Keys to the Kingdom Paperback – October 1, 2003

Thank you

As a mother of two daughters, I look forward to sharing with them all I have learned and all I will continue to learn. This as been a wonderful awakening.

My wife and I loved this book. Alison Armstrong, the author, has been amazing for our relationship growth. The clear way she writes cuts through my preconceptions and defenses, helping me understand women. Especially my wife, who has needs and ways of fulfill them that seemed crazy to me. My wife felt the same when she learned about my needs, haha.Once we understood each other, it finally allowed us to give each other what we truly need, not just what I thought she needed from my man's perspective. Surprisingly, it requires much less energy, is more pleasant, and gives outstanding satisfaction to see how your actions positively impact the one you love so much. This book helped me respect and celebrate her femininity and her, my masculinity.Even at Tony Robbins' events, much of what he teaches about relationships comes from Alison's work, and he gives her credit for it. I highly recommend this book and any others by Alison Armstrong.

Often, when a movement develops and takes hold in a society--to correct a social malady-that movement has a tendency to swing too far in the other direction. In my opinion, such is the case with feminism. Developed to prioritize the unmet needs of women at large, its principles and its programs served to meet those needs. This was (and is) a praiseworthy goal. However, something happened on the way to that goal: the needs of men at large often went unheeded or even denigrated. Just as in the case of the opposite, both parties were unsatisfied.Alison Armstrong's "Keys to the Kingdom" is part of a new movement: a laudable attempt to swing the pendulum back the other way, toward a happy middle ground.How does the twenty-first century American woman live in peace with her husband? By accepting three things that many of our foremothers realized almost instinctively: 1) men and women develop in ways that are fundamentally different from each other, 2) stemming from those differences, men and women have different expectations from each other, and 3) neither is happy living life with each other unless those expectations are met to a reasonable degree.In her novel, Armstrong ably demonstrates these facts of life. Her protagonist, Karen, has been married to Mike for several years but is becoming distressed by the lack of ability to communicate between the two. An older woman, Claudia, comes into her life and helps her to understand the "secrets" about men; those that have been handed down matrilineally in Claudia's family. Claudia teaches Karen that her husband's needs are just as important as her own, that they change as a man ages.The most enlightening part of the novel (for me) had Claudia explaining to Karen of the stages of develop for men. After reading these parts, I began to apply the characteristics of the stages to the men in my own life and found that they fit nearly to a tee. Behavior that I had previously found inexplicably--viewed through my female sensibilities--began to make sense.Armstrong is to be commended. She has done a great service for both men and women: increased their chances of being happy.

This has been a real game-changer for me. At age 67 I'm no longer astounded to find out how little I have known in the past about men. I am taking exhortation that Claudia gave to Karen in the book to never stop learning about men. And in the process I'm learning I have not understand women that will either, and I will never cease trying to understand about women as well. Going through this book is an inner Journey that has challenged everything I've ever believed in. Thank you Alison for writing it. Now onward to Queens code I go! I have now listened to Keys To The Kingdom twice, and I will be starting my second time through Queens Code. For those of you goodbye reading the book, The excerpt at the end is from Queen's Queens Code before she knew it would be called that! They are basically one story split into two parts, with keys to the kingdom being part A and Queens Code being part B. I hope you will go on and read them both, and that you find it as paradigm changing and life-changing that they have found them. a nice benefit is if you buy Queen's code online, you can buy a downloadable PDF version, and bring it into some sort of eReader which if it has text to voice capability, then you can listen to it!