Life is a challenge, particularly with a disability, and the way one thinks can control how and what they feel. When faced with life-changing experiences where there are no explanations for why they occur, would you just accept the situation that you are in, or would you overcome it through your ability? Brian Wright was born with a permanent disability called, Spastic Hemiparesis which is a type of cerebral palsy. He was able to overcome his life challenges through faith and perseverance. In return, in this book, Brian shares his life experiences so that those living with disabilities can learn to overcome theirs with positive fulfillment.
On the eve of the Civil War, most people of color in the United States toiled in bondage. Yet nearly half a million of these individuals, including over 250,000 in the South, were free. In Beyond Slavery's Shadow, Warren Eugene Milteer Jr. draws from a wide array of sources to demonstrate that from the colonial period through the Civil War, the growing influence of white supremacy and proslavery extremism created serious challenges for free persons categorized as "negroes," "mulattoes," "mustees," "Indians," or simply "free people of color" in the South. Segregation, exclusion, disfranchisement, and discriminatory punishment were ingrained in their collective experiences. Nevertheless, in the face of attempts to deny them the most basic privileges and rights, free people of color defended their families and established organizations and businesses. These people were both privileged and victimized, both celebrated and despised, in a region characterized by social inconsistency. Milteer's analysis of the way wealth, gender, and occupation intersected with ideas promoting white supremacy and discrimination reveals a wide range of social interactions and life outcomes for the South's free people of color and helps to explain societal contradictions that continue to appear in the modern United States.
One winter's night the writer renounced his American dream of building a life in New York City to follow an enigmatic inner voice and embrace an unknown path, which goes on to occasion a life-changing journey in Peru, South America. He experiences the remarkable healing properties of shamanic ceremonies in the Amazon Jungle, the sublime energy of the ancient Inca Citadel of Machu Picchu and the Andes Mountains, the openness of Peruvian villagers and their commendable life-styles in harmony with nature, and friendship of many individuals who 'coincidentally' enter his life at the most appropriate moments to help him integrate the vital changes taking place in his being. Part autobiographical, part travelogue, part philosophical musing and part poetry, wrapped up in language both sensitive to the writer's predicament and lyrically appreciative of the natural world, this book addresses the ethos of the world's current dominant civilizations. It also affirms for many seekers in the world, that it is possible to discover their true path in life and create their own reality based on their version of the absolute truth, which ultimately rests in all of us.
On a sunny fall afternoon in 1988, Jon Sarkin was playing golf when, without a whisper of warning, his life changed forever. As he bent down to pick up his golf ball, something strange and massive happened inside his head; part of his brain seemed to unhinge, to split apart and float away. For an utterly inexplicable reason, a tiny blood vessel, thin as a thread, deep inside the folds of his gray matter had suddenly shifted ever so slightly, rubbing up against his acoustic nerve. Any noise now caused him excruciating pain. After months of seeking treatment to no avail, in desperation Sarkin resorted to radical deep-brain surgery, which seemed to go well until during recovery his brain began to bleed and he suffered a major stroke. When he awoke, he was a different man. Before the stroke, he was a calm, disciplined chiropractor, a happily married husband and father of a newborn son. Now he was transformed into a volatile and wildly exuberant obsessive, seized by a manic desire to create art, devoting virtually all his waking hours to furiously drawing, painting, and writing poems and letters to himself, strangely detached from his wife and child, and unable to return to his normal working life. His sense of self had been shattered, his intellect intact but his way of being drastically altered. His art became a relentless quest for the right words and pictures to unlock the secrets of how to live this strange new life. And what was even stranger was that he remembered his former self. In a beautifully crafted narrative, award-winning journalist and Pulitzer Prize finalist Amy Ellis Nutt interweaves Sarkin’s remarkable story with a fascinating tour of the history of and latest findings in neuroscience and evolution that illuminate how the brain produces, from its web of billions of neurons and chaos of liquid electrical pulses, the richness of human experience that makes us who we are. Nutt brings vividly to life pivotal moments of discovery in neuroscience, from the shocking “rebirth” of a young girl hanged in 1650 to the first autopsy of an autistic savant’s brain, and the extraordinary true stories of people whose personalities and cognitive abilities were dramatically altered by brain trauma, often in shocking ways. Probing recent revelations about the workings of creativity in the brain and the role of art in the evolution of human intelligence, she reveals how Jon Sarkin’s obsessive need to create mirrors the earliest function of art in the brain. Introducing major findings about how our sense of self transcends the bounds of our own bodies, she explores how it is that the brain generates an individual “self” and how, if damage to our brains can so alter who we are, we can nonetheless be said to have a soul. For Jon Sarkin, with his personality and sense of self permanently altered, making art became his bridge back to life, a means of reassembling from the shards of his former self a new man who could rejoin his family and fashion a viable life. He is now an acclaimed artist who exhibits at some of the country’s most prestigious venues, as well as a devoted husband to his wife, Kim, and father to their three children. At once wrenching and inspiring, this is a story of the remarkable human capacity to overcome the most daunting obstacles and of the extraordinary workings of the human mind.
