Download or read book You Are Loved Spiritual and Creative Adventures A Memoir written by Alex Cook and published by . This book was released on 2021-08-02 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In You Are Loved, artist Alex Cook intimately relates his creative and spiritual adventures in his quest to create beauty and know God. Anyone longing to bring their own precious vision into reality will find solace and inspiration in these very human stories of a life dedicated to following inspiration. This inspiring collection of stories paints the heartfelt, personal journey of an artist who experiences and observes his inner life with unflinching honesty and strives to live his outer life just as honestly. We share Alex's struggles and revelations as he explores the questions that start to drive him from a young age: What is God and what happens when I express His Love in in my own way? Does God really tell me to go walking late at night just to dance on a hill, travel to Africa to paint a mural or don a bear costume to ride through the streets of Boston? How can I be an artist who is true to Beauty and the Voice within and still pay the rent? In a series of thoughtful and often humorous adventures, Alex reveals how he grew in his artistic and authentic expression over the years - one inspired step at a time - until he eventually found himself making his living as a traveling musician and muralist. Alex also recounts his four-year battle with depression and the path that finally led to freedom. He talks about the magic and adventure of hitchhiking and how it opened his world and later prepared him to reach men in jail as a chaplain. He writes about navigating romantic relationships and opportunity they provide for spiritual growth. Always he is his own man, defying standard assumptions and praying beyond his fears. This book is a fascinating look at the creative process and how to live a life of courage and love. It gives us an inkling of the ever-expanding journey Love takes us on if we let it, and the profound impact following that path can have on our lives and those around us.

Download or read book The Burn Zone written by Renee Linnell and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2018-10-09 with total page 319 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After seven years of faithfully following her spiritual teacher, Renee Linnell finally realized she was in a cult and had been severely brainwashed. But how did that happen to someone like her? She had graduated magna cum laude with a double degree. She had traveled to nearly fifty countries alone before she turned thirty-five. She was a surf model and a professional Argentine tango dancer. She had started five different companies and had an MBA from NYU. How could someone like her end up brainwashed and in a cult? The Burn Zone is an exploration of how we give up our power―how what started out as a need to heal from the loss of her parents and to understand the big questions in life could leave a young woman fighting for her sanity and her sense of self. In the years following her departure from the cult, Linnell struggled to reclaim herself, to stand in her truth, and to rebuild her life. And eventually, after battling depression and isolation, she found a way to come out the other side stronger than ever. Part inspirational story, part cautionary tale, this is a memoir for spiritual seekers and those who feel lost in a world that makes them feel less than perfect.

Download or read book Grace in Tension written by Claire McGarry and published by Our Sunday Visitor. This book was released on 2021-10-01 with total page 112 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We all face stress and tension in our daily lives. We might even wonder why our God of abundant goodness doesn’t remove the everyday struggles we face. Jesus’ interactions with Martha and Mary in the Gospel provide us the key to understanding how God shows us his love by allowing tensions in our lives. As we follow the sisters’ transformative journeys through their own struggles, reflecting on what transpires between Scripture verses, we see their initial tension become the catalyst that drives both Mary and Martha to the feet of Jesus — the place where all discover peace. Grace in Tension explores the areas where stress arises in our own lives. Each chapter ends with a thought-provoking prayer to inspire us to go to God with our problems, followed by questions for reflection to help us see all the ways he’s working for our good. God doesn’t create any of it, but he does show up amid life’s difficulties, ready to lead us through. No matter how big or small our struggle, when we seek him out, he reveals what we need to do to resolve our tension, transforming it into grace. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Claire McGarry is the founder of MOSAIC of Faith, a ministry for mothers of infants to school-aged children to explore their faith through motherhood. She contributes regularly to CatholicMom.com and blogs at ShiftingMyPerspective.com. She is the author of Lenten devotional With Our Savior, and her work has appeared in Chicken Soup for the Soul, Keys for Kids, These Days, and Focus on the Family magazine. She lives in New Hampshire with her husband and three children.

