P.E.A.R.L. Award Finalist, The Midwest Book Review Recommended Read A brooch, a lighthouse, a seashore, a love that transcends time... Single, childless, and forty-three, college English professor Laura Bouvoire is determined to have a baby by in-vitro fertilization, but her plans meet opposition when she falls in love with her thirty year old college student, Dante Giovanni. Even though she becomes pregnant, she is shocked at Dante's opposition to "test-tube babies" which he deems morally repugnant. Yet the two are drawn together by forces neither understands, forces they later learn stem from a past life.Obsessed by dreams of lovers in another century, Laura delves into that past life. There, tormented voices from another age reveal century-old karmic debts... A STILL POINT IN TIME by Marsha Briscoe
Sarah Arthur's anthology of liturgically arranged devotional, literary readings is a creme-de-la-creme book. The passages lovingly collected and arranged are the best available. There is something here for every reader. This book is both a literary treasure store and a devotional feast.
Like all mothers, Rapp had ambitious plans for her first and only child, Ronan. He would be smart, loyal, physically fearless, and level-headed, but fun. But all of these plans changed when Ronan was diagnosed at nine months old with a rare and always-fatal degenerative disorder.
In the final installment to the trilogy begun with Awaken, Maddie returns home to make her final stand against Digital School, and uncovers deeply guarded secrets about her family an new truths about herself.
Retreats give us a space for contemplation and developing our relationship with God, but they aren't always possible. So can we still appreciate and detect the everyday God, even without special 'holy' places and spiritual practices? Dancing at the Still Point is a book for those who can't or aren't ready to go away for a residential Christian retreat, but who want to be in daily relationship and connect with God in a satisfying way. In sessions that you can work through at your own pace, Gemma Simmonds guides us through the practices and disciplines of retreats, such as being still physically and spiritually, developing a habit of prayer and learning some basic discernment skills. With insights from the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises, she explores how we can fold these practices into every day and shows that a rich life of prayer, in which we have time and space to let God be present, is achievable even in a busy working or family life. Practical and flexible, Dancing at the Still Point will help you find a richer and more balanced life, where the spiritual takes its rightful place amid all the other calls on time and attention.
"My radio audience filled with caregivers from all walks of life will treasure each page."-Joel Markel, host of Preferred Company, President and Founder of Preferred Home Health Care & Nursing Services "What a delightful, comprehensive guide, reminding us all about the critical importance of self-care. The authors invite us to rethink -- perhaps redefine -- the concept of caregiver, transforming it into 'caresharer.' Take some time with this book, practicing its precious gems, and notice from the inside out the impact it makes on your ability to be present with yourself and all your relations."-Jamie McHugh, Somatic Movement Therapist and artist "If you are weary from caring for others and humbled by what it takes, open this book. Sheila K. Collins and her co-author Christine Gautreaux both walk this walk. Sheila is a national leader in the dance of wise caregiving for self and others. Phil Porter and I, the cofounders of InterPlay, are indebted to her for her contributions to our system. We know her backward and forward as an artist, therapist, and teacher. She's the real deal. Tested, tenacious, tender and true, a wise elder and creative guide for getting through life's hard stuff."-Cynthia Winton-Henry, InterPlay co-founder, and authorof Move: What the Body Wants and Dance: the Sacred Art "In this comprehensive guide, the Stillpoint authors creatively address a neglected component of professional social work education -- self-care! As we teach students the best practices to meet the needs of clients, we often fail to provide evidence-based tools to assist students and young professionals in maintaining a strong and vibrant self. Stillpoint could be a helpful textbook for social workers serving others in what turns out to be a hazardous occupation."-Lynn Coghill, LCSW, Director of University of Pittsburgh School of Social Work MSW Program, retired
Tom Harpur shows how ancient wisdoms, together with exciting new scientific findings, are combining to show why mere coping techniques are not enough for meeting the stress crisis. Divorced from their spiritual underpinnings and/or religious understanding, such techniques lack the potency which they originally had. Central to a spiritual response to stress is the practice of spiritual meditation in its various forms. While many within traditional Christianity still view meditation with suspicion, Harpur shows it to be one of the lost jewels of a historic treasury of Christian gifts designed for healing. More than that, it is a revitalizing gift, which the church can reclaim for its own sake, and offer the outside church who are seeking identity, meaning and purpose.
“[An] often beautiful jewel of a book . . . Black’s power as a writer means she can take us with her to places that normally our minds would refuse to go.”—The New York Times Book Review (Editors’ Choice) From the New York Times bestselling author of The Still Point of the Turning World comes an incisive memoir about how she came to question and redefine the concept of resilience after the trauma of her first child’s death. “Congratulations on the resurrection of your life,” a colleague wrote to Emily Rapp Black when she announced the birth of her second child. The line made Rapp Black pause. Her first child, a boy named Ronan, had died from Tay-Sachs disease before he turned three years old, an experience she wrote about in her second book, The Still Point of the Turning World. Since that time, her life had changed utterly: She left the marriage that fractured under the terrible weight of her son’s illness, got remarried to a man who she fell in love with while her son was dying, had a flourishing career, and gave birth to a healthy baby girl. But she rejected the idea that she was leaving her old life behind—that she had, in the manner of the mythical phoenix, risen from the ashes and been reborn into a new story, when she still carried so much of her old story with her. More to the point, she wanted to carry it with her. Everyone she met told her she was resilient, strong, courageous in ways they didn’t think they could be. But what did those words mean, really? This book is an attempt to unpack the various notions of resilience that we carry as a culture. Drawing on contemporary psychology, neurology, etymology, literature, art, and self-help, Emily Rapp Black shows how we need a more complex understanding of this concept when applied to stories of loss and healing and overcoming the odds, knowing that we may be asked to rebuild and reimagine our lives at any moment, and often when we least expect it. Interwoven with lyrical, unforgettable personal vignettes from her life as a mother, wife, daughter, friend, and teacher, Rapp Black creates a stunning tapestry that is full of wisdom and insight.
Philip Zumwalt is an accomplished musician, poet, and idealist-a dreamer. Fresh out of college in 1940, he takes a job as a music teacher in a small, rural Illinois town. His plan is to teach for a few years hoping to save enough money to finance his dreams: go to Chicago to become a professional musician and get his pilot's license. These dreams dominate his thoughts until one summer night when he meets Elinor Robinson. Philip and Elinor's forbidden romance-and the specter of war hanging over the country-put Philip's dreams on hold. When he enlists in the Army Air Force, the gifted artist goes on an unpredictable journey of lost innocence. Life and death hang in the balance as he overcomes his fears and spiritual doubts in a desperate effort to survive aerial combat in the maelstrom of the Southwest Pacific Theater. In the end, a single dream remains for Philip: to return home to the woman he loves. Based upon the World War II diaries of the real Philip Zumwalt, this debut novel is a bittersweet tale of the transcendent power of love and reminds us of the immense sacrifices made by the men and women of that era.
