Customer Reviews

The Given Self

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Mari Perron is a mystic for the rest of us. Living a working class life in West St. Paul she has raised her children and has an intimate hand in raising her grandchild, Henry. She and her husband Donny struggle to make ends meet and face the same kind of crises we all face as our parents age and die and our children leave the nest and return. We think of mystics as people who seek solitude, and Mari does; but she has to find her solitude in midst of life. For those who have read A Course of Love and its accompanying volumes, The Given Self reveals what it is like to be the receiver of divine inspiration and then continue on, finding your own voice. But best of all in The Given Self, Mari shares in her clear and beautiful prose, a journey many of us are also on - the personal journey to find who we really are. This is a must read. Bob Veitch

In The Given Self, Mari Perron tells me that I'm okay ... that I'm good just the way I am ... warts and all. In fact she assures me that I simply wouldn't be me without my warts. And whether I choose to let them fall away, or choose to keep them ... it's all good; and exactly what I need to see me safely on my journey home to a place of loving, meaningful relationship with all. As she describes it "... not a place of higher consciousness devoid of self, but a place of self imbued with higher consciousness." And so it is for every single one of us.

She writes of acceptance of all of ourselves ... not a passive helpless 'that's just me'; but a keen observation and understanding of what we feel most deeply; along with a flowing openness to the endless possibilities of choice we hold. Her writing is a breath of fresh air in a rule-based world too often raucously trumpeting "Just do that and you'll be perfect! Just do this and you'll be loved and accepted!"

The Given Self frees us to quit denying our pain, and from the two extremes of striving for perfection or just giving up, Rather it invites us to stand still and look calmly into this moment to see and receive the beauty of who we already are - right here, right now ... no comparisons needed. Only then can we give, first to ourselves and then to a wounded waiting world, that precious gift that only we can give - the gift of our unique form of loving - our Given Self.

Mari Perron shares a beautifully written and genuine account of living from her authentic core. She is the real deal and she isn't afraid to share very personal stories to illustrate her points. I was particularly inspired by this passage. "The idea of the given self is simple. It's the idea that you were born to be who you are.. You came into the world with a given nature. If you can live with it, and by it, you can make your peace with yourself, your creator, and your world. Maybe not perfect peace - but peace. It's an idea that says there is a unique purpose-fulness to your life, and it will only be found in your being precisely who yyou are and no one else."