Download or read book Thinking About Ordinary Things written by Jan Sokol and published by Karolinum Press. This book was released on 2013-06-01 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How to teach philosophy to young dissidents, excluded from higher education by the communist regime? The author of this book, Czech philosopher, former dissident, software developer and occasional politician, tries to carry over this experience into his university lectures. It is not a talk about philosophy or philosophers, but rather an invitation: its aim is first to excite the reader´s interest and to lead him or her to think philosophically by himself. In some 30 short chapters, covering a broad spectrum of topics and followed by questions, the reader is shown that philosophy is not only a special discipline, but rather a habit of thought, which can and should be applied anywhere.
Download or read book Three Ordinary Concepts written by Kayakangu Julius Malange and published by . This book was released on 2019-05-19 with total page 104 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We live in times where truth, meaning and certainty in life have all been buried by powerful philosophical and scientific ideas. They are so powerful that an average mind cannot fathom nor suspect erosion of our human identity. These ideas have penetrated our way of life by craftily messing up our identity, thinking and therefore affecting choices we make.It's important to discover ones identity in spirituality. Whatever you worship has your identity. Your identity influences how you think about self and the world around you. As a man thinks so is he. So to believe is to 'be' and 'live' while thriving in your purpose. Many of us Malawians and Africans struggle with a question of identity. Some view God as foreign concept sold to us by colonial masters, and some view God from traditional concept. But where is the truth? I believe it must be somewhere in the middle.A society is a collective representation of individuals, families living together. If we individually and collectively think like slaves, we can't build our nation. Nation design and building is a task that requires to dive into intangibles, and a daunting journey for a slave mindset that is devoid of hope . In our despair, we ridicule those with great ideas that can transform our nations.This is a book for secondary school, university students struggling with identity and meaning in the midst of African challenges. It is for working class who are well trained by education system but struggling with meaning in their lives. It is for the lonely entrepreneur struggling with loneliness, belief, self doubt, strategy and discouragement. This book is for the eagles that have eyes set to improve our society through creativity and innovations. It is also for you the wealthy Africans that can inspire hope to the masses by building platforms to unleash and maximize potential. Out of many one Africa! Let the one great story begin! Talk about this in your offices, families, homes, hangout suites, social functions, entertainment spots. I don't have all the answers but the questions.
Download or read book The Extraordinary Chemistry of Ordinary Things written by Carl H. Snyder and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2003 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Shows how chemistry affects our lives. * To emphasize the experimental basis of chemistry, chapters begin with demonstrations that readers can perform for themselves. * Think, Speculate, Reflect, and Ponder sections include questions that ask readers to think critically about the connections between chemistry, society, and individual values.
Download or read book The Extraordinary Healing Power of Ordinary Things written by Larry Dossey and published by Harmony. This book was released on 2007-06-05 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Every day modern medicine announces the arrival of yet another “wonder drug” or “miracle procedure” to a world increasingly wary of expensive high-tech cures. Drugs, transplants, and surgery don’t work for 90 percent of our aches and pains and, while we are grateful for life-saving developments, we know that most come with risks that we ignore at our peril. Long hailed as one of the founding fathers of mind-body medicine, Larry Dossey directs our attention to simple sources of healing that have been available for centuries—treasures often hidden in plain sight—from the power of optimism and of tears to speed recovery to the surprising usefulness of dirt and bugs in curing disease and infection to the benefits of doing nothing. Exploring the medical research that validates these simple remedies, Dossey encourages us to align ourselves with the wisdom of nature and allow true healing to take place. The Extraordinary Healing Power of Ordinary Things can transform our view of what health is all about, whether our concern is cancer or the common cold.
Download or read book The Gift of an Ordinary Day written by Katrina Kenison and published by Grand Central Publishing. This book was released on 2009-09-07 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Gift of an Ordinary Day is an intimate memoir of a family in transition, with boys becoming teenagers, careers ending and new ones opening up, and an attempt to find a deeper sense of place—and a slower pace—in a small New England town. This is a story of mid-life longings and discoveries, of lessons learned in the search for home and a new sense of purpose, and the bittersweet intensity of life with teenagers—holding on, letting go. Poised on the threshold between family life as she's always known it and her older son's departure for college, Kenison is surprised to find that the times she treasures most are the ordinary, unremarkable moments of everyday life, the very moments that she once took for granted, or rushed right through without noticing at all. The relationships, hopes, and dreams that Kenison illuminates will touch women's hearts, and her words will inspire mothers everywhere as they try to make peace with the inevitable changes in store.