Download or read book Finding Magic written by Sally Quinn and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2017-09-12 with total page 438 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author, journalist, television commentator, and longtime Washington insider reflects on the spiritual quest that has brought deeper meaning to her life—and kept her grounded within the high-powered political world of Washington, D.C.’s elite—her renowned writing career, her celebrity marriage, and her legendary role as doyenne of the capital’s social scene. In this emotionally involving, illuminating memoir, the legendary Washington Post journalist, and author talks candidly about her life at the white-hot center of power and the surprising spiritual quest that has driven her for more than half a century. While working as a reporter, caring for a learning-disabled son with her husband, longtime Washington Post executive editor Benjamin Bradlee, reigning over the capital’s social scene, and remaining intimately connected with national politics, Sally Quinn yearned to understand what truly made the world—and her life—tick. After years of searching, most of which occurring in the secular capital of the world, she came to realize that the time she spent with friends and family—the evenings of shared hospitality and intimate fellowship—provided spiritual nourishment and that this theme has been woven into all the most important moments of her life. In this spiritual memoir, Quinn speaks frankly about her varied, provocative spiritual experiences—from her Southern family of Presbyterians and psychics, to voodoo lessons from her Baptist nanny, her trials as a hospitalized military kid in Japan as the Korean War begins, to her adventures as a Post reporter and columnist and her experience as one of the first female news anchors on national television; her battles with the Nixon administration, Watergate, and other scandals that have rocked the nation; her courtship and long marriage to one of the most authoritative figures in the media; her role as the capital’s most influential hostess; and her growing fascination with religious issues. This fascination led to her pioneering work in creating the most visited religious site on the web, OnFaith.co, where she reports on the unseen driving force of American life. Throughout this radiant, thoughtful, and surprisingly intimate memoir, Quinn reveals how "it’s all magic"—the many forms of what draws us together and provides meaning to all we do. Her roller coaster and irreverent but surprisingly spiritual story allows us to see how the infinite wonder of God and the values of meaningful conversation, experience, and community are available to us all. Finding Magic includes 16 pages of exclusive photographs.

Download or read book All You Need is Love written by Nancy Cooke de Herrera and published by . This book was released on 2003 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There are some stories that no writer is talented enough to craft, no imagination wild enough to create, and no storyteller gifted enough to tell. These are the true-life stories of people who go unnoticed by us for almost a lifetime. These are the people who live by their own rules, pay little attention to other people's truths, and follow their own hearts. In the process, they suffer great pains yet experience great joy. In the end, we all want to share in their journey, learn their lessons, and live -- if only for a moment -- vicariously. Always in search of something more, Nancy Cooke de Herrera has led a life of subtle defiance in order to live a life of great adventure. In this story, Nancy tells the intimate details of her life, which include her friendship with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, founding father of Transcendental Meditation, and their time together in the Valley of the Saints with The Beatles, Mia Farrow, Mike Love, Donovan Leitch, and Paul Horn. All You Need Is Love -- a fascinating autobiography, a captivating adventure, an exotic tale, a celebrity-sprinkled true-story -- chronicles Nancy's life story and the growth of the Maharishi, from little known guru to international teacher of Transcendental Meditation and promoter of peace and unconditional love. It is the ultimate eyewitness account of the time in history when spirituality spread from the East to the West. Book jacket.

Download or read book A Message from Jakie written by Michael Weinberger and published by Sentient Publications. This book was released on 2005-03-31 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jakie's message is one of hope and inspiration about life and what happens when life is over. She tells us to trust ourselves and love no matter what, even when love brings pain. This is a very human book about the essential elements of a well-lived life and a very graceful death.

Download or read book Travels written by Michael Crichton and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2012-05-14 with total page 464 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the bestselling author of Jurassic Park, Timeline, and Sphere comes a deeply personal memoir full of fascinating adventures as he travels everywhere from the Mayan pyramids to Kilimanjaro. Fueled by a powerful curiosity—and by a need to see, feel, and hear, firsthand and close-up—Michael Crichton's journeys have carried him into worlds diverse and compelling—swimming with mud sharks in Tahiti, tracking wild animals through the jungle of Rwanda. This is a record of those travels—an exhilarating quest across the familiar and exotic frontiers of the outer world, a determined odyssey into the unfathomable, spiritual depths of the inner world. It is an adventure of risk and rejuvenation, terror and wonder, as exciting as Michael Crichton's many masterful and widely heralded works of fiction.

