Reading both of these books over the last couple weeks makes sense since I feel like I’m at an epic crossroads in my life. So much has changed over the last three years that has forced me to evaluate the paths I’ve walked, to act differently in response to dreams specific to my talents, and to become more discerning with whom and how I invest my time.

I first discovered Matt Haig a couple years ago when I came across The Midnight Library and devoured it within three days. What can I say, I’m a sucker for some time travel and death talk (shrug…Scorpio). The Life Impossible offers up another melancholy heroine filled with regrets who is offered a lifeline in the form of a cottage in Ibiza gifted by a former work colleague. What follows is a fantastical story that involves aliens, unscrupulous property developers, midnight raves, and healing of old wounds.

In the novel, Grace Winters remarks, “Someone once told me the way to die happy is to die complete.” What does complete mean to each of us? What is the measure of a happy life? Are we happy with the life we have and in what ways do we yearn for more? How connected do we feel to community and purpose? All are noble questions that require space and time, love and loss to fully learn to articulate.

What comes from looking inward connects us to the people around us if we choose vulnerability and love. Sure, some people might think it sounds preachy but throw in oceanic mysteries and some goofy supporting characters and it makes an easy read on a cold, winter night.

The Power of Myth puts the academic Joseph Campbell in conversation with journalist Bill Moyers. It doesn’t offer what I would consider an easy read but they do cover a fair amount of history in an approachable way. Two men conversant in comparative religion and myth mine the depths of consciousness and spirituality unfolding in human dramas disguised as myths while crafting a journey upon which our very society can be modeled.

“Myths are clues to the spiritual potentialities of the human life.”

Reckoning with our destiny and potential seem like high stakes in contrast to our daily lives that become a habitual grinds in service to capitalism. Campbell asserts that cultures that continue to coalesce around shared myths and enliven those stories with rituals creates a stronger community.

“A ritual is the enactment of a myth. By participating in a ritual, you are participating in a myth.”

What rituals do we enact unconsciously that dictate the terms of our society? What can we do to become more conscious and accept that spiritual methods create more expansive realities?

“The dictionary definition of a myth would be stories about gods. So, then you have to ask the next questions: What is a god? A god is a personification of a motivating power or a value system that functions in human life and in the universe–the powers of your own body and of nature.”

What is the motivating power of my life? That is a question I often take to my meditation mat. Some days it feels clearer than others. Time will tell the ultimate measure of my life. In the meantime, the conscious journey is the path I choose to walk, and endeavors that spark answers to questions such as these are my guiding light.