Pain Is Inevitable But Suffering Is Optional

Stick a Geranium in Your Hat and Be Happy

Boomerang blessings. That's what Barbara Johnson calls the encouraging feedback she has received over the years from readers whose lives have been impacted by the message of this million-copy bestseller. If you need a fresh breath of joy in your life, this book is just the prescription for you. With the wit of an Erma Bombeck, Barbara Johnson helps you to look for "life's little sparkles," even in the midst of your most crippling sorrows. No stranger to suffering herself, Barbara's experiences have equipped her with the credentials to help others work through their own suffering. In spite of her difficulties, Barbara has learned that while pain is inevitable to us all, we can choose to pick the flowers instead of the weeds. Barbara will teach you how to release that bubble of joy within you?to claim God's promise to "fill your mouth with laughter and your lips with shouts of joy." ?Job 8:21 (TLB)

Pain Is Inevitable, Misery Is Optional

The Dalai Lama's Cat and the Power of Meow

"If you ever doubted that your feline companion has her own inner life, just watch what happens when she falls asleep, and loses conscious control of her physical being . . . a twitching of limbs, a quivering of the jaw, sometimes perhaps a snuffling noise or a meow. . . . Cats may indeed be capable of great mindfulness. But we are thinking beings, too. In my own case, unfortunately, a being who thinks rather too much." In the latest installment of the Dalai Lama’s Cat series, His Holiness’s Cat ("HHC") is on a mission: to think less, to experience more, to live in the moment. She soon learns the proper phrase for this, being mindful, or, a concept better known to her as the power of meow. What ensues is a journey to discover her own true nature, to gain a deeper understanding of her mind, and to experience life’s greatest joy, the here and now. Throughout, she shares encounters with familiar inhabitants of Dharamsala, as well as a whole new cast of characters: a senior exec from one of Silicon Valley’s most famous social media companies (hint: the name rhymes with "litter"), the Pope’s beloved dog (who shares a shockingly similar title: HHD, His Holiness’s Dog), and a public health inspector who threatens to have our poor narrator banned from the Himalaya Book Café. In this follow-up to the Dalai Lama’s Cat and the Art of Purring, readers escape to the enchanting and exotic world of the Dalai Lama’s monastery in the Himalayas, and take a peek inside the mind of a delightfully imperfect creature on the path to enlightenment. By accompanying HHC on her journey, you will learn new ways to relate to your own mind: slowing down, finding peace, and abiding in the boundless radiance and benevolence that is your own true nature.