Download or read book Super Attractor written by Gabrielle Bernstein and published by Hay House, Inc. This book was released on 2019-09-24 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ** NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER! ** Ready to take the next step toward living in alignment with the Universe? The #1 New York Times best-selling author of The Universe Has Your Back shows you how. In Super Attractor, Gabrielle Bernstein lays out the essential steps for living in alignment with the Universe--more fully than you've ever done before. "I've always known that there is a nonphysical presence beyond my visible sight," Gabby writes. "All my life I've intuitively tuned in to it and used it as a source for good. . . . What we call it is irrelevant. Connecting to it is imperative." Super Attractor is a manifesto for making that connection and marrying your spiritual life with your day-to-day experience. In these pages, you'll learn to: * Move beyond dabbling in your practice, when it's convenient, to living a spiritual life all the time * Take practical steps to create a life filled with purpose, happiness, and freedom * Feel a sense of awe each day as you witness miracles unfold * Release the past and live without fear of the future * Tap into the infinite source of abundance, joy, and well-being that is your birthright * Bring more light to your own life and the world around you This book is a journey of remembering where your true power lies. You'll learn how to co-create the life you want. You'll accept that life can flow, that attracting is fun, and that you don't have to work so hard to get what you want. Most important, you'll feel good. And when you feel good, you'll give off a presence of joy that can elevate everyone around you. After reading this book, you will know how to fulfill your function: to be a force of love in the world.

Download or read book The Universe Has Your Back written by Gabrielle Bernstein and published by Hay House, Inc. This book was released on 2016-09-27 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A new role model.”— The New York Times In The Universe Has Your Back, New York Times best-selling author Gabrielle Bernstein teaches readers how to transform their fear into faith in order to live a divinely guided life. Each story and lesson in the book guides readers to release the blocks to what they most long for: happiness, security and clear direction. The lessons help readers relinquish the need to control so they can relax into a sense of certainty and freedom. Readers will learn to stop chasing life and truly live. Making the shift from fear to faith will give readers a sense of power in a world that all too often makes them feel utterly powerless. When the tragedies of the world seem overwhelming, this book will help guide them back to their true power. Gabrielle says, “My commitment with this book is to wake up as many people as possible to their connection to faith and joy. In that connection, we can be guided to our true purpose: to be love and spread love. These words can no longer be cute buzz phrases that we merely post on social media. Rather, these words must be our mission. The happiness, safety, and security we long for lies in our commitment to love. ” When readers follow this path, they ’ll begin to feel a swell of energy move through them. They will find strength when they are down, synchronicity and support when they ’re lost, safety in the face of uncertainty, and joy when they are otherwise in pain. Follow the secrets revealed in this book to unleash the presence of your power and know always that The Universe Has Your Back.

Download or read book On My Own Two Feet written by Amy Purdy and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2014-12-30 with total page 198 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Amy Purdy, who inspired a nation on Dancing with the Stars and has been called a hero by Oprah Winfrey, reveals the intimate details of her triumphant comeback from the brink of death to making history as a Paralympic snowboarder. In this poignant and uplifting memoir, Dancing With the Stars sensation Amy Purdy reveals the story of how losing her legs led her to find a spiritual path. When the Las Vegas native was just nineteen, she contracted bacterial meningitis and was given less than a two percent chance of survival. In a near-death experience, she saw three figures who told her: “You can come with us, or you can stay. No matter what happens in your life, it’s all going to make sense in the end.” In that moment, Amy chose to live. Her glimpse of the afterlife—coupled with a mysterious premonition she’d had a month before —became the defining experiences that put Amy’s life on a new trajectory after her legs had to be amputated. She wouldn’t just beat meningitis and walk again; she would go on to create a life filled with bold adventures, big dreams, and boundless vitality—and share that spirit with the world. In 2014, Amy—the only competitor, male or female, with two prosthetic legs—claimed a bronze medal for the U.S. Paralympic team in adaptive snowboarding. She then became a contestant on season eighteen of Dancing With the Stars, and viewers were captivated as the girl with bionic legs managed to out-dance her competitors all the way to the finale. Amy’s journey is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit and the capacity we all have to dream bigger, defy expectations, and rewrite our stories. Amy was given a second chance for a reason—to use her life to inspire others. Her powerful memoir urges us to live life to the fullest, because we are all a lot more capable than we could ever imagine.

