Selection for April: A Thousand Ways to Pay Attention by Rebecca Schiller
The latest research shows that while more than 3 percent of all adults (in the U.S., that’s more than 7 million people) suffer from ADHD, only 10 to 25 percent of these individuals receive accurate assessments and diagnoses. That leaves millions of people who are dealing with symptoms without any kind of support or accommodation, and often (especially in the case of women & femmes) blaming themselves for behaviors out of their control.
This month, we are reading A Thousand Ways to Pay Attention: Discovering the Beauty of My ADHD Mind. Whether you are curious about the steady climb of ADHD diagnoses or have started to see patterns of this neurodivergence in your own life, this reading & conversation is for you.
About the book (from the publisher):
It should have been Rebecca Schiller’s dream come true: moving her young family to the English countryside to raise goats and coax their own fruit and vegetables from the land. But, as she writes: The summer of striding out toward a life of open fields and sacks of corn, I brought a confused black hole of something pernicious but not yet acknowledged along for the ride.
Rebecca’s health begins to crumble, with bewildering symptoms: frequent falls, uncontrollable rages, and mysterious lapses in memory. As she fights to be seen by a succession of specialists, her fledgling homestead—and her family—hang by increasingly tenuous threads. And when her diagnosis finally comes, it is utterly unexpected: severe ADHD.
In her scramble for answers, Rebecca’s consciousness alternately sears with pinpoint focus and spirals with connections. Childhood memories resurface with new meaning, and her daily life entwines with the history of intrepid women who tended this land before her. Her family weathers their growing pains where generations of acorns have fallen to rise again as trees, where ancient wolves and lynx once stalked the shadows.
Written in unsparing, luminous prose, this is an all-absorbing memoir of one woman’s newfound neurodivergence—and a clarion call to overturn the narrative that says minds are either normal and good or different and broken.
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About Murmurations:
“My dream is a movement with such deep trust that we move as a murmuration, the way groups of starlings billow, dive, spin, dance collectively through the air—to avoid predators, and, it also seems, to pass time in the most beautiful way possible.” – adrienne maree brown
In Murmurations, we gather monthly to discuss books rooted in social justice, community healing, Indigenous wisdom and the natural world.
We will build presence and connection through conversation and a slow yoga flow that reflects the themes of the reading. We always offer refreshments—please feel welcome to bring snacks to share.
The session will be guided by Tanya Reynolds, CYT-200, a graduate of Abide’s yoga teacher training and lifelong lover of reading and community (and always snacks).
Reading the book ahead of time is not required for attendance, and all are invited to join the discussion to your comfort level.
Please check your local library, independent bookstore or friends’ bookshelves for copies of the reading. Loganberry Books (on Larchmere, just two doors down from Abide), is offering all Murmuration Book Club titles at 10% off. Just mention that you're purchasing it for Abide's book club!