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Summary: A Book to Be Read at Many Stages of Life
Review: Personal and practical, this thought-provoking book offers a fundamental wisdom that draws you into a larger perspective on the subject of money - a perspective beyond the everyday.
Reading The Soul of Money, you can see the enormous influence that money has on all of us - from affecting our tiniest interactions to shaping who we are, the relationships we have, and how we live our lives.
Recalibrating your relationship with money is not just a one-time process. This is a book to read again and again at various stages of your life.
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Summary: The Soul of Lynne Twist
Review: Rusty Schweikart was the first man to walk in space. He had been tightly scheduled with activities each moment he was floating outside the command module in the late 60's. But at one point his camera jammed, and he was able to experience just being in space and circling the earth. Many of you may have seen the video he made from this remarkable experience called "No Frames No Boundaries."It took Rusty many years to digest and integrate this planetary experience and to realize the responsibilities he felt to mankind for the privilege he had been given. He came to call himself "a sensing element for mankind" (to know more about Rusty, his life and work http://www.well.com/~rs/ ). When I read "The Soul of Money: Transforming Your Relationship to Money and Life," I found that Lynne herself is also such a sensing element for mankind. She worked for several decades as the chief fundraiser (she's raised $150 million from individuals) for the Hunger Project, which has been a revolutionary effort far beyond what some of us may remember it for in its beginnings. In that role her travels have taken her all over the world--from Bangladesh to Ethiopia, from the Women's Conference in Bejing (where she reports some of the most poignant and heartbreaking stories you'll ever read) to South Africa and the installation of Nelson Mandela, although that story is not included. Lynne has been with the rich and famous. One of her great stories is her returning a $50,000 check from a corporate CEO because she realized it was guilt money. Read the book to find out what happened next! And, of course, she has been with the poor and apparently downtrodden. They have been her great teachers and inspiration for this book. They taught her how money can be blessed, how when it comes from love, appreciation, and intention--from the soul--it has power, it flows and it can transform lives. Where she has been on this planet, what she has seen, and how she has thought about it and integrated it into the soul of her being is the gift she gives back to us, her readers. Very few of us have had the opportunity to go where she has gone, to meet whom she has met, and to have contributed as much as she and her colleagues have to helping to end hunger and poverty on our fragile, blue orb, as Rusty first saw it. Lynne offers great guidance about how we can each be and be better philanthropists (the amount doesn't matter, but the intention and commitment surely do). But the core of the book (which many of us may already know) is a transformation from a "you or me" world to a "you and me." one. Buckminster Fuller first articulated that as the necessary condition we are challenged to make on spaceship Earth (also his articulation). He was someone who profoundly influenced Lynne. She leads us through the belief systems around scarcity (fear of not enough, push to always get more, resignation that it's just the way it is) to belief systems around sufficiency (there is always enough; turn our attention and appreciation to what we already have). Sufficiency becomes a more useful word than abundance. Creating a world of sufficiency (includes sustainability) is where we are headed together. The most compelling parts of the book are the stories she tells from around the planet about actually ending hunger and poverty. She shows that this change of belief systems (we actually do have enough most of the time; we can focus on and appreciate what we already have to get to where we want to go) along with love, understanding, and effective facilitation can get the job done. "The Soul of Money" adds the interior dimensions as a vital and necessary component to solutions to hunger and poverty. Lynne is herself a gifted and expert facilitator, and at the personal level the stories she shares of people who pull themselves out of poverty and lack are equally riveting. She concludes with a remarkable narrative about the last months of life of her mother, her first role model as a fundraiser and philanthropist. How Lynne assists her mother to fully complete her life is a wonderful offering to all of us with aging parents. "The Soul of Money" is about far more than just the soul of money. Lynne reveals her own soul, the souls of the rich and the poor, and the collective soul of which we all partake that holds the promise of a sufficient, just, and more peaceful planet. Just as Rusty Scheweikart took us around the whole earth from the outside, Lynne, gives us many inside views of the beauty and commonality which we share. She provides an outstanding, authentic, and worthy ride! --John Steiner
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Summary: This book can help us change the soul of our nation/world
Review: The Soul of Money is fully worth the praise it is getting and far more. Rooted in sufficiency and backed by moving stories situated throughout the world, this book will inspire you, enlighten you, give you hope, and certainly will make you cry. If this book can help those of us who have been siting on the fence looking for the motivation to invest our souls in the transformation of this world, join those who are engaged in this effort, I believe that we truly can change the world. I believe that Lynn's message is one to help move all of us into activism, whether it is quiet or out there. My personal commitment is to engage. Lynne asked me at her book signing during a conversation if I had invested in the Pachamama Alliance. I had been taking the newsletter but did not believe I was in a position to participate. I had to say no and I felt small knowing that I could have but did not participate. Oh I had my excuses, many of us do. I made a commitment to invest and I did. First a small donation to the Pachamama Alliance; then a visit to the adoption agency from which I was blessed with my little girl from India; next calls to NGO's working in the Telangana in India looking for ways to donate my time; and finally a commitment to bring Lynne to Yamhill County Oregon for a fundraiser, workshop and a book signing. Yes I am moving out of my comfort zone of non-action and it is based on Lynne and her inspiring message. Please read this book, yes, but more than that, please join me in taking action to transform our nation and world. Thank you Lynne for your great work though out the world and for funneling your experiences and insights into this great book.
