK points out that every change and loss resulted in something good or better. We just need the discipline and patience to make perspective shifts and do the transformational work on "how we respond to what happens to us." SARK's propensity for finding gifts and gladness in every situation has resulted in her being seen by many as a Pollyanna. She doesn't care and sees this aspect of her personality as just one more thing to love about herself. Much better to heed the call of the venerable Joseph Campbell: "Find a place inside you where there is joy, and the joy will burn out the pain."
SARK sees in her own journeys through loss and change as chances to practice resiliency, unconditional love, wisdom channeling, centering, and being woven and deepened. The author suggests that we each prepare a loss list and then practice transforming each one. SARK ends with a series of thought-provoking exercises to help us sense the miracles that abound in our daily lives. Here's a daily practice that can be used as part of your practical gladness regime:
"I fairly sizzle with zeal and enthusiasm, and spring forth with a mighty faith to do the things that ought to be done by me today."
— Charles Fillmore
