What does it mean to find and follow our personal calling? Howdo we distinguish between the "still, small voice" of our authentic vocation and all of the other competing counterfeit voices in our hearts and the needs of our world? Drawing widely on the wisdom of saints, sages, and the traditions of spiritual direction, Neafsey describes a path to living in the place, as Frederick Buechner has put it, "where our deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet.

Staying busy is easy. Staying well rested-now there's a challenge. How can you keep your energy, happiness, creativity, and relationships fresh and thriving in the midst of never-ending family demands, career pressures, and the stress of everyday life? In Sacred Rest, Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith, a board-certified internal medicine doctor, reveals why rest can no longer remain optional. Dr. Dalton-Smith shares seven types of rest she has found lacking in the lives of those she encounters in her clinical practice and research-physical, mental, spiritual, emotional, sensory, social, creative-and why a deficiency in any one of these types of rest can have unfavorable effects on your health, happiness, relationships, creativity, and productivity. Sacred Rest combines the science of rest, the spirituality of rest, the gifts of rest, and the resulting fruit of rest. It shows rest as something sacred, valuable, and worthy of our respect. By combining scientific research with personal stories, spiritual insight, and practical next steps, Sacred Rest gives the weary permission to embrace rest, set boundaries, and seek sanctuary without any guilt, shame, or fear.

What in the World is Music? Second Edition is an undergraduate, interactive e-textbook that explores the shared ways people engage with music and how humans organize and experience sound. It adopts a global approach, featuring more than 300 streaming videos and 50 streaming audio tracks of music from around the world. Drawing from both musicological and ethnomusicological modes of inquiry, the authors explain the nature and meaning of music as a universal human practice, making no distinction between Western and non-Western repertoires while providing students with strong points of connection to the ways it affects their own lives. The What in the World is Music? curriculum is divided into five parts, with a fully integrated multimedia program linked directly to the chapters: The Foundations of Music I proposes a working definition of "music" and considers inquiry-guided approaches to its study: Why do humans have innate musical perception? How does this ability manifest itself in the human voice? A catalog of musical instruments showcases global diversity and human ingenuity. The Foundations of Music II continues the inquiry-guided approach, recognizing the principles by which musical sound is organized while discussing elements such as rhythm, melody, harmony, texture, form, genre, and style. Where did music come from? What is it for? Music and Identity examines how music operates in shaping, negotiating, and expressing human identity and is organized around three broad conceptual frames: the group, hybridity, and conflict. Music and the Sacred addresses how music is used in religious practices throughout the world: chanting sacred texts and singing devotional verses, inspiring religious experience such as ecstasy and trance, and marking and shaping ritual space and time. Music and Social Life analyzes the uses of music in storytelling, theater, and film. It delves into the contributions of sound technologies, while looking at the many ways music enhances nightlife, public ceremonies, and festivals.

Becoming Religious is a contemporary investigation of a classical question in the scientific study of religion -- why religion? Why do people devote themselves to unseen, mysterious powers and goals? An answer is proposed from the religious biographies of contemporary South Georgians from all walks of life. Relevant theories from across the subdisciplines of religious studies are marshaled to explain how personal religious commitment emerges and grows.

Some of the authors who have contributed to this volume are philosophers, some are engaged in other academic disciplines, and several are practicing healthcare professionals. Their essays demonstrate that because phenomenology provides extraordinary insights into many of the issues that are directly addressed within the world of medicine it can be an invaluable practical tool, not only for those who are interested in the philosophy of medicine, but for all healthcare professionals who are actively engaged in the care of the sick.

In The Only Mind Worth Having, Fiona Gardner takes Thomas Merton's belief that the child mind is the only mind worth having and explores it in the context of Jesus' challenging, paradoxical, and enigmatic command to become like small children. Shedemonstrates how Merton's belief and Jesus' command can be understood as part of contemporary spirituality and spiritual practice. To follow Christ's command requires a great leap of the imagination. Gardner examines what it might mean to make this leap when one is an adult without it becoming sentimental and mawkish, or regressive and pathological. Using both psychological and spiritual insights, and drawing on the experiences of Thomas Merton and others, Gardner suggests that in some mysterious and paradoxical way recovering a sense of childhood spirituality is the path towards spiritual maturity. The move from childhood spirituality to adulthood and on to a spiritual maturity through the child mind is a move from innocence to experienceto organised innocence, or from dependence to independence to a state of being in-dependence with God.

Remembering 1969 is the story of one mans search for personal spiritual growth during the transitional times of the 1960s. Robert Atkinson offers a beautifully written portrait of a defining, transformative year in his life and, in the process, tells the story of a generation in transition. Beginning on July 20, 1969, with Neil Armstrongs walk on the moon, Atkinsons journey merges with important events of the time, including Woodstock and the maiden voyage of the Hudson River sloop Clearwater. Atkinson works with Pete Seeger on the Clearwater, visits Arlo Guthrie at his home in the Berkshires, and serendipitously meets Joseph Campbell, who becomes an important mentor. Combines a wide range of cultural events and personal experiences. Forward by Stephen Larsen, author of several books, including, Fire in the Mind: The Life of Joseph Campbell.

Conversations about Calling explores management perspectives of the calling construct. Using Max Weber’s seminal work, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, as a starting point, Myers seeks to enrich management perspectives of calling by integrating the contributions of other disciplines to the literature on calling. While the word 'calling' is casually used as shorthand for 'my ideal job', the calling concept has provoked deeper and varied interest among the secular and spiritual circles of both scholars and practitioners. Structured around the idea of four conversations, the book aims to promote a holistic examination of calling. Each conversation has a different focus, elucidating important dimensions of calling, and together they provide a truly comprehensive view. Part I of the book examines existing conversations in management, while part II explores calling across disciplines and eras, from the 1500s to the present. Finally, part III unifies all conversations in a comprehensive theory, then discusses its application and implications for practitioners and organizations. With a strong theoretical grounding, the book also incorporates practical applications supported by case studies. Anyone interested in ethics or management and spirituality will benefit from reading this book. Please visit www.conversationsaboutcalling.com to rate the book and write a review.

This volume champions vocation and calling as key elements of undergraduate education. It offers a historical and theoretical account of vocational reflection and discernment, as well as suggesting how these endeavours can be implemented through specific educational practices. Against the backdrop of the current national conversation about the purposes of higher education, it argues that the undergraduate years can provide a certain amount of relatively unfettered time, and a 'free and ordered space', in which students can consider their callings.