Carolyn of Kansas — a wife, mom, grandma, friend, niece, co-worker, VBS director, and church secretary who also (somehow) manages to find time to produce A Prairie View — recommends the wise and wonderful Worn Out Woman:When Your Life is Full and Your Spirit Is Empty by Dr. Steve Stephens & Alice Gray.  Among its telling chapter headings: “Telling Your Story:, “Shoulds and Oughts”, “Time for a Change”, “Playing to your Strengths”, “The Secret of Simplicity” and “The Gift of Forgiveness.”  “This book’s authors encourage us and want to inspire us, the reader, because they believe there is hope,” Carolyn says, as she shares the ups and downs of her own journey in an insightful and personal blog.

A little while back, Brent at Poignant Irrelevance posted an inspiring that Tales of Slow, Brave Athena found so, um, poignant that she decided to “steal” it and repost. Susie at Finally Running wanted to spread the love too, which led to Rose at Hit The Ground Running reprinting Brent’s bit of genius as well. And, well, we liked Brent’s words so much that we’re going to join in the stealing game right now. Quoth he:

“As i walked by countless airport shops with junk food oozing from the counters, i just thought to myself, you know what? feed the goal. don’t complicate this. if you want to run another marathon, if you want to train pain-free with two good knees for the rest of your life, feed the goal.

“keep walking past that crap and chew some gum. feed the goal. that is my new mantra for the summer. very simple. focus on the goal, and feed it appropriately. both must be in sync.”

Evelyn Rodriguez is one of those people you just have to meet sometime. She was clearly born to blog, and we are the beneficiaries. Even her blog bio is intriguing: “I feel equally at home in Silicon Valley (also known as Santa Clara County, California, USA) speaking geek, pitching a venture capitalist, meditating in Marin County at a breathwork workshop, in Guatemala studying the language and living with a local family, or chatting with Nicholas the Vietnam vet vagabonding in the parking lot behind the local coffee shop.” Her Crossroads and Dispatches blog covers everything from day-to-day life in Marin County to her experience as a survivor of the Thailand tsunami to the joys and challenges of meditation in the modern Silicon Valley. She goes places, she does things, she reads books and articles, and finds wonderful, rich products and places that you wish you had found. In just the last few entires of May, you’ll find an appreciation of the luscious products of Fiori Chocolatiers (and their lovely blog), a recommendation to try the little-known coffees of Barefoot Coffee Roasters and a contemplation on, of all things, Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay on “Art.” And that’s only the beginning.

An amazing woman with a remarkable amount of important and fascinating stuff to say.