A Plentiful Harvest

A Plentiful Harvest

Balance and Harmony Through the Seven Living Virtues

By Katie Smith

A Plentiful Harvest: Creating Balance and Harmony Through the Seven Living Virtues by Terrie Williams is fantastic if you have the time. The book is kind of like a self-help book. It’s meant to be read week to week and you are supposed to do journaling as well. Going through the different chapters, the journaling would definitely be beneficial to a person’s life and career. Having to go over the book in less than four months is a little too much to handle for one class. I’ll definitely keep the book and do the year’s worth of reflection and journaling once this class is over.

The story Terrie Williams tells about how she had a successful career, but wasn’t happy and how she changed that is good for students to hear. She found a Kwanzaa card on her bedroom floor and it reminded her of the principles of Kwanzaa that she liked. Williams created her “Seven Living Virtues” based on those Kwanzaa principles. The “Seven Living Virtues” are calling, responsibility, thrift, love, community, spirituality and creativity.

In the first few weeks, you do exercises to reveal your true calling and purpose. It continues on with responsibility and so on with the rest of the virtues. Doing the exercises and journaling for the entire book would definitely be 52 weeks of growth and change. I look forward to being able to work through every single week of this book and hopefully 52 weeks later, I will be on my way to a happier and more abundant life.

Reap & Sew

Book: A Plentiful Harvest: Creating Balance and Harmony Through the Seven Living Virtues

Author: Terrie Williams

Length: 324 pages

Publisher: Warner Books, Inc.

Price: $17.99

Reap & Sew by Allie Bauman

“When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left and could say, “ I used everything you gave me.” – Erma Bombeck

photo produced by barnesandnoble.com

In her book, A Plentiful Harvest, Terrie Williams provides guidance to living a happy, fruitful life. Her motivation behind this book was based on her previous experiences. She was determined to write down her discoveries of the Seven Living Virtues for others to follow as they journey to a more fulfilled life.

Terrie Williams is the Founder and President of Terrie Williams Agency. She represents celebrity clients such as Eddie Murphey and has authored several other books. Terrie Williams received The New York Women in Communications Matrix Award in Public Relations along with many other awards. Her success and life story have been an inspiration to many in the field of Public Relations. For this reason, she is often asked to speak at events.  

photo produced by blackenterprise.com

“What you tolerate, you will never change.” – Rick Godwin 

When purchasing this book, the reader must take the time to go through it week by week and journal. If one follows the guidelines and takes time to reflect on the readings, it can do wonders for that “burnt out” feeling. I think that this book can apply to all religions, cultures, and backgrounds.  The Seven Living Virtues helps to remind one that it is okay to take time for yourself.

  I was able to relate to Terrie Williams in several ways because she was also in the health field before she discovered the world of Public Relations. I found her words to be genuine, inspiring, and calming. I also  enjoyed the quotes that she provided in each chapter. 

I recommend this book to anyone who is searching for more out of life. 

Swimming in Analogies

By: Laila Wani

Each time I go home and visit my family, I get some advice. Though I am past the age where it’s not “cool” to listen to your parents, sometimes I still think I know better. And those thoughts are inevitably followed by the parental version of I told you so: “I guess you wanted to learn from your own mistakes.”

            Learning by doing. Not the craziest of ideas, but something our parents would like to save us from. Instead they want us to heed their warnings. While reading “First You Have To Row A Little Boat” by Richard Bode, I was reminded of my mother. Unlike Bode, my mother taught my sisters and me numerous lessons. The book reads like a letter of sorts. He has a list of regrets, ones that maybe he thought could be rid of by writing this book.

            Bode was a Public Relations writer for nearly 20 years, before he decided to make the beach his new home. Here the aspiring poet began writing books that gave life lessons. It is abundantly clear that the Bode had salt water flowing through him as he wrote “First You Have To Row A Little Boat.”

           As the book progresses, it is heavy with sailing references. Just in the first chapter, he compares the deaths of his parents to, “a colossal storm, an irreversible wind that changed my destiny,’ (p. 3). Bode’s dedication to the analogy is admirable, but at times unnecessary.

            This book is for those like Bode, lovers of the open water. I prefer to keep my feet dry and to stay on steady land. The constant comparison of life to the open water did not register with me. But if you yearn an adventure on the sea, this might be the book for you. 

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