Nine Days: Living with My Soul Wide Open after Violent Trauma (June 2023) is a memoir by Michelle Renee, whose first book, Held Hostage, was made into a Lifetime movie. Nine Days picks up where Held Hostage left off and chronicles a single mother's 4,200-mile solo road trip into the rugged terrain of the Yukon Territory and ultimately the Alaskan wilderness. Surviving on little money or food, Michelle braves the elements and confronts her dark, turbulent past on her way to return to her daughter and prepare to come face to face with one of their kidnappers… again. NINE DAYS is a story of raw grit and determination that depicts the torment and triumph of forging ahead and defying all odds on the road that terrifies, challenges, and ultimately sets her free.
To put it very simply, Dawna Markova is a teacher. A Ph.D. educator, she travels the world working with schools, Fortune 500 companies, and individuals. While coaching people on systems thinking and how to revolutionize the way children are taught, she also teaches people the most important lesson anyone can ever learn -- how to listen to one's own heart and how to live with heart and mind wide open to all life's possibilities. Wide Open is the gift of Dawna's wisdom, wrapped up in gorgeous photos. In thirty luminous lessons and passages, Markova encourages us to learn from our wounds, find our gifts, celebrate our values, and live our dreams -- to live on purpose and with passion. Twenty years ago, Dawna Markova discovered these eternal truths when she faced a life-threatening illness and began a journey of rediscovery. This book follows her path to finding deeper meaning in life. "In a similar way to A Gift from the Sea, the readers of this book are invited to accompany me on a journey to come to know more intimately the value and purpose of their lives."
At a time when society no longer imposes many sexual taboos, why is open marriage still considered beyond the pale? Written by Gracie X, Wide Open is an enthusiastic, honest, and sometimes raw account of one woman’s experience living polyamorously within the context of her average American family. Gracie X—a suburban mother of two—has been married to her loving husband, Hank, for 25 years. The problem is that their once-vibrant sex life has shriveled to nothing. Meanwhile, she has fallen in love with another man, for whom she has an overwhelming physical yearning. Frustrated and conflicted but determined not to give up her hard-won home life and wonderful husband, she is desperate for a creative solution. Can she somehow keep both men in her life without resorting to divorce or dishonesty? A friend introduces Gracie to polyamory: loving and being faithful to more than one person at a time. “Poly,” it turns out, is a whole new world, with dedicated counselors, parties, and dating sites. Convincing Hank ended up being the easy part: he quickly found a girlfriend and accepted Gracie’s terms. Their children, although upset at first, adjusted to having their parents’ “special friends” around, and having Hank and his girlfriend in one duplex, with Gracie and her new boyfriend, Oz, next-door, seemed like an inspired solution. But would trying to go poly create as many problems as it was trying to solve? In her candid and provocative memoir, Wide Open, Gracie details the years she has spent exploring the poly lifestyle and creating her “chosen family.” A fiercely intelligent feminist, she challenges traditional ideas about monogamy, fidelity, and sexuality. From swinger parties and strip clubs to sex toys and pornography, this is an edgy and thought-provoking read. Yet erotica and tenderness share space here, with Gracie’s true love for both Hank and Oz—as well as her two children—coming through very clearly. Wide Open reveals—with humor, integrity and heart—how one woman blended love, sex and marriage in unconventional ways and found the fulfillment she was looking for.
"soul wide shut" is a compilation of poetics that will take the reader on an expedition through the myriad stages of romantic love; from attraction to interaction, from fighting the feeling to free-falling, from first kisses to being completely intimate, from the joy of exclusivity to the pain of losing everything, and all the emotion-filled beautiful things that can happen in-between. [note: some poems contain profanity.]
«...In front of me, there was the heart of the house – the owner’s desk.The light of the green glass shade of the table lamp nicely set at rest. But it still took me long to summon up courage before I decided to open the biggest drawer with the cut-in lock, from which the key along with the bunch of other keys protruded. The mystery was about to be revealed. The fear of unveiling the secret was even worse than the fear of the unknown...»
You believe in God. You’re trying to serve Him. But do you know how to truly love Him—and let Him love you? As a Bible-believing churchgoer, author Shellie Tomlinson harbored a secret in her good-girl heart. She longed for something more than routine faith; she wanted to love God with a genuine, all-consuming passion. So she got honest with Him: “I admit it. I don’t love you like I should, but I want to love you. Help me!” In Heart Wide Open, Shellie invites you to answer the call of your restless heart and refuse to settle for anything less than the intimate friendship of God. Through her heartfelt and honest words, you’ll find practical inspiration to help you… · exchange your “just enough Jesus” mindset for an all-out pursuit of Him · put sizzle in your Bible study by asking God to show you the wonder of His Word · trade formulaic devotions for a devoted life Are you ready to stop struggling to make time for God and instead live every moment with God? Discover how to live with your heart wide open.
The way we talk to ourselves is often unkind and filled with self-judgments. These overly harsh self-criticisms can make us feel unworthy and incomplete. What if what you really need is not higher standards for yourself, but greater self-compassion? In Living with Your Heart Wide Open, you’ll discover how mindfulness and self-compassion can free you from the thoughts and beliefs that create feelings of inadequacy and learn to open your heart to the loving-kindness within you and in the world around you. Based in Western psychotherapy and Buddhist psychological principles, this book guides you past painful and self-limiting beliefs about yourself and toward a new perspective of nonjudgmental awareness and acceptance of who you are, just as you are. You’ll receive gentle guidance in mindfulness and compassion practices that will lead you away from unproductive, self-critical thoughts and help you live more freely and fearlessly, with your heart wide open.
