I have to admit one of my guilty pleasures is not just buying really good books, but during my less hectic season for work, plowing through as many as I can. I think learning in life comes in a few different forms- life experiences, loss, your friends, community involvement and content (via the web, television and books).

The two places I can always turn to in a moments notice for something new are people for their opinions and outlook and through content for knowledge and inspiration. Oddly enough it’s not usually my friends opinions that change my view on something, sure they give me insight and a different approach, but books and television change me and not just that but they can literally move me within my own little creative world that I run around.

I’m always looking for books and shows that really help me click in my own thoughts. The most recent book I picked up which goes SO well with the content from Hayitsalexis.com is “Dear Sugar“. I don’t even know where to begin with this book. It is so inspiring and amazing, I don’t look at it for advice but that understanding on love that I may just never hear or fully encompass from hearing my friends experiences and trials with love. There are not enough good things I could say about the author Cheryl Strayed.

Cheryl Strayed began writing for The Rumpus in 2010 which two years later went from a column to a collection of the columns published as a book called “Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar”.

“Life isn’t some narcissistic game you play online. It all matters—every sin, every regret, every affliction.

In her advice, she’s so dead honest, her writing is absolutely flawless. It’s the advice and brutal honesty I think at times we’d all love to give our friends and loved ones, but you risk everything putting that kind of honesty out there. How many times in this world have you felt left out, hurt, robbed, cheated or event lost? But even with a great family supporting you and really great friends, you didn’t feel like you could turn to anyone to talk to? Those are the times where people would turn to Sugar.

In the intro of the book, it says:

[There's nothing you can tell Sugar that doesn't strike her as beautiful and human. Which is why men and women write to her about intimacies they can't share with anyone else, unspeakable urges, insoluble grief. She understands that attention is the first and final act of love, and that the ultimate dwindling resource in the human arrangement isn't cheap oil or potable water or even common sense, but mercy.]

The best part about this book, is while I write about dating and love advice for millennials or those going through the motions of Generation Y, Dear Sugar is on another level. Not to say that I haven’t not dealt with similar debates, but that’s what’s so great about Dear Sugar, some of the stories are on love that you may have never even thought of. And the response from Sugar? I can assure you, may be a similar direction of advice you’ve received in the past, but Sugar’s advice I can assure you will have a much deeper, more detailed meaning. One as I said before, that will move or inspire you.

tiny beautiful things – Advice on love and life from Dear Sugar by Cheryl Strayed