A Year of Questions: slow down and fall in love with life

This book is for anyone who wants to s l o o o o w down and fall in love with life. Is that you? (Satya Robyn writing as Fiona Robyn.)

Buy it on Kindle UK or Kindle US or get the paperback from Amazon UK / Amazon US.

The book asks questions that will nudge you towards your own answers. It is crammed with quotes, suggestions, little stories and loving kindness. The updated 2012 kindle version contains a new introduction, five bonus musings and a new section on mindful writing.

Read a sample musing below, and read some reviews here.

A window, a space

This week, work has been very stressful. Today I made soup.

I gathered the vegetables together in the kitchen – ordinary vegetables – carrots, potatoes, onions, leeks. I rubbed dark crumbly earth from the potatoes with my fingers. I fried the onions, releasing clouds of their caramel aroma into the room. I sliced the squeaky leeks. I noticed the brilliant orange of the carrots. I boiled the water and listened to it plobbing and ribupping.

As I moved around the kitchen I felt a kind of release. I reflected on my work, and untangled some knots. I made a couple of little decisions that will make a big difference. I said some kind words to myself.

I often return to this creative space, whether I’m making soup or flower arrangements or novels. It gives me an opportunity to become absorbed in an attempt at beauty. It gives me a chance to step out of being ‘someone in relation to someone else’ – a wife, a daughter, a therapist. I get to be someone-making-soup, pure and simple.

Things you might be curious about
How often do you give yourself the space to keep track of yourself? How committed are you to making this space? What gets in the way?

Suggestions for this week
Make a date with yourself this week to find out about a new creative pursuit or to revisit an old one. Find an evening class in welding, buy a new sketch-pad, make a collage of the inside of a spaceship with your children, collect leaves in the park, get a Greek recipe book out of the library.


We all need to have a creative outlet – a window, a space – so we don’t lose track of ourselves.
Norman Fischer

When we let ourselves respond to poetry, to music, to pictures, we are clearing a space where new stories can root, in effect we are clearing a space for new stories about ourselves.
Jeanette Winterson

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