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Review The mark and the void – Paul Murray
26 March 2023

Review The mark and the void – Paul Murray

In his book ‘The mark and the void’ Paul Murray describes the exciting work in the financial district of Dublin, Ireland. Claude grew up in France, but decides to try his luck in Dublin at an investment bank. He works long hours, sitting at his desk and talking to clients. It seems like a rather dull story but nothing is further from the truth.

Claude

Claude has one goal in mind: To make money. The void that comes with it doesn’t seem to bother him much. He’s on his office, doing what he does best. He is well liked by his co-workers and his employer. Swiftly going to the top and beyond he doesn’t think about happiness. Then one day everything is about to change.

Author

Claude is approached by the out of luck author Paul. Paul sees a story in the life of Paul. He wants to write a novel about a ‘regular working guy’ and finds in Claude exactly the man to fill that role. Claude isn’t impressed and refuses to let Paul in. However, he keeps thinking about the offer and eventually he gives in.

Difference

Paul couldn’t be more different than Claude. Where Claude lets his mind dictate his life, Paul is impulsive and lets life take over from common sense. He is the perfect candidate to advise Claude about his love life, being married himself to a beautiful trophy wife. The problem is that Claude doesn’t have time for love. Unless, that pretty waitress in the restaurant he goes to after work fancies him. Or does he finally realize that his coworker Is has had a crush on him for a long time now?

Humor

The story is full of wit and humor. Surprising twists and laugh out loud dialogues make this book a fast read. Even when the bank finds itself in a financial crisis, it’s not as bad as it looks. Maybe Claude will finally realize that all his money can make him a pretty wonderful life without having to work for 18 hour days anymore.

Paul Murray

Paul Murray was born in Dublin, Ireland. His father was professor, his mother a teacher. In university Paul studied English literature and creative writing. After a job in Barcelona as an English teacher, something he didn’t enjoy at all, he decided to write. Since then all his books received high praise and many awards.

 

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Boeken

Visualisation
15 November 2022

Visualisation

What exactly is ‘visualisation’? The word is difficult as it is. We ‘see’ something in our mind and we want it to be true. It seems to work when you know how to visualize. I always kind of knew. I had a vague idea and when people much wiser than me tried to explain the process I could sort of understand.

Know what I mean?

Do you feel the same? I’m a day dreamer. I can go on many adventures without ever leaving the coach. Now, this is something different. Apparently when you only (day) dream of something it will never come true. We even have a saying in the Netherlands that dreams are false. And thinking back on what kind of dreams I’ve had I tend to believe this. Or at least hope this is true.

Dreams

Dreams can be totally out of focus. And I learn that by visualization that’s where the key is: Focus. Now does that mean it’s mediation? No, people tell me that’s something else entirely. In short, I always kind of pretended I knew what it was all about but frankly, didn’t have a clue.

Mike Dooley

Until I met Mike Dooley. Not in person, but through his ‘notes from te universe’ and his many wonderful workshops. He lives in Florida with his family and helps people all around the world to understand what we are dealing with in this life. By experience he promises us that visualisation actually and truly works. If you now how.

Four minutes a day

So I signed up for his workshop where he tells us how to use visualization for only 4 minutes a day, to make your goals and dreams come true. By ‘pretending’ they are real already. I use the word ‘pretend’ cautiously, ’cause ‘to pretend’ means it’s make-believe. And you truly, literally, need to believe. Not make-believe, not pretend, no, your goal and your vision need to be real.

Start

Anyway, I haven’t started yet, so I will probably come back to this as I go along. I’m curious and a bit sceptic as well. I’m interested and surely believe we can use our minds and spirits for much more than that we use them for in day-to-day life. Wonders still happen. And I’m ready.

Wonder

And talking about wonders: My good friend from Colorado texted me just yesterday that she’s planning to walk the Camino de Santiago next year. Could she stay with me before going on her walk, as part of her trip. I just couldn’t believe it. Without ever mentioning before we were interested in this same thing, I had planned to go on the same walk with a friend of mine from Holland. At the same time. Telepathy? Visualization? Who knows but it sure is fun. And that’s what life is supposed to be. Right? FUN.

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spiritualiteit

Better late than never
1 November 2022

Better late than never

Using to procrastinate I’m finally learning to tackle things right away. Especially things I worry about. This way, I am getting more and more in tune with life around me and within. I’ve been dreaming about walking a long-distance trail and after many, many years plans seem to materialize. Better late than never.

Friend

All due to a friend who’s a lot like me. We’ve been talking and talking about it and we even joined a gym at one point to make it happen. The training that is. To find ourselves sitting on the couch drinking wine in our training gear. Never even made it to the gym most times.

Fall

Als fall came upon us, we decided to turn a leaf ourselves. Might as well stay in the seasonal spirit. We are going to do it. We are going to walk the Camino to Santiago de Compostela. The whole way. Starting in France we will walk the 800 kilometers to the end in Spain. In 35 days.

Joke

Can we do this? We both agreed: No way! But that’s exactly why we would never even start. We listened to everyone around us telling us the same thing. You two? No way. We laughed but in the meantime we started to believe it would never happen. Until…

Until

We both read a very inspirational book. About two people starting to walk. They just took one step at a time and never stopped. They’re still walking.Yes, they’ve taken breaks in between their walks. But they just decided at one point they were going to do it and let nothing and nobody stand in their way.

Easy, peasy

Sounds easy. It wasn’t. And we are well aware of the fact that we are going to be in pain. That we will probably cry a lot. But we can also imagine the personal victory of making this dream come true. Of walking way beyond our imagination and f… any boundaries we set for ourselves all our lives.

Training

Walkin 25 kilometers every day for more than 30 days seems doable. Not without training however. So, we’ve started to go to the gym and not waste our memberships anymore. Since we are dead tired after 6 kilometers, we still have a way to go. That’s why we set our goal on September 2023. We must be fit enough by then to actually make it all the way.

Goal

And you know what? Setting this goal is extremely powerful. Already we’ve changed. We are already letting go of prejudice and of thoughts of failure. Of course we will. And we will show everybody, but most of all we will show ourselves that we can do anything we set our minds to. Even if it is late.

 

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spiritualiteit