Review: Great Guidance in the Journey towards Personal Fulfillment
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 04 29, 2013
In UP THE DOWN LADDER, Dolores Ayotte reflects on her own lifelong learning, and aided with a great literary knowledge--as evident by the extensive bibliography at the end of the book--she offers the best, most compassionate advice for getting out of the rut. She does it with faith in the human spirit, and in the most gentle, tender way, which allows you to open up to her, and take it in.With great understanding she encourages you, as a first step, to honestly admit what you are experiencing. Is it your job that is causing you grief? Is there an imbalance in the relationship between the husband and wife, particularly as they compare the sharing of family duties? In every difficulty you experience, the author suggests the first step in your journey toward personal fulfillment: instead of just spinning your back wheels, it is wiser to make some smaller life altering changes in order to get out of your negative situation. She proposes an honest question-and-answer session with yourself, to pinpoint the problem areas in your life and focus attention on finding a solution.By design, each chapter begins and ends with a quote, both of which crystallize the ideas she has expressed here, and allows you to linger on them, to taste the words and with them, take yourself a step forward. The quotes also suggest that the wisdom here is more than one single woman, but rather the careful channeling of aggregate sagacity, belonging to many writers and philosophers. My personal favorites: Chapter 1, Little Things, ends with "Put the uncommon effort into the common task... make it large by doing it in a great way." Chapter 5, Dare to Dream, opens with "The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams."Five Stars.