Path Of The Pearl

A pearl oyster, invaded by an irritant it can't expel, turns adversity into a glowing iridescent work of nature's art. This shining treasure you now hold in your hands celebrates the similar path shared by women. In Path of the Pearl, Mary Olsen Kelly invites us to assess our own life's journey using the same six criteria used by jewelers for grading pearls - shape, size, color, luster, orient, and perfection. Her reflections and insights offer a new way of recognizing and embracing our whole self, complete with imperfections, and rejoicing in the hard-earned treasures obtained by overcoming adversity.

The Pearl allows you to put your contemplation of the Golden Path into practice. What use is knowledge if it doesn't step off the page into your life? In life there are wild pearls and there are farmed pearls. The difference between the two is the same difference between you being given knowledge by another and you finding it out for yourself. You have to be the pearl diver and use your imagination to work out how this wisdom can best be applied in your life. The Pearl is only for those who are willing to risk their lives for something greater

The Path of The Pearl does not replace your current "Path" . . . Think of it as a powerful tool to aid you on your personal Journey.It doesn't matter what Spiritual Path we choose, provided it works for us, and that we have the will, strength and desire to stay on it. "There are only two mistakes one can Make along the road to truth: Not starting . . . and not going all the way." ~ Chinese Proverb"THE PEARL" PROVIDES IDEAS, WISDOM, AND TECHNIQUES.All are designed to help us along our way on our current path . . . or give some of us a little "Push" to start down a Spiritual Path for the first time. When we read The Pearl, it is important not to just take it for granted . . . but rather to meditate more deeply upon the wisdom that rings the bell of truth in our minds, make note of it . . . and use it . THERE ARE FOUR PARTS TO THE PEARL But they are NOT STEPS ~ or rungs on a ladder ~ by which we climb to higher ones and leave the others behind.For instance, it is almost impossible to ever finish "Purifying our Bodies" . . . so we must be already working on Elevating our Minds . . . or Refining our Emotions. The best way to approach it might be to set the goal of working on several steps at the same time. If we do that, any progress we make in one stage will simultaneously help us grow in all the others. There's a lot here. We don't have to plow through reading all the parts of the Path of the Pearl in one sitting. It's a journey . . . not a place. ; - )

It is the end of the nineteenth century and China is riding on the crest of great change, but for nine-year-old Willow, the only child of a destitute family in the small southern town of Chin-kiang, nothing ever seems to change. Until the day she meets Pearl, the eldest daughter of a zealous American missionary. Pearl is head-strong, independent and fiercely intelligent, and will grow up to be Pearl S Buck, the Pulitzer- and Nobel Prize-winning writer and humanitarian activist, but for now all Willow knows is that she has never met anyone like her in all her life. From the start the two are thick as thieves, but when the Boxer Rebellion rocks the nation, Pearl's family is forced to leave China to flee religious persecution. As the twentieth century unfolds in all its turmoil, through right-wing military coups and Mao's Red Revolution, through bad marriages and broken dreams, the two girls cling to their lifelong friendship across the sea. In this ambitious and moving new novel, Anchee Min, acclaimed author of Empress Orchid and Red Azalea, brings to life a courageous and passionate woman who loved the country of her childhood and who has been hailed in China as a modern heroine.