Violinist and composer Fritz Kreisler was a most beloved musician, bringing to the musical stage a grace and warmth that were unmatched during his prime. Born in 1875, he was the last, best ambassador of nineteenth-century Vienna to a twentieth-century world. Nurtured in the rich musical environment of that European capital, Kreisler had a middling career as a prodigy, never attaining the early celebrity of a young Heifetz or Menuhin, and he even abandoned the violin for several years while exploring other pursuits. Yet Kreisler was to become the most influential musician among string players the world over. This lively portrait by a perceptive critic brings back to life a musical giant of the first half of the twentieth century, examining important themes and events of his life and his views on politics and art as well as on music and musicians. It reveals a man whose gift was a unique ability to communicate joys and sorrows to an adoring world through music.
This book serves to introduce a young and talented writer to a much wider audience and to situate his work within the more exciting and radical tradition that is the Irish avant-garde. The literary impetus evident in Graham Gillespie’s writing is similar to that of the mystical writers of old, whether Irish or Continental, Christian or Jewish. The beauty of the poetic and philosophic insights explored in this book is something new and fresh in Irish writing. Whether exploring the universal questions that are doubt and hope or stretching the sinews of language in the search for true self-identity and its expression, Gillespie’s art generates a new and profound experience. As with mystics such as Jabes, he has penetrated the silent desert of his own heart; he has bravely ventured into the unknowable, the unconscious, that same place where Merton found the “lush tangle of life and death, full of danger, yet where beautiful things move, the deer, and where there is a spring of sweet water buried.
A book of poetic essays written in English, Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet is full of religious inspirations. With the twelve illustrations drawn by the author himself, the book took more than eleven years to be formulated and perfected and is Gibran's best-known work. It represents the height of his literary career as he came to be noted as ‘the Bard of Washington Street.’ Captivating and vivified with feeling, The Prophet has been translated into forty languages throughout the world, and is considered the most widely read book of the twentieth century. Its first edition of 1300 copies sold out within a month.
This is the moving story of Matt Chandler's battle with a potentially fatal brain tumor. But it's also the stories of those in his church family who taught him, and teach him, how to walk with joy in sorrow. Readers will find encouragement and strength to get through tough times, or to support others to do so.
Much-Afraid had been in the service of the Chief Shepherd, whose great flocks were pastured down in the Valley of Humiliation. She lived with her friends and fellow workers Mercy and Peace in a tranquil little white cottage in the village of Much-Trembling. She loved her work and desired intensely to please the Chief Shepherd, but happy as she was in most ways, she was conscious of several things which hindered her in her work and caused her much secret distress and shame. Here is the allegorical tale of Much-Afraid, an every-woman searching for guidance from God to lead her to a higher place.
From bestselling author of The Book of Delights and award-winning poet, a book of lyrical mini-essays celebrating the everyday that will inspire readers to rediscover the joys in the world around us. In Ross Gay’s new collection of small, daily wonders, again written over the course of a year, one of America’s most original voices continues his ongoing investigation of delight. For Gay, what delights us is what connects us, what gives us meaning, from the joy of hearing a nostalgic song blasting from a passing car to the pleasure of refusing the “nefarious” scannable QR code menus, from the tiny dog he fell hard for to his mother baking a dozen kinds of cookies for her grandchildren. As always, Gay revels in the natural world—sweet potatoes being harvested, a hummingbird carousing in the beebalm, a sunflower growing out of a wall around the cemetery, the shared bounty from a neighbor’s fig tree—and the trillion mysterious ways this glorious earth delights us. The Book of (More) Delights is a volume to savor and share.
We all spend a lot of energy reaching for happiness, but we're never quite able to hang on to it. Real life happens, and our circumstances take us on an emotional rollercoaster. Oftentimes, the Bible's call to "be joyful always" seems out of reach--but it doesn't have to be. We are called to live. And, miraculously, to live with joy. Join bestselling author Stasi Eldredge as she shows us how to choose a joy that stands against the tides of life's real and often overwhelming pain. Defiant Joy reminds us that a joy that is defiant in the face of this broken world was meant to be ours. This joy isn't simply happiness on steroids, it's the unyielding belief that sorrow and loss do not have the final say. It's the stubborn determination to be present in whatever may come and interpret both goodness and grief by the light of heaven. Defiant Joy will give you the encouragement you need to: Finally experience daily joy Learn how to have a posture of holy defiance when circumstances threaten to weigh down your soul Find new perspectives on the painful circumstances you've faced In Defiant Joy, Stasi invites us with courage, candor, and tender vulnerability to a place beyond sadness or happiness, leading the way as we learn how to maintain a posture of holy defiance that neither denies nor diminishes our pain but dares to live with expectant, unwavering hope.
The work of the mature person is to carry grief in one hand and gratitude in the other and be stretched large by them. As seen on All There Is with Anderson Cooper Noted psychotherapist Francis Weller provides an essential guide for navigating the deep waters of sorrow and loss in this lyrical yet practical handbook for mastering the art of grieving. Describing how Western patterns of amnesia and anesthesia affect our capacity to cope with personal and collective sorrows, Weller reveals the new vitality we may encounter when we welcome, rather than fear, the pain of loss. Through moving personal stories, poetry, and insightful reflections he leads us into the central energy of sorrow, and to the profound healing and heightened communion with each other and our planet that reside alongside it. The Wild Edge of Sorrow explains that grief has always been communal and illustrates how we need the healing touch of others, an atmosphere of compassion, and the comfort of ritual in order to fully metabolize our grief. Weller describes how we often hide our pain from the world, wrapping it in a secret mantle of shame. This causes sorrow to linger unexpressed in our bodies, weighing us down and pulling us into the territory of depression and death. We have come to fear grief and feel too alone to face an encounter with the powerful energies of sorrow. Those who work with people in grief, who have experienced the loss of a loved one, who mourn the ongoing destruction of our planet, or who suffer the accumulated traumas of a lifetime will appreciate the discussion of obstacles to successful grief work such as privatized pain, lack of communal rituals, a pervasive feeling of fear, and a culturally restrictive range of emotion. Weller highlights the intimate bond between grief and gratitude, sorrow and intimacy. In addition to showing us that the greatest gifts are often hidden in the things we avoid, he offers powerful tools and rituals and a list of resources to help us transform grief into a force that allows us to live and love more fully.
Is God loving? The Bible says that God is love; however, it also portrays a God that floods the earth, takes the lives of the firstborn in Egypt, and lashes out time and again in His fury. How can a God of love be synonymous with the God of fury displayed in the Old Testament? Are we fools? “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowled≥ fools despise wisdom and instruction” (Pro 1:7). Twice in the Proverbs we’re told that the beginning of knowledge and wisdom is the fear of the Lord. Is it possible that we have become altogether ignorant simply because we’ve tossed out the Bible’s basic teaching on God’s fury? The Fury of God penetrates the paradox and shows that we cannot truly understand God’s love until we fully understand His fury. If believers today are truly abiding in God’s Word, they will come face-to-face with the fury of God, and its truth will bring satisfaction to their souls. God’s people must know the truth. They longingly desire it. The truth is that our God is a consuming fire. He is a jealous God. He is a holy God. He is an unchanging God. He is a triune God. Our God is a God of fury. It is that God, the God of the Scriptures, whom I hope to resurrect in the hearts and minds of His people with this book.