Living the Christian life is impossible without the daily anointing and power of God. There are far too many people who know about God without truly knowing and experiencing Him. God lives outside human imposed restrictions. This book reveals: An in-depth look at the true reasons and purpose of the daily Anointing of God. The Sacred Secret that was hidden for ages and available to every Christian. Spiritual Things that are promised to bring healing and transformation. The promised privileges, power, possessions and rights of all Christians. A fresh and insightful look at the dwelling place of Heaven. The blessings of the perplexing paradox of lifes struggles and hardships. How to live daily by faith, not by sight (2 Cor. 5:7 NIV) beyond the sensory realm of feelings, emotions and experiences. In order for every Christian to accomplish all that God wants of them it requires divine help beyond natural abilities. The Bible says that Gods divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness. (2 Pet 1:3 NIV)
The nail-biting third novel in the Night Angel series, from international bestseller Brent Weeks - an astonishing and epic tale of magic, violence and revenge. A new queen has usurped the throne and is leading Cenaria into disaster. The country has become a broken realm with a threadbare army, little food, and no hope. Kylar Stern plans to reinstate his closest friend Logan as King, but can he really get away with murder? In the north, the Godking's death has thrown Khalidor into civil war. To gain the upper hand, one faction attempts to raise the goddess Khali herself. But they are playing with volatile powers, and trigger conflict on a vast scale. Seven armies will converge to save - or destroy - an entire continent. Kylar has finally learnt the bitter cost of immortality, and is faced with a task only he can complete. To save his friends, and perhaps his enemies, he must assassinate a goddess. Failure will doom the south. Success will cost him everything he's ever loved. 'Brent Weeks has a style of immediacy and detail that pulls the reader relentlessly into his story. He doesn't allow you to look away' Robin Hobb 'Nobody does break-neck pacing and amazingly-executed plot twists like Brent Weeks' Brian McClellan 'Weeks creates a rich blend of politics, culture and character . . . then throws in magic-using assassins' Peter V. Brett 'Unforgettable characters, a plot that kept me guessing, non-stop action and the kind of in-depth storytelling that makes me admire a writer's work' Terry Brooks 'Weeks has truly cemented his place among the great epic fantasy writers of our time' British Fantasy Society For more from Brent Weeks, check out: Night Angel The Way of Shadows Shadow's Edge Beyond the Shadows The Kylar Chronicles Night Angel Nemesis Perfect Shadow: A Night Angel Novella The Way of Shadows: The Graphic Novel Lightbringer The Black Prism The Blinding Knife The Broken Eye The Blood Mirror The Burning White
Giant in the Shadows is the definitive biography of Robert T. Lincoln (1843-1926), the oldest son of Abraham and Mary Lincoln and their only child to live past age eighteen. Emerson, after nearly ten years of research, draws upon previously unavailable materials to cover Robert Lincoln's entire life in detail.
