Thirty-five entertaining and touching stories that show how family moments can bring the greatest spiritual rewards. We find everything we need for spiritual growth as we picnic with the children, go to the grocery store, and pick up the morning paper. The author's intimate approach invites us to recognize the grace that exists within our own lives. We needn't pull over and look for enlightenment; the divine is always present, even in the carpool lane.
Being a mom is a roller-coaster ride of exhilarating joys and pull-out-your-hair frustrations. Sometimes a sweet infusion of humor is just what you need to lift your heart to new heights, to heal the hurts of a bad day, or to instill your soul with inspiration. Samplings from some of your favorite authors -- including Patsy Clairmont, Martha Bolton, Dave Meurer, Nancy Kennedy, and many more -- will energize any worn-out mom and remind you of the joys of motherhood. Take a deep breath, inhale the joy, soak up the merriment, and you'll surely find that your heart is lighter, your day brighter, and your soul hilariously refreshed.
In 2008, Pastor Craig Goodwin and his young family embarked on a year-long experiment to consume only what was local, used, homegrown, or homemade. In Year of Plenty, Goodwin shares the winsome story of how an average suburban family stumbled onto the cultural cutting edge of locavores, backyard chickens, farmers markets, simple living, and going green. More than that, it is the timely tale of Christians exploring the intersections of faith, environment, and everyday life.This humorous yet profound book comes at just the right time for North American Christians, who are eager to engage the growing interest in the environmental movement and the quandaries of modern consumer culture. It speaks also to the growing legions of the "spiritual but not religious" who long for ways to connect heaven and earth in their daily lives.Contents Adobe Acrobat DocumentForeword Adobe Acrobat DocumentChapter 1 Adobe Acrobat DocumentSamples require Adobe Acrobat ReaderHaving trouble downloading and viewing PDF samples?"Craig Goodwin invites us into a life of paying attention. This is an experiment in God's ordinary: life centered in relationship, lived in a physical world of spiritual meaning, and expressed in daily acts of attentiveness that are unhooked from patterns that degrade us and imperil the world. It turns out to be a wonderful and complicating adventure. Free from grandiosity, sentimentality, or ideology, this book tells its story with captivating humanity and motivating honesty."-Mark LabbertonDirector, Ogilvie Institute for PreachingFuller Theological SeminaryAuthor of The Dangerous Act of Worship"As someone who had gotten good at resisting grumpy calls to reject our consumerist culture, I found this book delightfully refreshing and compelling. Craig Goodwin describes an experiment in 'familial art'-a creative effort to seek out new and very practical experiments living as more faithful stewardship of the earth's resources. I haven't started raising chickens or making homemade butter (yet!) after reading this wonderful book-but I have learned some profound lessons."-Richard J. MouwPresident and Professor of Christian PhilosophyFuller Theological Seminary"Many clergy and other church leaders ask for examples of how and where missional work is actually taking place. Here is a leader faithfully engaging this work in a practical, local, on-the-ground way that leads to new expressions of church in mission. This is the kind of story about a church-in-process we need to hear."-Alan J. RoxburghFounder of the Missional NetworkAuthor of The Missional LeaderAdjunct Professor at Fuller Theological Seminary"I heartily recommend Goodwin's charming, thoughtful, and extremely funny book. With remarkable insight and refreshing humility, Craig Goodwin takes us with him and his family as they learn who and what is behind the things we so often thoughtlessly purchase. Goodwin reminds us how much of community and life we have sacrificed in the name of convenience and low price. Through engaging narrative he skillfully integrates lessons on faith, life, and God, integrating the spiritual with the material and the local with the global. This is an important contribution to the ongoing conversation about our role as Christians in taking care of and enjoying God's creation."-Scott SabinExecutive Director, Plant With PurposeAuthor of Tending to Eden: Environmental Stewardship for God's PeopleReview in Eco-Journey
Motherhood can be one of the most intense and transformative experiences of a woman's life. While there are many books that offer the "do's and don'ts" of effective parenting, few offer guidance on navigating the tumultuous inner experience of being a mother, with all its joy, pain, change, and uncertainty. This collection of writing by psychologists, poets, novelists, spiritual teachers, and everyday moms explores the rich, transformative journey of motherhood. • Poet and novelist Louise Erdrich captures the sheer wonder and awe of early motherhood. • Self-described "hip momma" Ariel Gore reflects on the challenges of dealing with her daughter's adolescent rebellion. • Journalist Joan Peters highlights the rise of the "Power Mom" and the risks of overparenting to our children and ourselves. • Zen teacher Cheri Huber shares a spiritual perspective: sometimes it's us parents who need a "time out" so that we can be more fully present and loving with our children. Previously published in hardcover under the title Your Children Will Raise You.
