Christina Bruni is the author of the new book Working Assets: A Career Guide for Peers. She contributed a chapter "Recovery is Within Reach" to Benessere Psicologico: Contemporary Thought on Italian American Mental Health.
Though I checked this book out of the library I’m going to buy a copy. As since I’m an author I want to use the novel as a reference for how exactly Flournoy aced craft to plot the narrative and how it unfolded.
The Wilderness was published in 2025. The novel was longlisted for the National Book Award. Flournoy should win this literary prize.
The 5 characters in the book are individuals who are more real than in real life in ways.
The Black American women’s lives take place in the novel from their 20s through 40s. I would rather read a book like this than some kind of “Boys of Summer” beach read at this time in my life.
I recommend buying this book to read or installing it on your Kindle or iPad. It’s one of the greats of literature.
This is a blog entry I’m titling Left of the Dialogue: Opting for Optimism. I’ll every so often possibly post a Left of the Dialogue entry with a subtitle re: the topic.
With 20 years as a Mental Health Advocate my goal is to empower followers, readers, and audience members to choose hope over helplessness. The hope is that we’re here to support each other as we evolve and grow and to work out whatever our purpose for being here is.
To this end I’ve changed my mind yet again. There will be no political screeds in this blog. I’ve deleted the last remaining posts about what has been going on in this sphere.
The NYC MetroCard transit fare card shown above is 15 years old. On the front is the magnetic swipe. On the reverse side that you see the MTA printed the word Optimism by an Artist.
In the face of what’s going on I choose not to let the world’s craziness invade this blog anymore. I’m confident that optimism is possible when like I’ve written before one person reaches out to help another person.
Everyone living on earth is likely in recovery from some kind of challenge.
My intuition tells me that it will take eight years for things to get better. The way forward as I see it is to write blog entries that utilize my sense of humor and wordplay to educate, empower, and entertain followers.
I think this blog should be amusing and give joy most of all.
I recommend watching the 3-part Netflix documentary Victoria Beckham. Those of us who are driven will likely relate to the fashion designer’s ethic. The former Posh Spice was driven by design to create her own clothing line.
Victoria is an Aries if that is of interest to anyone. Her self-reinvention is a case study in designing a life for yourself linked to your passion.
Beckham was derided as another celebrity-turned-fashion designer like Jessica Simpson. Hey I used to have a tan Jessica Simpson bucket bag. I bought the pocketbook for its style not namesake.
The Victoria Beckham story was empowering. Of course who can afford her clothes but that’s another story.
She’s known for her smoky eye. A former WAG (wife and girlfriend) Victoria is the other half of soccer star David Beckham. She won an Entrepreneur of the Year award.
Instead of being jealous of other women or cutting them down it’s time to revel in each other’s beauty. To see each other as we want to be seen not as the enemy or oppressor.
Bootstraps are beautiful on everyone. And for those of us who could use a lift I say extend a hand.
Not everyone is driven. That’s OK too. It can still be empowering to watch this Netflix series.
The above book is inspirational and motivational. The guide does not attack the reader or present a political ideology. So refreshing in today’s climate where the media darlings are given book contracts and column space online to spew negative feelings.
I recommend installing this book on a Kindle or iPad to re-read when you need a shot of positivity while going through a tough time.
It’s a breezy read even though the author recounts two dire events in her life. We cannot discount the hell and heartache that goes on for others. Yet we can lift each other up instead of cutting each other down.
Isn’t it wonderful to know that the little things we do to feel good can have a big impact? No need to book a costly vacation to Cozumel or another beach to boost our mood. Joy can be found in the everyday acts and ordinary things we surround ourselves with.
You can check this book out of the library. I recommend this 30-Day Guide because it’s simple to use. Though it might not be easy it will likely be rewarding to complete the Challenge.
Ashlee Piper starts off the book with a history of the dawn of the marketing and advertising era to sell products. Like cigarettes that languished in sales. Until a clever advertisement in the 1920s to women calling cigarettes “Torches of Freedom.” Women marching in the streets would stop and light up the cigarettes called “Torches of Freedom.”
No kidding.
One issue I take with No New Things (it is likely accurate though) is that some people tally up that they saved $6,000 per month on purchases they didn’t make. How could someone have that kind of cash to drop on products to begin with?
Oh–the second issue I have is Piper’s reliance on thrifting and buying secondhand clothing. Most people are okay with wearing items that other people wore. Some of us prefer new.
All in all I recommend this book to anyone seeking to restore peace of mind to how we feel about ourselves. Piper alludes to how Influencers peddle products. How we could feel unworthy and less than so buy what’s being sold in an effort to feel better.
