Best this month Life Inside Out
T ere are great similarities between teenagers
who can’t put their fi ngers on what they really want and middle-agers who are oſt en compelled by circumstances beyond their control to take stock of their lives. T is crisis point shared across the generations is beautifully illustrated in Life Inside Out, an independent drama funded by a Kickstarter campaign. Laura and her son Shane, played by real-
life mother and son Maggie Baird and Finneas O’Connell, both have a passion for music. She gave it up years ago, but when the family experiences a fi nancial crisis she gets her guitar repaired, writes some ballads and performs at a Los Angeles club that has an open mike. Shane, meanwhile, has been secretly exploring his talent for songwriting. Inspired by a lovely girl at school, he takes to writing about his feelings of
Mother and son duo Laura (Maggie Baird) and Shane (Finneas O’Connell) fi nd common ground in music in Life Inside Out.
frustration as a teenager. T e bridge Shane makes to his mother while rehearsing one of her songs is touching. T e screenplay by Baird and Lori Nasso realistically
Butterfly Park Spirituality fl ourishes
when you get involved in something you love. T is book by Elly MacKay, illustrated with paper-cut artwork and designed for children ages 3 and up, illustrates that under- standing of life. A girl moves to the city and is happy to discover
Author bio:
The Brussats publish the website www.SpiritualityandPractice. com where you can find more information about the items reviewed in this column.
a park next door for her favorite creatures—but- terfl ies. But she only sees one butterfl y there, and it fl ies away. She enlists the help of other children to fi nd more. Still the butterfl ies don’t stay. T en she realizes she needs fl owers to attract them. T e next day she takes some fl owers to the park, but there are still no butterfl ies. T en her neighbors arrive with trowels, dirt and shovels to help her turn the park into a big fl ower garden. T anks to this experience of commu- nity, both the butterfl ies and the girl feel at home there (Running Press Kids,
www.runningpress.com).
captures some simmering family tensions. But despite all their angst energy, this middle-ager and adolescent both take a shot at following their bliss. Music is the beauty and the bounty that helps them come to terms with themselves (Monarch Home Video, not rated). Now on DVD.
The Forgiveness Handbook SkyLight Paths has
provided an invalu- able moral service by assembling this serious, sobering and multidi- mensional survey of forgiveness as a “journey to freedom, healing and peace.” T e paperback covers understanding forgiveness; letting go; reconciliation and forgive- ness in relationships; forgiveness and the divine; accepting forgiveness; loving your enemies; forgive- ness, justice and peace; and cultivating a forgiving heart. Among the more than 50 contributors are clergy,
spiritual directors and retreat leaders from a vari- ety of traditions, including William Cleary, Kent Ira Groff , Ron Miller, John Philip Newell, Basil Pennington, Jan Phillips, Jamal Rahman, Donna Schaper, Rami Shapiro, Jane Vennard and many others (Skylight Paths,
www.skylightpaths.com).
June 2015 41
By Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
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