Onkelo

The “he/she loves me, he/she love me not” routine gets a little old by the end of this one, especially when you know they’ll end up together (of course!). but it doesn’t matter, still loved it. i can’t help but feel cold reading this. it’s hard to imagine humans living comfortably in the conditions described (friggin cold).

I can’t be reminded enough to slow down. The theory of this book completely makes sense but required a mindshift for me. Essentially, all organisms have a finite amount of life energy, which can either be used up slowly or quickly. Mice with fast heart rates and metabolisms live short lives, elephants with slow metabolisms have long lives. Our society is all about “increasing your metabolism”, but really, that’s simply using up more of your life energy as is digesting the extra food you consumed that you want to boost your metabolism to get rid of. A smarter, and more life-prolonging, course would be to try and slow your metabolism and eat less to accommodate that. not saying i’m quite capable of that, but it’s an interesting spin. The books not solely about food and eating habits, of course. Sleeping patterns, stress, overexercising, etc are all ways of accelerating the aging process (using up your finite life energy). This book is coming at a perfect time, when I’m giving up teaching yoga and need some anti-guilt fodder.

Maybe the first “Western” I’ve ever read, but I use that term loosely and only because they call it such on the back cover. quite a page turner. this author consistently makes me happy.