GREAT read

A very loooong time ago I promised i'd blog about this book I read...and just LOVED! I'm a Dolly Parton fan..always have been,always will be! You don't often find a 'celebrity' so down to earth,so real,someone proud of where they came from and grateful for where they are now. A celebrity that actually is proud to speak of her faith and values the importance of marriage and working at it! I love her music,love her quotes and just really love her views. I read her book "My Life and Other Unfinished Business" and would highly recommend it..its a great read. Its interesting,spiritual AND funny! In this post I will share my very favorite quotes and thoughts from the book...then go ahead and find it and read it.....I'm not being paid to tell you to get it and read it...I just REALLY think you'll like it!
My very favorite quote in the book is a line from a Dolly song : "No amount of money could buy from me the memories that I have of then;But no amount of money could pay me to go back and live it through again."
[Now to switch gears for but a moment...the reason I love this quote so very much is it reminds me of the days when our youngest little man was born....just yesterday he celebrated his 6th birthday! I cant believe he is 6!!! I remember when he was born like it was yesterday. It was a day of such mixed emotions...happy to see him,but so sad to watch him fight for his life...such a small little boy but such a fighter! Anyway those days of driving back and forth so many miles to see him everyday were so emotionally and financially hard ,but so rewarding just the same . It has changed who I am and who Matt is and who we are as a family...I wouldn't want it to be different ,but you sure couldn't pay me to go through that all again...NO WAY!]
One of my most favorite funny parts she says "My life has been far better than it's been bad. I've had heartaches ,headaches ,toothaches, earaches,and I've had a few pains in the ass; but I've survived to tell about it." ha I think most can say the same...well said!
Another of my favorite funny parts,I think I like most because she talks 'real' and honest and it is true to life, we know our priorities but we mix them up at times.....to quote "All my life I have been driven by 3 things; 3 mysteries I wanted to know more about; 3 passions. They are God, music,and sex. I would like to say that I have listed them in the order of their importance to me,but there pecking order is subject to change without warning. In my heart of hearts, I always know that God comes first. But in my body of bodies,some urges can be absolutely irresistible. For the moment ,since I am writing and am therefore primarily a spiritual being, I will try to deal with them in their rightful order."
OK a few more things(I promise..I don't want this post to go on foe eveah!)

I love this part because my grandfather wrote a letter to my grandmother to be read after his passing that said "we will be together again in paradise" not sure why but I guess I had never heard the term before..I mean heaven being referred to as paradise (one would think I would have after all those years in christian school...maybe I was daydreaming that day...anyway). I love the term how true that heaven is the only real actual paradise:-) Now back to the point...Dolly says" I'm on the road to paradise." "The longer I live, the more apparent it becomes to me that paradise is not a goal at the end of the road, but the road itself. As a believer, I know that the true paradise awaits me in the next life. But I also believe that it is each persons right,and in fact his duty, to try to come as close as he can get to it in this life."
"The journey is on a road, not a highway. We don't travel this road in a fine car. We walk it each step of the way with the dust of the rugged road clinging to our bare feet. Although we seldom realize it at the time,that dust is more precious to us than gold dust. It is the dust of experience, of error, and forgiveness, of risk and reward. "
Really ,I am almost finished:-)....I told you I really liked this book.....
This is reeeally the end,the end of this post AND the book ..she says "The most important verse in the bible to me is "Now abideth faith,hope and love. The greatest of these is love". Faith , hope,and love are the 3 most important words in my life. I believe it is faith that helps you achieve those things you hope for and that love is the reason for all of it."
As I said I thought this was a great read, I plan in time to even re-read it..there are a lot of great messages,and true some gossip and humor as well,which in my mind = a great book:-)
woooooosh,long winded,soory about that!