Do You Love Your Life?

“If you knew you only had a year to live, how would you live it?”

– Jennifer Barclay, “Falling in Honey”

Have you ever dreamed of packing up and moving to a Greek Island?

Author Jennifer Barclay did just that and shares her experience in her book, “Falling in Honey, Life and Love on a Greek Island.” A delight to read, Falling in Honey charts Jennifer’s journey of following her dream and moving to the tiny Greek island of Tilos.

Now for me, I find that whatever book I happen to be reading at any given time will often shape what I happen to be experiencing in my own life — usually by shifting my perspective in some way. So it was with “Falling in Honey,” which I was reading (years ago) during a not-whatsoever-dreamy Christmas vacation (see The Christmas the Wheels Came Off) in my home on not-so-tiny Vancouver Island.

When I collapsed into bed (my couch rather) at night and read a chapter or two of “Falling in Honey,” I could temporarily put on the back burner the fact that my gravely ill dog was in emergency and my immobile, demanding and oddly hungry mother was in my bed. But escaping one’s reality can only go so far.

For while reading about tzatziki and spanikopita, warm sandy beaches and refreshing swims in the sea soothed my soul during a very frazzling time, it also got me thinking about…well, about thoughts — and just how important a role they play in determining whether…