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Summary: Soul of Money provides immediate personal value
Review: The Soul of Money provided immediate value for me and for my clients. I have already used the information in the book to impact my own and my clients relationships with money.
I am recommending this book for anyone who has to deal with money and is looking to be more powerful in the face of theirs and others finances.
Dianne Morrison
MorrisonMcNabb
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Summary: The Soul of Money lightened my load!
Review: The Soul of Money reads like a profound dialogue with a dear friend while walking barefoot on the beach. It was fun to read! Although my concerns and despair around the culture of money were validated, even more so were the values of my heart and soul. I was left feeling less burdened, more related and much lighter. Reading the book, it became apparent to me that I can contribute to a larger transformation by being true to myself. Everyone deserves the gift of reading this book.
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Summary: I love this book
Review: To read The Soul of Money is to sit down and have a memorable, life-altering conversation with an extraordinary, courageous, deeply thoughtful and committed soul. Lynne speaks intimately and passionately from each page. The book does a beautiful job of untangling the mess in which almost all of us have learned about money, and then offers important opportunities and challenges to each of us about ways to enrich our lives and those of all around us.
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Summary: Healing Through Collaboration and Sufficiency
Review: What a privilege to read such a work of art in a time when the healing of relationships is so vital. Lynne so beautifully expresses the deep interconnectedness we all share, not only with one another, but with money, and with the natural resources of our earth and within each one of us. Her passion to call each of us to an awareness that everything we do affects one another, and that the conscious choices we make each day greatly influence all people of the earth, not just our own personal lives, is so integral to the book's theme in understanding our relationship with money. Lynne eloquently uncovers some underlying assumptions we often make about competition, more is better, and that that's just the way it is. She shifts and dispells these myths creating a sense of hope for humanity through the lens of compassion, collaboration, sufficiency and community. Our reliance on one another and the acknowledgement of the gifts we each bring to our human community will reduce the chasm between the resourse wealthiest and poorest. The bridge to this healing will be found in spiritual wealth, through the development of human beings and each person's potential which will allow individuals to act as agents of change and authors of their own lives, rather than being dependent on the handouts of others. What a refreshing, empowering perspective on how each of us has the capacity to make global changes simply by changing our relationship with money. The Soul of Money will encourage readers to explore their relationship with money, and to discover how money can be a source of joy as one gets into the flow of money, rather than feeling the need to acquire and hoard it. The Soul of Money will impact readers on a very profound level.
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Summary: A remarkable and unique perspective. Life affirming!
Review: Wow! This is like no book about money that I have ever read, and I've certainly read my share. From her vast experiences travelling around the world, from the ghettos of Calcutta and Mother Teresa to high-level fundraising with CEO's and "movers & shakers" in the West, Ms. Twist looks deeply into the human needs that are associated with money. Not just the needs of human beings in what she calls "resource poor" (developing) countries, but the needs of people like me who have resources, abundant resources, but who still struggle with our relationship with money and its meaning in our lives. What I think impressed me most was that this book was fun to read, as well as informative and (dare I say) profoundly philosophical. Unlike many of the other books I've read about money, this one was much more experiential. Others take on the philosophy of money, while Twist seems to be sharing her experiences, truly remarkable experiences, with people all over the world, and then boiling them down to the lessons that she has learned in the decades of work that she's done working to end world hunger, empower women, save the rainforest, etc. This book is truly an amazing adventure because of the scope of her life's work. I think there's a depth because her message is authentically based on her experiences, not just of her ideas or thinking about the subject. As a result, I think that this book hits home. It speaks to us where we live, in terms of our relationship with money and the difference we can make. If you are interested in (as the sub-title says) "transforming your relationship with money and life," then this book is an opportunity not to be missed. I'm sure that I'm going to want to re-read it. Very highly recommended.
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