Miss Kelsey's Review

There's a Hole in my Sidewalk:

The Romance of Self-Discovery

By:  Portia Nelson

There are so many people who will spend hours trying to read a book about self-discovery...trying to learn more about themselves and how to take control of their life. There are so many times the world will love to see you crash and burn and never rise up again. It is still unknown why the world does this but we humans learn to adapt and try and rise from the ashes like a phoenix and try to be stronger than before.

But we need help, we need guidance and where do people turn to for that? Books. Books have always held the true knowledge one person needs to make it through this crummy hateful world. So they come into a library and check out every book about improving oneself and sometimes these books will go on for days talking about nothing, then something, then back to nothing at all. Most of the time you have no idea what you just read and feel even more down for you think you are too dumb to understand the information.

Don't feel too bad. Most of those books are from doctors who have made in through the crummy world and "thinks" they are better than you. So they fill up their books with weird jargon they know you will never understand but if the author has a MD or other letters at the end of their name people will assume they know what they are talking about and buy the book.

I've got some news for you......you are wasting your time. Oh sure, there might be a good book here or there from a doctor that went through some tough times but they still make it hard for you to understand. Try reading books by PEOPLE that went through the same situation, has the same financial situation as you do and is an actual human being, not someone who might or might not be true. And who better than to hear encouraging words than Portia Nelson!

You remember Portia Nelson, right? She was the tall Nun in The Sound of Music who didn't like Maria at all, but then helped Maria and her family escape at the end. Well, she wrote this book called There's a Hole in My Sidewalk. Interesting title don't you think? Well, here is the rest of the story:

"Chapter One

I walk down the street.

There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.

I fall in.

I am lost....I am helpless.

It isn't my fault.

It takes forever to find a way out.

Chapter Two

I walk down the same street

There is a deep hole in the sidewalk

I pretend I don't see it

I fall in again.

I can't believe I am in this same place.

But, it wasn't my fault

It still takes a long time to get out.

Chapter Three

I walk down the same street

There is a deep hole in the sidewalk

I see it is there

I still fall in....it's a habit...but,

my eyes are open

I know where I am

It is MY fault

I get out immediately

Chapter Four

I walk down the same street

There is a deep hole in the sidewalk

I walk around it

Chapter Five

I walk down another street"

Make sense? Of course it does. You keep doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result, all you going to do is "fall in the hole" and mostly likely it's the same hole that you just dug yourself out of. Sometimes it's a habit that is hard to break and you just keep falling in. The last two chapters are talking about how to see the trouble ahead, identifying the trouble before it happens and figure out that hey, there is actually a different option to take....like walk down another street.

Throughout the book Portia wrote poems about finding things out about yourself that you never thought of before. Since most people can relate to poems, that is the format that she used in this book. Let me tell you, there are so many things I found out in me that I never knew existed if it was for this book. She makes it so easy to understand, and she doesn't use words that you have to look up in the dictionary. She talks to you in the language that we all understand and she uses words that make you think twice of the meaning. Once you do, you will finally have that a-ha moment!!!