Download or read book Being Ram Dass written by Ram Dass and published by Sounds True. This book was released on 2021-01-12 with total page 467 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Ram Dass lived a full life and then some. His final statement is thorough and, yes, enlightening.” —Kirkus Reviews Perhaps no other teacher has sparked the fires of as many spiritual seekers in the West as Ram Dass. If you’ve ever embraced the phrase “be here now,” practiced meditation or yoga, tried psychedelics, or supported anyone in a hospice, prison, or homeless center—then the story of Ram Dass is also part of your story. From his birth in 1931 to his luminous later years, Ram Dass saw his life as just one incarnation of many. This memoir puts us in the passenger seat with the one-time Harvard psychologist and lifelong risk-taker Richard Alpert, who loved to take friends on wild rides on his Harley and test nearly every boundary—inner or outer—that came his way. Being Ram Dass shares his life’s odyssey in intimate detail: how he struggled with issues of self-identity and sexuality in his youth, pioneered psychedelic research, and opened the doorways to Eastern spiritual practices. In 1967 he trekked to India and met his guru, Neem Karoli Baba. He returned with a perspective on spirituality and psychology that changed millions. Featuring 64 pages of color photographs, this intimate memoir chronicles the cultural and spiritual transformations Ram Dass experienced that resonate with us to this day, a journey from the mind to the heart, from the ego to the soul. Before, after, and along these waypoints, readers will encounter many other adventures and revelations—each ringing with the potential to awaken the universal, loving divine that links us to this beloved teacher and all of us to each other.

Download or read book This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage written by Ann Patchett and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2013-11-07 with total page 335 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'So compellingly personal you feel you're looking over her shoulder as she sits down to write' New York Times 'Electrically entertaining ... Funny, generous, spirited and kind' The Times This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage is an irresistible blend of literature and memoir revealing the big experiences and little moments that shaped Ann Patchett as a daughter, wife, friend and writer. Here, Ann Patchett shares entertaining and moving stories about her tumultuous childhood, her painful early divorce, the excitement of selling her first book, driving a Winnebago from Montana to Yellowstone Park, her joyous discovery of opera, scaling a six-foot wall in order to join the Los Angeles Police Department, the gradual loss of her beloved grandmother, starting her own bookshop in Nashville, her love for her very special dog and, of course, her eventual happy marriage. This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage is a memoir both wide ranging and deeply personal, overflowing with close observation and emotional wisdom, told with wit, honesty and irresistible warmth.

Download or read book Beamish Boy A Memoir written by Albert Flynn DeSilver and published by The Owl Press. This book was released on 2012-03-29 with total page 161 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: *A NOTE REGARDING PRICE: Proceeds from the sale of each book will be donated to Literacy, Recovery, and Mindfulness education programs!]"I was raised in a clock tower with bats in the belfry." So begins, "Beamish Boy," the harrowing account of Albert Flynn DeSilver's inspirational journey from suicidal alcoholic to Poet Laureate and beyond. Though growing up in material privilege in suburban Connecticut in the 1970's and 80's, Albert finds himself whirling through an emotional wasteland void of love, complicated by his mostly absent alcoholic mother, while being raised by a violent Swiss-German governess. A dramatic downgrade in lifestyle right at adolescence inspires a hasty attraction to alcohol, drugs, and a series of increasingly shocking adventures.Filled with a luminous cast of characters, and told with searing honesty and ironic wit, "Beamish Boy" is a redemptive story of survival and letting go, as we follow Albert from one zany adventure and near-death experience to the next. He is run over by his best friend after blacking out in a driveway, contracts malaria in east Africa, and joins a psychedelic "therapy" cult, until he miraculously finds himself, through photography, poetry, and a hilarious awakening at a meditation retreat center, realizing finally, what it means to be fully alive and to truly love."Beamish Boy" charts a compelling spiritual journey, from violence and self-annihilation to creativity and self-realization. Not your typical addiction memoir, "Beamish Boy" reads more like a witty and poetic novel, offering a profound window into the human condition, complete with its tragedies and ecstasies--illuminating one man's quest for lasting wisdom.

