Falling in Love with Where You Are: A Year of Prose and Poetry on Radically Opening Up to the Pain and Joy of Life

Been a "seeker" all my life. Listened, read, attended everything that would bring me to that point of stillness or enlightenment or awareness or the vortex. You name it and that still wouldn't be the half of it. To say I was "obsessed" with getting things right is like saying a person who has gone without drink in a desert for 2 days would have been fine with a sip. I wanted to know it all and BE it all. Whatever ALL was. There was just so much pain (most of it ignored or denied or battled against). Life's uncertainties drove me crazy. I wanted guarantees. I wanted to fix me, my kids, my husband, my life ... the world ... everything. All this 'neath the guise of optimism and positivity because it was the only way I knew how do deal with the grating din that filled my head even in my sleep. I had to focus on the bright side of things best I could just to keep it together.And then came along Jeff Foster's book. FALLING IN LOVE WITH WHERE YOU ARE. I didn't fall the first time. It was like a courtship. I would come back to it every now and again. I would resonate with something then be frightened by another. A poem or an entry would make complete sense and it would be like "I get it"! and then the next would confuse me so much I'd have to put the book down.But that's just it, you see. THIS dance. This accepting, the resistance, the fear, the voilas, the pain, the joy, the whole gamut of emotions... that's it! All of it! That's who we are. The knowing and not knowing. It's all fine. He says we can't get it right cos we can't get it wrong. All of this is YOU. And it's okay to be this big ball of confusion. What this book gave me in a nutshell is that we are a vast ocean and we cannot be separated from the different waves that move within us. The calm one, the raging ones, the tsunamis. They are all a part of the amazing ocean that we are. We just have to let them move. We just have to learn to breathe with every wave that comes in and sit with it; float in it; ride it; even drown in it (and learn to breathe underwater I suppose). We get to choose.Thank you, Jeff Foster, for this gift.

Love this book! Read an entry every morning as part of daily reflection on gratitudes and intention setting. Just finished 2nd year of doing this and likely to repeat next year. My only disappointment was that there aren’t actually enough entries for each month to read a new one each day. This led me to go back and reread. The result was finding new and deeper meaning. What a gift. Thanks, Jeff!

Savoring every moment spent with this book ... like spending time with a dear, wise friend who gives you all the space and compassion you need to just be where you are. Reading it slowly, deliberately ... like taking a cool sip of water on a hot day. Letting the words fall softly ... letting the truth wash over me like a gentle rain, or when needed, like a hurricane. I can envision reading this book again and again. I keep it on my night table and read from it before I go to bed. Then I let it go and fall asleep, knowing that my dreams will lead me beyond the words, to the place where I am ... now ... always. Thank you, Jeff Foster. Your book appeared at the very moment I needed it most. I am so grateful.

Too many times in our spiritual journeys, we look outside ourselves for the answers to life's questions. Jeff Foster in this book gently and lovingly guides us back to the power, wisdom and beauty that resides within us. He also asks us to trust that life is unfolding perfectly, even when it appears not to be. One of my favorite essays in the book, entitled, "When The Ground Falls", asks us, "What happens when, just for a moment, we actually take the radical and unexpected step of saying yes to the uncertainty, the doubt, the confusion, the pain, the heartbreak?...Can it be okay, just for a moment, to not have the answers...Perhaps our lives cannot go 'wrong' at all."Jeff's writing is thought-provoking, deep and inspiring. This is a book that I will re-read for years to come, and it will have a permanent place on my bookshelf.

A page a day keeps you awake to your real life in wonder. Examples of snippets: “Let life kick you off your pedestal time and time again, until you lose all interest in being on pedestals.” “Learn to love the mess of your life . . its unpredictability. . . . stand in the wide open space in which joy and pain, ecstasy and agony, boredom and bliss, can arise and subside like waves in the ocean.” “Stress is the tension between ‘what is’ in this moment, and your image of how this moment should be.” “Speak your deepest truth, even if it means losing everything . . . A life of lies and half-truths, the burden of unspoken things, will eventually suffocate you and everyone around you.” This book was deeply nurturing to me.

I put off buying this because, really, I've read a ton of non-dual books and, even though I am aware that non-duality is my path, reading about it is getting to be same-ole-same-ole. As I began reading this one, I thought I had probably wasted my money: "Yeah, I know that. Yeah, yeah. More of the same." But after a few pages, I realized that something that I couldn't define was shifting inside of me. Aha! Jeff was getting past my brain and speaking to my heart. This book IS different. Or perhaps it's effect has more to do with where I'm at than the words. Most likely, it is a combination of both. Anyway... I'm going to reread my other Foster books, for sure.

Every time I turn the page I read something else that’s inspiring. Love this book

Highly Recommended! 6 Stars if I could give it! This book is one of the best books I have EVER read on spirituality, and I've read and studied countless books and courses. Jeff is a master at using just the right words to give amazing clarity to a simple subject that most people find incredibly difficult and complicated. Stop everything else you're reading right now and read this book. It will help you understand everything you've read up until now and help you understand everything you'll ever read about spirituality and reality in the future. In fact, you may not have to read any more books after this one. It's message is simple and profound. All truth is.

I've read many books on spirituality and consciousness, some resonate with me, others don't... This is the first book I've read by Jeff Foster and it's one of my favourites!It's a must read for anyone on the inner journey home, there's something for everyone here! Just reading this allows you to simply stop, breath, be where you are and enjoy every moment. Reading these words you realise how precious everything is, how precious every person and every moment is.I'll definitely be reading more of Jeff Foster's work.

Wow. Thankyou so much Jeff for the most beautiful, open book clearly written from your heart. So humbling, freeing and real.

Some very heartfelt messages about how we approach the pain and joy in our lives. Brilliant gift for a friend going through a hard time, which is more or less all of us at some point in our lives ......

Was introduced to this book by my yoga teacher. Full of wisdom and inspiration in short bites. Great for a daily contemplation and I run retreats so it will become a great resource for readings to spark inquiry.

Beautiful book by Jeff Foster bringing us into the present moment and considering how we might rest there by simply dropping all attachment to thoughts which arise....dropping names....simply feeling pure awareness. Filled with love, light and tenderness.