I have listened to this book on Audio, but also own it in paperback because one cannot have too many copies of this book. It is designed to be savored slowly, day by day. Reading the daily excerpts is like opening a little gift of peaceful, mindful reflection that quietly balances your mind. I wish the whole world could have this book - it is that wonderful and special.

I have not read the entire book...yet. I read the Introduction, the Forward and discovered it is a Day Book with readings and mindfulness/introspective exercises for each individual day of the year. I read several days and have added it to my short list of books to purchase in hardback.

Based on what I have read of it, I cannot imagine there are very many people who would not benefit from reading and doing the exercises in this book. And frankly, the better we know ourselves the better we can determine our own lives.

I need to make a shelf for the books that I want to own one day. I might start with this book. I borrowed it from the library but three weeks isn't nearly enough time to delve into all this book could teach me. It's laid out as a daily journal thing with little short stories to help guide you on your journey. If I owned it I'd use it as a daily meditation tool.

December 2020: I've read this daily three years in a row now. I still find wisdom every day.

I’ve not completed it and though the writing was thought provoking I’ve been moving in a new direction with meditation and the writing was no longer facilitating or reflecting on my process but rather distracting from it. I may pick it up at another time as the writing was lovely, but for now, and likely for a long time to come, this is being shelved as read. I had been using it as something to reflect on for my meditation and perspective and had read a good portion of it but having experienced a significant shift in both those areas the book is no longer engaging me.

This is the best daily meditation book I have ever read. Love it!

I always like the idea of reading a small passage each day and spent my year with The Book of Awakening. although it has been a popular book (thanks to Oprah, and has a forward by Jamie Lee Curtis) it was not my favourite book. There were sprinkles of wisdom and really thought provoking sections but a lot of it was dull and parts focused on religion which is not for everyone. I appreciate that the author has had a struggle in his life but felt like continuing to mention his poor relationship with his parents did not help me to reflect on the words in his book.

Despite the 2 star, I resonated with a lot of the messages this book carries: the call for living a life with mindfulness, cherishing the moment-to-moment flow, letting feelings flow past our bodies and releasing... all the things that I strive to remind myself. Some passages did flow very naturally and beautifully into my heart. However I don't resonate with the writing, or how Nepo delivers his messages. A lot of calling for actions, sometimes overly sentimental, that are hollow deep down. Live a fuller life, he said, open your heart and body to whatever emotions that come through, he said. But how? How am I supposed to do that? How did he do that, could he show us? To me, full, details, and connecting narratives send a much more powerful message than mere slogans. Perhaps had he used more examples that walk readers through how he arrived at these feelings and thoughts, I would have had seen him more full and whole.

I start every morning with an inspiration from this book. I take the time I need to reflect on the daily passage and have found it to be a way of learning about the real person I am. I have been searching for inner peace for so long , this book has helped me to meditate on the important things to make my life and my inner self more complete and at peace. I love this book and want to give everyone I know a copy.

I was a bit reserved at the beginning when I first read the title of the book. It sounds like so many of „self-help“ books with pretentious titles that don't actually tell you anything and are way to repetitious. I had PDF format so I just scrolled through it, nothing to lose, eh…and I'm glad I did it. Written in form of daily meditations to coincide with the calendar, I was stunned with author's use of language and insight on everyday mundane things we often take for granted. Author is cancer survivor and poet, so everything he learns through his illness and hardships is inside the book, and all the time while reading, you have the feeling like you're talking to a friend (there are some exercises at the end of each chapter/day so you reflect on them if you wish). I couldn't stop reading once I started and will definitely order a copy to read it in future.

“We waste so much energy trying to cover up who we are when beneath every attitude is the want to be loved, and beneath every anger is a wound to be healed and beneath every sadness is the fear that there will not be enough time.

When we hesitate in being direct, we unknowingly slip something on, some added layer of protection that keeps us from feeling the world, and often that thin covering is the beginning of a loneliness which, if not put down, diminishes our chances of joy.

It’s like wearing gloves every time we touch something, and then, forgetting we chose to put them on, we complain that nothing feels quite real. Our challenge each day is not to get dressed to face the world but to unglove ourselves so that the doorknob feels cold and the car handle feels wet and the kiss goodbye feels like the lips of another being, soft and unrepeatable.”

This bòok was so wonderful that I read it in 3 months versus the intended 12 months! It is a true treasure!