Over the years, cars have helped to define the experiences and self-perceptions of women in complex and sometimes unexpected ways. When women take the wheel, family structure and public space are reconfigured and re-gendered, creating a context for a literary tradition in which the car has served as a substitute for, an escape from, and an extension of the home, as well as a surrogate mother, a financial safeguard, and a means of self-expression. Driving Women examines the intersection of American fiction—primarily but not exclusively by women—and automobile culture. Deborah Clarke argues that issues critical to twentieth-century American society—technology, mobility, domesticity, and agency—are repeatedly articulated through women's relationships with cars. Women writers took surprisingly intense interest in car culture and its import for modern life, as the car, replete with material and symbolic meaning, recast literal and literary female power in the automotive age. Clarke draws on a wide range of literary works, both canonical and popular, to document women's fascination with cars from many perspectives: historical, psychological, economic, ethnic. Authors discussed include Wharton, Stein, Faulkner, O’Connor, Morrison, Erdrich, Mason, Kingsolver, Lopez, Kadohata, Smiley, Senna, Viramontes, Allison, and Silko. By investigating how cars can function as female space, reflect female identity, and reshape female agency, this engaging study opens up new angles from which to approach fiction by and about women and traces new directions in the intersection of literature, technology, and gender.
From Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ingrassia comes an American cultural history that explores how cars have both propelled and reflected the national experience--from the Model T to the Prius.
Cable and Carol Withers were vacationing in the mountains of western North Carolina when they happened upon a little girl sitting alone in a canoe on the banks of a river in the southern part of the Cherokee Reservation. Taking her to the nearest law office in Birdtown they turned her over to Sheriff Conners. After an extensive search for her parents or relatives they were allowed to adopt her and take her home to Durham where she grew into a beautiful young woman. After the tragic death of her adopted parents Celine Withers, along with her fiancé Marsh and best friends Irene and Mark, returns to the Great Smokey Mountains for a much needed vacation only to find something more sinister lurking in the shadows. Looking for answers to her haunting dreams she finds that she is now running for her life. As she begins to remember the past, finds comfort in her new found heritage and long lost family she is brought to the edge of losing it all again.
Over one year recounted in Flunking Sainthood, Riess failed twelve different spiritual practices. To her surprise, thought, she learned something important even from the ones she failed most spectacularly. This new 365 daily devotional, readers who are looking for spiritual growth will find guidance, arranged according to monthly practices such as gratitude, generosity, prayer, Sabbath-keeping, and hospitality. Each day’s reading has a reflection from a contemporary or classic spiritual thinker, a short scripture verse, and a brief prayer, reflection, or follow-up action. This daily devotional helps us know that there is great compassion for all of us who are flunking sainthood as we learn that spiritual growth is a lifelong journey without a fixed destination. Jana Riess is the author of The Twible and Flunking Sainthood: A Year of Breaking the Sabbath, Forgetting to Pray,and Still Loving My Neighbor, which was named by Publishers Weekly as one of the best religion books of the year. “This book is about how to relax in our imperfections, trust God’s grace, and take authentic and practical steps toward deepening maturity in faith.” —Sharon Garlough Brown, author of Sensible Shoes “This devotional will stimulate your brain, companion your soul, and inspire you.” —Lauren F. Winner, author of Mudhouse Sabbath and Still “In addition to being a sagely writer, Jana is an avid quote collector. Here are 365 gems, full of mojo in insight for normal folks like us, along with a simple challenge to make each day a wonderful experience of falling forward.” —Brian D. McLaren, author of We Make the Road by Walking “Refreshingly realistic about our human imperfections and heartily confident of grace.” —Marjorie Thompson, author of Soul Feast “Jana is a thoughtful, wise, and compassionate guide to the life of the spirit, and this book will be a daily gift to all of us who are flunking sainthood—but hope to raise our GPA.” —Greg Garrett, author of The Other Jesus “Relax, spiritual slackers. Somebody else has done all the reading. Now you have a book of poetic inspiration, Bible verses, current bestsellers and ancient thinkers, one for each day. Skip a day? No guilt. Don’t understand? You’ll catch up. What’s the point? Try doing it, anyway. Seriously? Hilariously.” —Lillian Daniel, author of When “Spiritual But Not Religious” Is Not Enough
One of the chief challenges of the Second Vatican Council was to reclaim the meaning of baptism, especially as the foundation of service and mission in the world. Fifty years after the close of that watershed gathering, nineteen distinguished religious leaders and scholars reexamine that challenge and its implications for preaching and ministry today. This book reinvigorates an important conversation.
