Wintergreen

Do you remember a childhood story about green eggs and ham?

Sam-I-Am tries to get his friend to try a suspicious plate of food in all kinds of places - from a box, to a house, to a train.

"I will not eat them anywhere!" says Sam's friend. After many emphatic refusals, though, he is finally so worn out by Sam's persistence that he takes a bite and finds that he loves green eggs and ham.

I adored the book as a child, yet it wasn't until quite recently that I recognized my deep appreciation of the story's underlying meaning: It's okay to change your mind!

It is healthy to change not only our minds but also our selves.

Many of us lock ourselves into cages of personality without realizing it. The bars are fashioned in our minds:

I like this. I don't like that. This is right. That is wrong. This is good. That is bad.

Perhaps we've met people or had experiences that we found hurtful?

Our quite reasonable response is to start building walls to protect ourselves. Unfortunately, those walls often end up holding us back from living our best lives.

With this illustrated collection of 44 poems, Gail Boenning invites us to consider what's possible when when we crack our windows open to let life in. When we accept responsibility for what reality delivers and take creative steps forward... toward the light, we can turn a life of drudgery and meaninglessness into pure joy: heaven on earth.