Happy New Year, lovely readers! Wishing you all a fruitful and healthy 2022 which we all deserve after the maelstrom that was 2019-2021.

While visiting my parents’ house in the US over the holidays, my eyes kept gravitating to one particular book on the shelves that house a variety of subjects acquired over the years- The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz. I’d read this book several years ago, but it was dying to jump in my suitcase and be read again for some reason. At only 138 pages of fairly large and widely spaced type, this also was the perfect last book to devour in a year to meet my reading goal. I read this in maybe an hour on new year’s eve and think that this may just become an annual tradition. I’m not sure how a simple book can be so powerful, but I highly recommend you spend an hour with it yourself. It’s one of those books that speaks to you differently at different times in your life. If you need a teaser, the four agreements are:

1. Be impeccable with your word.
2. Don’t take anything personally.
3. Don’t make assumptions.
4. Always do your best. (Ruiz’s favorite)

It’s definitely worth the hour, but if you only have 26 minutes, I can also recommend Oprah’s interview with Ruiz on her recent podcast Super Soul, linked here. In the brilliant way that only Oprah can, the lady provides a dose of heavy pragmatism to subjects that can be deemed as crunchy and maybe the first eight minutes of the podcast which were a bit meandering. Once they get into the book, it’s definitely worth the day-to-day approach to each of these agreements. If you read it and join my wee annual book club, let me know what you think. Onward and upwards….