Leave a Light on for Christmas is reminiscent of Christmases past and is old fashioned in its sincerity. It is Christmas Eve. The elderly woman narrating the story is rocking her great-grandchild by the light of her Christmas tree. She proceeds to tell the story behind every ornament on the tree, thereby telling her own life story. The book starts in 1935, covers the war years, and the many important changes that have led up to present day. The story is told year by year, as Christmas comes around and the ornaments on the old woman's tree reflect the changes and events of her life. Set in present day, the narrator reflects back on her childhood until gradually her life story is told, one Christmas at a time.
When my son died, he was six years old. The day we buried him, the Lord and my son came and paid for his funeral. Three months later, the Lord took me to heaven, I found my son and had a short conversation with him, and the Lord talked to me and gave me some messages to give to the world. It was not a near-death experience! 2
When Alexander helps an old man instead of going to see the annual lighting of the Christmas torch, he does not realize the reward his kindness will bring.
"Within the struggle, joy, pain, and delight that attend our life, there is an invisible circle of grace that enfolds and encompasses us in every moment. Blessings help us to perceive this circle of grace, to find our place of belonging within it, and to receive the strength the circle holds for us." -from the Introduction Beginning in Advent and moving through the sacred seasons of the Christian year, Circle of Grace offers Jan's distinctive and poetic blessings that illuminate the treasures each season offers to us.
Ellen never knew what hit her. But when a drunk driver runs a red light her life is over in an instant. Her small daughter survives ? and Ellen, hovering in the borderland between life and the afterlife, can only watch as her loved ones try to pick up the pieces without her. Her husband Marc, struggling with being a single parent. Naomi, her little girl, blaming her mother for leaving her. And Ellen?s mother, full of guilt, slowly falling apart. Ellen isn?t ready to let go. She doesn?t want to say goodbye. She is confused, angry and hurting for her family and herself. And that?s where George comes in. He is her guide through her confusion as she witnesses the devastation among the living. With George at her side Ellen learns that even though she is dead she is not helpless. There are things that she can do from beyond the grave to influence what happens in the world she left behind. But George is new to his `job?, and has issues of his own. A working arrangement starts to become something neither of them expects. It is only after death that life can be fully understood.
For 30 years Rob Parsons has travelled widely across the UK and around the world, sharing his own stories of the ups and downs of life, and listening to the stories other people have to tell of their own lives. Tell Me A Story brings together the best of these stories - from heartwarming tales of family life to challenging accounts of coming through heartache and loss, from business success and money worries to sage advice on how to set priorities and find direction for our loves Through them all Rob weaves his spell as a storyteller, so pull up a chair and settle in to enjoy!
Get in on the Christmas cheer with Dr. Seuss’s iconic holiday classic starring the Grinch and Cindy-Lou Who—guaranteed to grow your heart three sizes! Every Who down in Who-ville liked Christmas a lot...but the Grinch, who lived just north of Who-ville, did NOT! Not since “’Twas the night before Christmas” has the beginning of a Christmas tale been so instantly recognizable. From the Grinch and his dog, Max, to Cindy-Lou and all the residents of Who-ville, this heartwarming story about the effects of the Christmas spirit will warm even the coldest and smallest of hearts. Like mistletoe, candy canes, and caroling, the Grinch is a mainstay of the holidays, and his story is perfect for readers young and old.
Mira Donahue’s bar, Mirage, is the hottest Christmas party venue in Boston, despite Mira’s secret: she hates Christmas. When self-described Queen of Carols Courtney Rivers books Mirage for her company’s holiday party, she clashes with Mira over the plans. Then a freak storm strands them in the bar, and more than miracles abound.
This memoir of “a happy childhood in rural Missouri just before the digital revolution [is] a sweet record of a time and a place that was not Always On.” —St. Louis Post-Dispatch Spanning one year of the author’s life—1984—I Will Not Leave You Comfortless is the intimate memoir of a young boy coming to consciousness in small-town Missouri. The year will bring ten-year-old Jeremy first loves, first losses, and a break from the innocence of boyhood that will never be fully repaired. For Jeremy, the seeming security of his life on the family farm is forever shaken by the life-altering events of that pivotal year. Throughout, he recalls the deeply sensual wonders of his rural Midwestern childhood—bicycle rides in September sunlight; the horizon vanishing behind tall grasses—while stories both heart-wrenching and humorous, tragic and triumphant, Jackson weaves past, present, and future into the rich Missouri landscape. “I could smell the mulberries crushed underfoot and the sweet steam of the cinnamon roll Grandma heated in the toaster oven just for Jeremy, hear the ever-increasing volume of an approaching late-spring storm . . . The year of Jeremy Jackson’s life on which he meditates in I Will Not Leave You Comfortless marked his transition from the perfect happiness of childhood to the much more complex reality of adulthood. It records, as well, the abiding comfort that remains—family, home and love.” —Wichita Eagle “Jackson writes about Missouri as the young Hemingway wrote about Michigan: with a clear eye; with hard-edged nostalgia; and (here’s the thing) with brilliance.” —Darin Strauss, author of Half a Life
