The Mockingbird Speaks

By Dave Ruch

At times life throws us a curveball or two and these are the times that challenge us. Our responses to these situations come to define who we are. So when I unexpectedly lost a job I'd had for over a decade, it could have been a crushing defeat. However, I was fortunate enough to see it as a chance for positive change and I've never looked back with regret.
THE MOCKINGBIRD SPEAKS is my experience in dealing with change and coming to reconnect with my real self. Spending a summer studying neighborhood birds, I discovered many truths that altered my outlook on life. I came to understand the need to adapt to new situations in order to thrive, to see everything as useful in its own way so that nothing would go to waste, to rationalize and overcome some deep-rooted fears, that stereotypes of any sort limit one's understanding and ability to grow. These and many other ways of looking at things differently helped alter my mindset and I believe these realizations will help you deal with adversity too!
In THE MOCKINGBIRD SPEAKS, I share these truisms, illustrated with case studies that embody the ideals. You'll read about Terry Fox, a one-legged athlete who set out to run across Canada to raise funds for cancer research, about Norm Feuti who created a successful career cartooning out of a series of dead-end jobs and many others. And you'll learn a thing or two about one of North America's best-loved birds, the Mockingbird, as well.
I hope you'll let the Mockingbird speak to you!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dave Ruch
• Release date: Jul 30, 2014
• ISBN: 9781310581113

Dave Ruch

Dave was born and raised in southern Ontario and recently has been dividing his time between there and Texas, where his fiancee is from. A graduate of University of Toronto, he's held a number of different jobs in the past couple of decades, from hotel night manager to photo-lab operator to member of a mobile store setup crew. These varied jobs have made him rich- in experience and stories! His writing has been seen in newspapers including the Toronto Sun and Oshawa This Week as well as regional magazines and his photo art has been featured at exhibits in both Ontario and Texas. In his spare time you'll usually find Dave spending time in nature, listening to 70s and 80s music or watching baseball, patiently waiting for his beloved Toronto Blue Jays to win another World Series.Or perhaps writing about those things - he authors a daily music blog ("A Sound Day") as well as a baseball one ("One Flew Over The Jays Nest"). His fondness for romcom movies and Generation X-themed novels helped inspire his current release, "Grace, Fully Living" available here. In the style of "Bridget Jones Diary" with a dash of "Sex and the City" , it follows happy but hapless Grace Tyler through a year as she enters the new millennium and a new life away from her small town roots. Dave's belief that an optimistic outlook is the key to a full and happy life inspired his book, "Thank Goodness! 101 Things to Be Grateful For Today", a collection of personal accounts of good things often unnoticed, from a firefly at night to how sports unites a community to the wonder of foods from all around the world available at our local store...and many more. It follows "The Mockingbird Speaks" published in 2014 dealing with two things of importance to him: appreciating wildlife and in particular birds, and looking at things in a positive light.

Book preview

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