Blue Wolf Reviews

Tag: boundaries

  • Rebalance: How Women Lead, Parent, Partner and Thrive (Resetting Our Future)

    Rebalance: How Women Lead, Parent, Partner and Thrive (Resetting Our Future)

    During the COVID pandemic many people were forced into making some serious changes in their lives. Women were almost immediately thrust into a world vastly different to their daily lives, taken out of boardrooms, offices, careers and their own business to become home school parents and much more.

    Both men and women found themselves floundering in a sea of unknown quantities and for many, they discovered they simply had to take stock of not just their lives, but their career pathway. Many were for the first time, spending longer with their children and spouse than perhaps ever before and realised that one of the most important aspects of their lives was family.

    How to change, to be able to manage the massive variations that that entered their and many others lives, was something Monika Brand Engel, Lisa Neuberger Fernandez and Wendy Jagerson Teleki all women of high standing in the Corporate world, all three mothers and wives, needed to take on board and look at a positive way forward, not just for them but for the many others who were, in their words, ‘forced to take stock’.

    They began writing Rebalance at the beginning of the pandemic, eventually concluding the book as there was some hopeful evidence that life was returning to what is now called the ‘new normal’.

    Their findings have created a new respect for the role of the working mother, the very real need in people’s lives of establishing boundaries, listening, setting up networks to both support and encourage, and having a voice to be able to challenge long held assumptions about the woman’s role in the modern world.

    Empowering, encouraging and full of wonderful tips on what to do and not to do, Rebalance: How Women Lead, Parent, Partner and Thrive is a long overdue book for not just women in business, but women who work in any form of enterprise world-wide.

  • The Smash-Up

    The Smash-Up

    None of us go through life without some struggle and hardships. The struggles portrayed in The Smash Up, as narrated by Ethan, mirror many familiar problems that we often face. This is to do with the development of his family, the growth of their identity, and how he and they cope with the changes.

     Ethan was a dynamic businessman whose partner often overstepped the ethical boundaries of his profession, which were an agents and promoters of actors. The two men managed their agency until Ethan decided to move with his wife Zoe and daughter, Alex.

    Their move to Starkfield gives rise to a new era in their lives. Alex attends Rainbow Seed School; an expensive Private school which they hope will cope with her energy. Zoe focusses less and less on her film writing commitments, and Mandy, a house help moves in with them.

    For Zoe, the discovery of a group of women called “The Witches,” begins her transformation. Social Justice is their passion, and they mean to make their voices heard loudly. Ethan watches on, while Mandy a free-spirited young woman looks after Alex. She fascinates Ethan with her unhindered views of life.

    The tension builds as the story unfolds. However, can this family resolve the issues of change before too much damage is done? The Smash Up is not a book for the faint hearted as the sadness, the desperation feels very real, and resolutions do not come without pain. This is indeed a dislocated tale.

  • The Joy of Being Selfish

    The Joy of Being Selfish

    Why you need boundaries and how to set them!

    Michelle Elman is a life coach, who has over 3.000 followers on her social media site. She claims to be able to help you rid your life of drama and toxic relationships which will allow you to love yourself and others in the best way you can. The introduction to the book The Joy Of Being Selfish (when usually you settle back to get a feel of the contents) has quite a few eyebrow raising, Ah ah moments, certainly more than enough of them to make it desirable to continue.

    Michelle explains easily that by setting boundaries, we get our needs met first, without help from others, and once this has occurred we are ready to face challenges independently. We are free to reach out to others, secure in the knowledge that our safety barriers are set.

    In my generation we were taught to place others’ needs before our own which helps or encourages the idea of avoiding the thought and planning that needs to go into living a fulfilling life. Elman feels it is necessary to be selfish, reorder your priorities and make loving yourself your own job.

    Looking at the list to be considered, we find many questions with a true or false answer. If you answer true to such things as, “I find it hard to voice my opinions when I disagree with someone,” this book is definitely for you. The difference between building a wall and a boundary is quite explicit, and advice is given on how to build this. What Elman wants you to avoid is, “Closing you off to the world, keeping everyone out, and decisions made from fear or anger.”

    Michelle Elman, writing simply and explicitly, has outlined clearly how to go about setting your own boundaries and personalising the process. Despite its challenging title, The Joy Of Being Selfish is an important book for those who want to reflect on their own position in life.

  • Ethereal II

    Ethereal II

    Although this flow-on album to Ethereal I could be considered as something of an improv collection of works created by Kevin Kastning, Sandor Szabo and Balazc Major playing in a highly eclectic jam session it is far more; it is a very measured, finely designed and composed work, which as with much of Kastnings’ composing does not fit easily into any one category.

    The album has a certain delicacy of sound which has been beautifully sculptured in the first piece Arrival (Second Recall) a 10:23 sec soundscape, which delicately pushes the boundaries of percussive sound defined by guitar, underpinned with percussion, making this a perfect vehicle for reflective meditation. This may seem a little too far out there as the work could be considered as seriously pure jazz, but it vibration works well on the transcendental level.

    The hollow void of space without shape or form has been captured to perfection, seconds before the deep bass notes of the piano strike with precision changing the elements to the unbeknown and unforeseen depths of Ethereality II. When followed by Supernal Vapor, a more definitive percussive piece, featuring the 36- string contra guitar designed and perfected by Kastning, the work broadens in perspective encouraging the mind to relax and enjoy the rare, timeless beauty of classic sound waves.

    For those who understand the value and intrigue of portals as a component of life’s multilayered spirituality, Portals I and Portals II listened to either individually or as a collective sound journey, make the perfect accompaniment to serious transcendental meditation as the pieces are once again measured, inviting and intriguing.

    In the final composition a drum roll, followed by gentle tapping sets the stage for Third Departure, an intriguing title to say the least, and an intriguing piece to complement the title, highlighting the meshing of musicians at the pinnacle of their discipline: Kastening on contra-guitar, Sandor Szabo on guitar and Balazc Major on percussion.

    As a freewheeling, improve style of music from this combination of talent the work is sharp, precise, and stunning in its simplicity and yet the complex nature of construction develops as a rich, multitextured soundscape to be enjoyed to the fullest.