For me reading the Tao Te Ching was a game changer. Some of the ideas in that book really changed my perspective on things.

  • Smokeydope@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    7
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    Where the red fern grows. Its a story about a boy in the ozarks during 19th century from a poor family who really wanted a pair of hunting dogs. The boy works his ass off for years, gets the dogs, loves them deeply, earns enough money from coon hunting for the family to move into town so the kids can get an education, and the book ends tragically bittersweet. I was never into the occasional religious tones but the message of working hard and saving every scrap to earn what you really want in life, embracing the freedom of life, and the healing power grief has when having to say goodbye to the things you loved fully when death inevitably comes for them. I read that book a dozen times over my life taking something new from it each time.