Download or read book An Ordinary Age written by Rainesford Stauffer and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2021-05-04 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Best Book of 2021 —Esquire? Featured on Good Morning America "A meticulous cartography of how outer forces shape young people’s inner lives." —Esquire, Best Books of 2021 In conversation with young adults and experts alike, journalist Rainesford Stauffer explores how the incessant pursuit of a “best life” has put extraordinary pressure on young adults today, across our personal and professional lives—and how ordinary, meaningful experiences may instead be the foundation of a fulfilled and contented life. Young adulthood: the time of our lives when, theoretically, anything can happen, and the pressure is on to make sure everything does. Social media has long been the scapegoat for a generation of unhappy young people, but perhaps the forces working beneath us—wage stagnation, student debt, perfectionism, and inflated costs of living—have a larger, more detrimental impact on the world we post to our feeds. An Ordinary Age puts young adults at the center as Rainesford Stauffer examines our obsessive need to live and post our #bestlife, and the culture that has defined that life on narrow, and often unattainable, terms. From the now required slate of (often unpaid) internships, to the loneliness epidemic, to the stress of "finding yourself" through school, work, and hobbies—the world is demanding more of young people these days than ever before. And worse, it’s leaving little room for our generation to ask the big questions about who they want to be, and what makes a life feel meaningful. Perhaps we’re losing sight of the things that fulfill us: strong relationships, real roots in a community, and the ability to question how we want our lives to look and feel, even when that’s different from what we see on the ‘Gram. Stauffer makes the case that many of our most formative young adult moments are the ordinary ones: finding our people and sticking with them, learning to care for ourselves on our own terms, and figuring out who we are when the other stuff—the GPAs, job titles, the filters—fall away.
Download or read book The Ministry of Ordinary Places written by Shannan Martin and published by Thomas Nelson. This book was released on 2018-10-09 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Popular blogger Shannan Martin offers Christians who are longing for a more meaningful life a simple starting point: learn what it is to love and be loved right where God has placed you. For Christ-followers living in an increasingly complicated world, it can be easy to feel overwhelmed and unsure of how to live a life of intention and meaning. Where do we even begin? Shannan Martin offers a surprisingly simple answer: uncover the hidden corners of our cities and neighborhoods and invest deeply in the lives of people around us. She walks us through her own discoveries about the vital importance of paying attention, as well as the hard but rewarding truth about showing up and committing for the long haul, despite the inevitable encounters with brokenness and uncertainty. With transparency, humor, heart-tugging storytelling, and more than a little personal confession, Martin shows us that no matter where we live or how much we have, as we learn what it is to be with people as Jesus was, we'll find our very lives. The details will look quiet and ordinary, and the call will both exhaust and exhilarate us. But it will be the most worth-it adventure we will ever take. “This is a message the world needs. So often we overcomplicate ‘service’ or this elusive call to ministry when all the while ministry is right in front of us. Shannan reminds us of the simple, yet beautiful call to love our neighbor and what that could really look like today. We are reminded that extravagant love in ordinary moments does indeed lead to an extraordinary life.” --Katie Davis Majors, New York Times bestselling author of Kisses from Katie (I made up this attribution, so you may want to check on that) “This is the book we all need right now. If you’re longing for authentic community but aren’t sure where to begin, Shannan and this beautifully written book are the perfect guide. I truly believe when we stand together we stand a chance. I cheered along with every word.” —Korie Robertson, New York Times bestselling author “These are the days when we could all use a firm but gentle nudge to extend extra kindness to the people around us. Shannan reminds us to pay attention, look outside of ourselves, to lay aside our preconceived judgments, and stay put, bearing with each other, carrying each other‘s burdens, and finding Jesus at the center of it all.” —LaTasha Morrison, founder of Be the Bridge “Our nonstop consumer society seduces us into forsaking the ordinary. Even as believers, we are prone to aspire to do sexy ministry that garners headlines and warrants photo ops. But Shannan Martin helps us resist these impulses by calling the body to reclaim the sanctity and significance of ordinary places. Through personal stories, theology, and Scripture, she helps us discern God’s call upon our lives right where we are and illuminates why the most faithful ministry is oftentimes mundane, overlooked, and seemingly unimpressive. This book will help you thrive in your faith in practical and rooted ways!” —Dominique DuBois Gilliard, author of Rethinking Incarceration: Advocating for Justice That Restores “Sometimes when reading a book, I think ‘I’ll recommend this to that group’ or ‘this one goes go that community,’ but hand to heaven, I would put this book in every single pair of hands across ideology, camps, and tribes. Part storytelling, part prophetic, with dizzyingly wonderful writing, Shannan brings us back to the neighborhood, back to ordinary tables, back to a life we know in our deepest hearts is meant for us. I love her. I love this book.” —Jen Hatmaker, New York Times bestselling author of 7, For the Love, and Of Mess and Moxie