Download or read book Your Story Matters written by Leslie Leyland Fields and published by NavPress. This book was released on 2020-04-07 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Your Story Matters presents a dynamic and spiritually formative process for understanding and redeeming the past in order to live well in the present and into the future. Leslie Leyland Fields has used and taught this practical and inspiring writing process for decades, helping people from all walks of life to access memory and sift through the truth of their stories. This is not just a book for writers. Each one of us has a story, and understanding God's work in our stories is a vital part of our faith. Through the spiritual practice of writing, we can "remember" his acts among us, "declare his glory among the nations," and pass on to others what we have witnessed of God in this life: the mysterious, the tragic, the miraculous, the ordinary. With a companion video curriculum from RightNow Media, this is a "why not" book as opposed to a "how to" book. Leslie asks each of us an important question: "Why not learn to tell your story, in the context of the grander story of God?"

Download or read book Writing as a Path to Awakening written by Albert DeSilver and published by Sounds True. This book was released on 2017-08-31 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The best writers say their work seems to come from a source beyond the thinking mind. But how do we access that source? “We must first look inside ourselves and be willing to touch that raw emotional core at the heart of a deeper creativity,” writes Albert Flynn DeSilver. In Writing as a Path to Awakening, this renowned poet, writer, and teacher shows you how to use meditation to cultivate true depth in your own writing—so your words reveal layers of profound insight that inspire and move your readers. Constructed as a year-long exploration with a new focus for each month and season, Writing as a Path to Awakening includes: • How to approach writing and reading with a greater level of presence and immersion • Engaging curiosity, playfulness, and spontaneity to keep your regular practice fresh • Meditating with poetry to deeply embody the power of language • How you can spark your imagination by connecting to the groundless source of creation • The meditative approach to storytelling—how not being trapped in your story liberates your capacity to create • Editing, rewriting, and the path of spiritual transformation “Writing and meditation practice are a powerful pair, a dynamic duo,” Albert Flynn DeSilver teaches. “Together they nourish and push, trigger and define, inform and inspire, enable, and energize. To engage in both practices fully is to activate a more complete, creative, and spiritual self.” With a mixture of engaging storytelling and practical exercises, Writing as a Path to Awakening invites you on a yearlong journey of growth and discovery—to enhance your writing through the practice of meditation while using the creative process to accelerate your spiritual evolution.

Download or read book Swinging on the Garden Gate written by Elizabeth Andrew and published by Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations. This book was released on 2000 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A woman's coming-of-age journey through the rugged landscape of Wales to the reflective quiet of a retreat center. Along the way she questions and explores the depth of her Methodist faith as she comes to terms with her bisexual identity.

Download or read book A Boob s Life written by Leslie Lehr and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2021-03-02 with total page 393 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Boob’s Life explores the surprising truth about women’s most popular body part with vulnerable, witty frankness and true nuggets of American culture that will resonate with everyone who has breasts—or loves them. Author Leslie Lehr wants to talk about boobs. She’s gone from size AA to DDD and everything between, from puberty to motherhood, enhancement to cancer, and beyond. And she’s not alone—these are classic life stages for women today. At turns funny and heartbreaking, A Boob’s Life explores both the joys and hazards inherent to living in a woman’s body. Lehr deftly blends her personal narrative with national history, starting in the 1960s with the women’s liberation movement and moving to the current feminist dialogue and what it means to be a woman. Her insightful and clever writing analyzes how America’s obsession with the female form has affected her own life’s journey and the psyche of all women today. From her prize-winning fiction to her viral New York Times Modern Love essay, exploring the challenges facing contemporary women has been Lehr’s life-long passion. A Boob’s Life, her first project since breast cancer treatment, continues this mission, taking readers on a wildly informative, deeply personal, and utterly relatable journey. No matter your gender, you’ll never view this sexy and sacred body part the same way again.