What better place to begin? So I shall.

I LOVE books!

There! I said it. For better or for worse, I love them. All kinds of them. Kid books. Grown-up books. Storybooks. Serious books. Funny books. Help-me-if-you-can books. Cookbooks. Look books. All of ’em.

I have had this affection, this all-encompassing predilection for as long as I can remember. Little Golden Books littered the floor and bed and shelves in my room when I was a small bespectacled girl. Everywhere I was, you would find a book nearby. My mama taught me that.

As a young woman, I had the joyous opportunity to work at an office a half a block from a bookstore. The job was totally meh! but the bookstore was lovely. I would go on my lunch break and buy several paperbacks. I would finish one every couple of nights.

Bliss!

Believe me when I tell you, I have read LOTS of books.

But every now and again, a book will cross my path, and it just won’t let me go. Most of the time, it is a passionately told tale of adventure or maybe love and loss. The story pulls me in like a giant magnet, and there I stay every waking moment I can muster until I finish Page Last.

Late last year, I found such a book but wonder of wonders, it was not a novel or a biography or a volume of non-fiction. It was a daybook.

What????????

Yup, you heard me. A daybook. The kind you read each and every morning, perhaps while taking care of the first order of your day’s business. I’ll leave that to you to define.

Each entry is short and oh, so sweet. Why, you can even go back for a wrap-up at day’s end! It is truly a day book – a whole day.

What is this book you speak of, Steph? Do tell.

I will leave you in suspense no longer. Ta-daaaaaah! Here it is!

I don’t recall when or where I found Patti Digh. I only know that I’m glad I did. Her books are amazingly inspiring and um, poignant-ish? Well, they touch places in me that have lain dormant for the longest time. She causes me to brush them off and give them a long, slow look.

The thing I think I like best about Patti is she. is. real. That and she just happens to be a HUGE fan of Johnny Depp, <sigh> as am I.

Each day, The Daily Rock (which I’ll call it for short) takes a, well, rock with a few words painted on it and spins a sort of daily devotional around it (sans any religious connotation). The rocks are the creation of Kim deBroin Mailhot, and I swear almost every single time that rock hits me right between the eyes.

So to review: there’s your rock, a quote to go along, and a short few paragraphs giving you something to ponder. Then there’s a question for Morning and another for Evening. Easy peasy, quick and easy to read. Deep and wide enough for you to carry around all day.

<– This was today’s reading with a quote from one of my long-time favorites, Erma Bombeck, “It takes a lot of courage to show your dreams to someone else.”

It does, doesn’t it? You just never know how they will react or respond. Often, for that very reason, we keep them locked inside ourselves.

Patti challenges us to be brave and share them, and ends the day by asking, “How does it feel to be brave?”

How indeed, in a world where there is much cowering and hiding and hanging back so we won’t be seen?

I highly recommend you take a look at this — gee, I can’t think of a word grand enough to even scratch the surface of how special it is — book.

Get a copy. Read it each day. Laugh. Cry. Cheer yourself on. Cheer yourself up. Patti will help you do each of these and more.

Oh, and you can find her website right here. Be sure to click the link at the top that says Why 37 days? It’s worth a read.

Maybe you already have a daybook you love. Tell me about it.

What makes you love it?

Rock on!
Steph Marks

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