Download or read book Ordinary Light written by Tracy K. Smith and published by Knopf. This book was released on 2015-03-31 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: National Book Award Finalist From the dazzlingly original Pulitzer Prize-winning poet hailed for her “extraordinary range and ambition” (The New York Times Book Review): a quietly potent memoir that explores coming-of-age and the meaning of home against a complex backdrop of race, faith, and the unbreakable bond between a mother and daughter. The youngest of five children, Tracy K. Smith was raised with limitless affection and a firm belief in God by a stay-at-home mother and an engineer father. But just as Tracy is about to leave home for college, her mother is diagnosed with cancer, a condition she accepts as part of God’s plan. Ordinary Light is the story of a young woman struggling to fashion her own understanding of belief, loss, history, and what it means to be black in America. In lucid, clear prose, Smith interrogates her childhood in suburban California, her first collision with independence at Harvard, and her Alabama-born parents’ recollections of their own youth in the Civil Rights era. These dizzying juxtapositions—of her family’s past, her own comfortable present, and the promise of her future—will in due course compel Tracy to act on her passions for love and “ecstatic possibility,” and her desire to become a writer. Shot through with exquisite lyricism, wry humor, and an acute awareness of the beauty of everyday life, Ordinary Light is a gorgeous kaleidoscope of self and family, one that skillfully combines a child’s and teenager’s perceptions with adult retrospection. Here is a universal story of being and becoming, a classic portrait of the ways we find and lose ourselves amid the places we call home.
Download or read book The Remarkable Ordinary written by Frederick Buechner and published by Zondervan. This book was released on 2017-10-03 with total page 124 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Learn to see God's remarkable works in the everyday ordinary of your life. Your remarkable life is happening right here, right now. You may not be able to see it--your life may seem predictable and your work insignificant until you look at your life as Frederick Buechner does. Named "the father of today's spiritual memoir movement" by Christianity Today, Frederick Buechner reveals how to stop, look, and listen to your life. He reflects on how both art and faith teach us how to pay attention to the remarkableness right in front of us, to watch for the greatness in the ordinary, and to use our imaginations to see the greatness in others and love them well. Pay attention, says Buechner. Listen to the call of a bird or the rush of the wind, to the people who flow in and out of your life. The ordinary points you to the extraordinary God who created and loves all of creation, including you. Pay attention to these things as if your life depends upon it. Because, of course, it does. As you learn to pay attention to your life and what God is doing in it, you will uncover the plot of your life's story and the sacred opportunity to connect with the Divine in each moment.
Download or read book Unusual Uses for Ordinary Things written by Instructables.com and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2013-04-20 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Most people use nail polish remover to remove nail polish. They use coffee grounds to make coffee and hair dryers to dry their hair. The majority of people may also think that the use of eggs, lemons, mustard, butter, and mayonnaise should be restricted to making delicious food in the kitchen. The Instructables.com community would disagree with this logic—they have discovered hundreds of inventive and surprising ways to use these and other common household materials to improve day-to-day life. Did you know that tennis balls can protect your floors, fluff your laundry, and keep you from backing too far into (and thus destroying) your garage? How much do you know about aspirin? Sure, it may alleviate pain, but it can also be used to remove sweat stains, treat bug bites and stings, and prolong the life of your sputtering car battery. These are just a few of the quirky ideas that appear in Unusual Uses for Ordinary Things. Readers of Unusual Uses for Ordinary Things will learn how to: Remove odors from clothes using vodka Shine leather belts, wallets, purses, and jackets using butter Remove scuffs from sneakers using toothpaste Locate small objects once thought to be gone forever using pantyhose And much more!