It’s really possible to stop impulse shopping. I call curating a wardrobe “collecting” items not shopping for them. I recommend giving thoughtful consideration to your style via the Three Word Method or a dive into Project 333.
September is here soon. Going back to school or getting into the groove at work again doesn’t have to require buying a truckload of new outfits.
What I’m interested in and think everyone should copy from No New Things is to have fun doing things with friends that don’t involve trips to shopping malls to buy stuff. Why not take a walk on a boardwalk if you live near a beach? Take a walk in a local park like Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. While there go to the Japanese Tea Garden.
By the way I think the end of summer is the ideal time to do spring cleaning. My credo is the “one thing in – one thing out” ethic.
The true Torch of Freedom today is the ability to Just Say No to endless retail therapy that doesn’t really make us feel better.
This is an old tee shirt I bought from Nike before reading about the scandal an Olympic runner on the elite Nike track team wrote about in her memoir The Longest Race.
The way I protest is by wearing message tee shirts in the summer–and in the spring and fall over long sleeve tee shirts. A kicky way to speak out walking down the street.
It helps to have a sense of humor when you’re down for the count.
Like I’m fond of saying every one of us is a winner. Regardless of whether you win or lose you’re a champion simply because you’ve gotten in the ring to fight.
The 4-time Grammy winner singer Lizzo above was interviewed in the summer issue of Women’s Health. The photo is taken from this feature article.
Lizzo did what she calls “release weight”–choosing not to use the word lose weight–for health reasons. Her body radiated with back pain.
Ultimately she adopted the healthy lifestyle for mental health first of all. Admits that she is still in the “two-something to do something club.” And that weighing 250 pounds is OK. And if she gained the weight back that would be OK too.
Per Lizzo:
“Body positivity has nothing to do with staying the same. Body positivity is the radical act of daring to exist loudly and proudly in a society that told you you shouldn’t exist.”
It seems that when Lizzo lost weight fans booed her for betraying the singer’s ethic of loving yourself when you’re bigger–or as some people say–fat.
Improving your health is a valid motivation for changing an aspect of your life that you feel is out of balance.
This month–August–is National Wellness Month. I’ll be writing about wellness in my health and fitness blog.
How fitting that Lizzo is on the cover of Women’s Health for National Wellness Month.
To be whole and well you don’t have to be rail-thin. Lizzo is living proof of this.
Let’s celebrate each other’s curves and verve. Today is the day to get loud and proud about our bodies and our selves.
We can’t afford not to. As the girls coming up after us are having their self-worth shredded viewing photo-perfect Influencer images on Instagram. We owe it to our nieces especially to model that loving yourself at any size is the way to go.
Last week I ordered with a 50 percent off code a matte pink Lancome Rouge tube.
The answer to the question: I won’t leave the house without: is lipstick. As an older woman I favor shades like red and violet and deep not pastel pink.
I firmly think you can face the world with your face even when you don’t apply a full face of makeup.
After a friend told me that I don’t need to wear foundation I gave up using it except for headshots.
On an ordinary day it’s a swipe of lipstick and a stripe of eyeliner for me. My favorite is a Sephora collection aubergine eyeliner.
Little touches can inspire awe. I recommend reading the book Joyful: The Surprising Power of Ordinary Things to Create Extraordinary Happiness.
We don’t need to charge a costly vacation that we can’t afford to pay off to rekindle from stress. Often the secret to our sanity is right nearby.
Lipstick isn’t the only colorful confidence booster and cheer inducer. Bringing home fresh flowers to keep in a vase on our dining table can elevate how we feel. Colorful flowers give off a positive vibration too.
The cost of replenishing a wilted bouquet with new blooms shouldn’t deter those of us who can afford the indulgence. Really I make the case for figuring out how to find the extra cash to buy flowers even on a lower income.
I checked the book above out of the library. The copyright date is 2022.
To encourage followers to buy the book I will quote from it:
“We want to keep hold because beauty is so often a porch light in the darkness.”
The author ends the book by talking about a new beauty that we define for ourselves. It is a form of self-care. We’re no longer trying to fit into the standard mold of beauty that those in power with authority have dictated to us as being the only form.
To end the book Ella Frances Sanders tells us: “The new beauty is radical because it allows us to love ourselves in spite of being told not to.”
Shame thrives in secrecy, silence, and judgment. What if each us could stand in the truth that we’re beautiful precisely because of our imperfections?
What if our greatest struggle was the very thing that is beautiful because we emerge wiser, stronger, and more capable of loving ourselves afterward?
Left of the Dial 