Welcome to another issue of Inspiration from a Blind from ShirleyCheng.com!
I hope you are doing well as you read my words. I had been ill for the past several days. My eyes, nose, and throat were being attacked by the common cold virus and my severe allergies, so needless to say, I looked like a little red-eyed monster. But I was thankful that it was just a cold and that I was warm in my cozy room, not in a gloomy hospital room where I had been for years.
Thinking back to those old days often make me feel triumphant and grateful...grateful that I'm still here, grateful to have such a wonderful mother to love and care for me, and grateful for my existence.
If there were an option to turn back time, would I choose to do so? I shake my head. In spite of all the high mountains I have had to climb, I have arrived at each and every top. I have conquered thorny jungles and fiery seas and come out with stars in my arms. I relished the taste of victory each and every time I battled and won. If there were no challenges in life, how could I name myself a victor? If there were no darkness, how could the stars appear so bright?
So, I love life and all it has to offer. I embrace my existence with my whole heart and soul—because if I weren't alive, how could I enjoy the pleasure of smiling, laughing, and all the other sweetness of life?
Thus, please cherish life and what you have (I can't stress that enough). Hold on to the happy moments because when they're gone, they're gone forever.
In three weeks, on May 30, I will be a guest on Calling All Authors radio show with Valerie Connelly at 8:00 p.m. EDT. Don't worry if you miss the live show, for it will be archived. Please go to http://www.shirleycheng.com to tune in to the show; the information is listed under News Flash.
I was thrilled to receive five-star Amazon reviews for two of my books from the same reviewer, Rebecca Johnson from The Rebecca Review, who is Amazon's top five reviewer, and they are below:
Dance with Your Heart: Tales and Poems That the Heart Tells
"Imaginative and original..."
"The exquisite, vast blackness stretched endlessly across the celestial heavens; a blackness that would penetrate anyone's soul who was to take in its darkness. But if one looked very carefully, one could suddenly see a single spark forming amidst the caliginous atmosphere." ~pg. 63
Shirley Cheng presents poetry and creative original stories as an expression of her life's experience, dreams and at times stunning observations of life's complexity. Stories of dandelions, rainbows, gods and goddesses and oceans all explore creative explanations for natural phenomena. In "Seeking the Truth" she explores inner and outer beauty and then in "Fiery Passion" she writes beautifully about dances of fire.
In "We Should Have Listened!" Shirley Cheng shows an advanced understanding of human nature and consequence:
A heavenly garden, You gave us
To be in with You forever
Yet, it was not enough
We should have listened
The poetry and myths alternate throughout the book, creating a nice contrast between magical imaginings and portraits of life and love. I enjoy the descriptions in the stories that seem to reflect a purity of soul and may mirror an inner world that serves as a playful freeing experience where anything is possible and goddesses paint images into life.
"Being a goddess, everything she painted came to life..."
Children will enjoy the "Funny Animal Poem" and many of the stories could be read to children. Shirley Cheng also writes about ghosts in a story you might want to read on a dark night when the wind is howling around the house.
The poem I loved the most was "Things I Wish For:"
"I want to be loved, never against, always for
Where the truth is never untold
Sentiments with meanings that stretch everlasting
Words are gentle, sweet, and kind
Not a harsh tone can be heard
Memories refreshing as cool, running streams"
Reading Dance with Your Heart is a soul cleansing experience and explores the dreams, imaginings and longings of a beautiful soul.
And for The Revelation of a Star's Endless Shine: A Young Woman's Autobiography of a 20-Year Tale of Trials & Tribulations
"Triumph over creativity..."
"She was running toward a glistening stream with fish of all colors flying out of the water. With laughter escaping her lips, she chased a white butterfly amidst the green field of wildflowers. Her black hair glowed with a halo of brightness, with sunrays dancing about her. The blue sky was accentuated by a shimmering rainbow..." ~pg. 116
Shirley Cheng is the author of Dance with Your Heart: Tales and Poems That the Heart Tells. She is a highly imaginative writer who has access to beautiful inner worlds where she creates mythological tales and beautiful stories.
In "The Revelation of a Star's Endless Shine" we are able to access an extremely detailed portrait of 700 pages explaining Shirley Cheng's life and how she became a writer. As if observing her life as an angelic protecting presence, she writes of her life's struggles and challenges she faces due to many people in her life seeming to show a general insensitivity to her condition.
As a child she is diagnosed with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, but this is only the beginning of a long journey filled with therapies and medications, not to mention medical complications due to medication side effects. As Shirley Cheng seeks to make sense of why certain medical problems keep occurring, she faces life with a refreshingly honest and hopeful approach.
"Picking up a book, Shirley began to enter into a different world, a world that she could escape to from her surroundings. After the first quarter, she had begun to increase her reading and writing volume. She read three books a day, averaging five to six hundred pages." ~pg. 375
After spending the entire morning reading Shirley's work out on my deck in the sun, I can recommend anyone to do the same. This is a world where you can not only view the outer struggles of the poet's life, the inner world is also revealed in creative flourishes I started to look forward to finding throughout the writing:
"The strong wind whirled, bringing dancing flakes in its invisible arms, equally distributing a thin layer of snow to other places of the frozen land. Small spheres of shimmering, crystalline flowers alighted upon the earth from their silvery home above, while the sun slept peacefully below the horizon..." ~pg. 6
Last but not least, don't forget about the self-improvement book I co-authored with several bestselling authors and top experts, including Jack Canfield, John Gray, Bob Proctor, Alan Cohen, and Richard Carlson. The book, 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2, comprises of articles or short chapter from 101 expert authors to help you achieve a better and happier life in the areas of self-growth, goal setting, motivation, love and relationships, business success, career development, and much more.