Download or read book No Ordinary Thing written by G. Z. Schmidt and published by Holiday House. This book was released on 2020-10-13 with total page 243 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An imaginative time travel mystery about a boy whose life is upeneded with the arrival of a stranger and a magical promise. Twelve-year-old Adam doesn't mind living at his uncle's bakery, the Biscuit Basket, on the Lower East Side in New York City. The warm, delicious smells of freshly baked breads and chocolate croissants make every day feel cozy, even if Adam doesn't have many friends and he misses his long dead parents very much. When a mysterious but cheerful customer tells Adam that adventures await him, it's too strange to be true. But days later, an unbelievable, incredible thing happens. Adam travels back in time, first to Times Square in 1935, then a candle factory fire in 1967. But how are these moments related? What do they have to do with his parents' death? And why is a tall man with long eyebrows and a thin mustache following Adam's every move? In her debut novel G. Z. Schmidt has crafted a world filled with serendipity, mystery, and adventure for readers of Roald Dahl and Lemony Snicket.
Download or read book Reader s Digest Extraordinary Uses for Ordinary Things New Edition written by Reader's Digest and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2019-06-11 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An updated edition, now fully illustrated and in color, of the classic guide to using common household items to replace, restore, repair, or revive almost anything in your household—including yourself. When you have a household problem, don’t run to the store and waste good money, just open your pantry door—and EXTRAORDINARY USES FOR ORDINARY THINGS. You’ll be amazed at what you can do with baby oil, bleach, duct tape, tea, rubbing alcohol, and dozens of other handy items. This book will open your eyes to more than 2,000 creative and helpful uses you can make of familiar household products, such as: • Aspirin can revive a dead car battery and a coating of petroleum jelly will keep the battery’s terminals from corroding • A dab of shaving cream can keep your bathroom mirror from fogging and can remove juice stains on carpeting • Petroleum jelly makes a great lip balm, makeup remover, and moisturizer • A turkey baster is the perfect tool for watering Christmas trees and hard-to-reach plants • Beer can be combed through your hair as a setting lotion, used as lure to trap insects, and polish gold jewelry • Sandpaper can be used to sharpen needles and scissors, roughen slippery soles of new shoes, remove ink stains and scuff marks from suede, and remove stains on grout lines • Wax paper will prevent a cast-iron skillet from rusting, restore the nonstick surface on your iron, and use on the bottom of a microwave when cooking messy foods. If you hate to throw things away or if you delight in dreaming up new ways to use ordinary items, then you’ll love the ideas in this book. You’ll be amazed at the problems you can solve. It’s a book you’ll be sure to turn to again and again for helpful ideas, trustworthy advice, and entertaining reading.
Download or read book Ordinary written by Michael Horton and published by Zondervan. This book was released on 2014-10-07 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Radical. Crazy. Transformative and restless. Every word we read these days seems to suggest there’s a “next-best-thing,” if only we would change our comfortable, compromising lives. In fact, the greatest fear most Christians have is boredom—the sense that they are missing out on the radical life Jesus promised. One thing is certain. No one wants to be “ordinary.” Yet pastor and author Michael Horton believes that our attempts to measure our spiritual growth by our experiences, constantly seeking after the next big breakthrough, have left many Christians disillusioned and disappointed. There’s nothing wrong with an energetic faith; the danger is that we can burn ourselves out on restless anxieties and unrealistic expectations. What’s needed is not another program or a fresh approach to spiritual growth; it’s a renewed appreciation for the commonplace. Far from a call to low expectations and passivity, Horton invites readers to recover their sense of joy in the ordinary. He provides a guide to a sustainable discipleship that happens over the long haul—not a quick fix that leaves readers empty with unfulfilled promises. Convicting and ultimately empowering, Ordinary is not a call to do less; it’s an invitation to experience the elusive joy of the ordinary Christian life.
Download or read book The Design of Everyday Things written by Don Norman and published by Constellation. This book was released on 2013-11-05 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Even the smartest among us can feel inept as we fail to figure out which light switch or oven burner to turn on, or whether to push, pull, or slide a door. The fault, argues this ingenious—even liberating—book, lies not in ourselves, but in product design that ignores the needs of users and the principles of cognitive psychology. The problems range from ambiguous and hidden controls to arbitrary relationships between controls and functions, coupled with a lack of feedback or other assistance and unreasonable demands on memorization. The Design of Everyday Things shows that good, usable design is possible. The rules are simple: make things visible, exploit natural relationships that couple function and control, and make intelligent use of constraints. The goal: guide the user effortlessly to the right action on the right control at the right time. In this entertaining and insightful analysis, cognitive scientist Don Norman hails excellence of design as the most important key to regaining the competitive edge in influencing consumer behavior. Now fully expanded and updated, with a new introduction by the author, The Design of Everyday Things is a powerful primer on how—and why—some products satisfy customers while others only frustrate them.
Download or read book The Hundreds written by Lauren Berlant and published by Duke University Press. This book was released on 2018-12-21 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In The Hundreds Lauren Berlant and Kathleen Stewart speculate on writing, affect, politics, and attention to processes of world-making. The experiment of the one hundred word constraint—each piece is one hundred or multiples of one hundred words long—amplifies the resonance of things that are happening in atmospheres, rhythms of encounter, and scenes that shift the social and conceptual ground. What's an encounter with anything once it's seen as an incitement to composition? What's a concept or a theory if they're no longer seen as a truth effect, but a training in absorption, attention, and framing? The Hundreds includes four indexes in which Andrew Causey, Susan Lepselter, Fred Moten, and Stephen Muecke each respond with their own compositional, conceptual, and formal staging of the worlds of the book.
Download or read book Normal People written by Sally Rooney and published by Crown. This book was released on 2019-04-16 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NOW AN EMMY-NOMINATED HULU ORIGINAL SERIES • NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE • “A stunning novel about the transformative power of relationships” (People) from the author of Conversations with Friends, “a master of the literary page-turner” (J. Courtney Sullivan). “[A] novel that demands to be read compulsively, in one sitting.”—The Washington Post ONE OF ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY’S TEN BEST NOVELS OF THE DECADE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: People, Slate, The New York Public Library, Harvard Crimson Connell and Marianne grew up in the same small town, but the similarities end there. At school, Connell is popular and well liked, while Marianne is a loner. But when the two strike up a conversation—awkward but electrifying—something life changing begins. A year later, they’re both studying at Trinity College in Dublin. Marianne has found her feet in a new social world while Connell hangs at the sidelines, shy and uncertain. Throughout their years at university, Marianne and Connell circle one another, straying toward other people and possibilities but always magnetically, irresistibly drawn back together. And as she veers into self-destruction and he begins to search for meaning elsewhere, each must confront how far they are willing to go to save the other. Normal People is the story of mutual fascination, friendship, and love. It takes us from that first conversation to the years beyond, in the company of two people who try to stay apart but find that they can’t. WINNER: The British Book Award, The Costa Book Award, The An Post Irish Novel of the Year, Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York Times, The New York Times Book Review, Oprah Daily, Time, NPR, The Washington Post, Vogue, Esquire, Glamour, Elle, Marie Claire, Vox, The Paris Review, Good Housekeeping, Town & Country
Download or read book No Such Thing as Ordinary written by Rachel Balducci and published by Ave Maria Press. This book was released on 2022-05-20 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Are you looking for freedom and fulfillment in the life you are already living, or do you feel trapped because your everyday reality doesn’t match your dreams? No Such Thing as Ordinary will help you discover the passion and adventure in your life while empowering you to see how God uses daily, here-and-now moments to draw you to him in an extraordinary way. Drawing from Jesus’s conversation with the woman at the well in the Gospel of John, Rachel Balducci—Catholic writer and cohost of CatholicTV’s The Gist—shares how a deep unrest in her life launched her on a journey to discover the secret that true joy is found in a deeper relationship with Jesus. Through scripture, her passionate faith, and personal stories, Balducci shows you how to discover freedom, adventure, and deep, abiding peace; stop being distracted by the worldly voices telling you to forget your responsibilities and pursue your own fulfillment; find your true self in the midst of losing everything you thought defined you; and recognize and believe that where you are now is where God has placed you and where he intends to meet you.
