Cut through the noise and find your way back home... There is so much noise, so many voices. It's easy to lose yourself in the midst of it all. Out of habit, you fill the rare moments of silence with something--anything--without even realizing. And yet, God, your inner wisdom and your body are always speaking to you, giving you guidance. The question is: are you listening? As a mental health counselor and coach, Ally Rose was familiar with helping her clients navigate their way out of overwhelm and feeling stuck. When she realized that she had lost her own way in the sea of noise and other people's expectations--living a life that appeared perfectly fine from the outside, but was slowly killing her inside--Ally knew her only option was to take herself through the healing process she had been guiding others through for years. And so The Divine Pause was born. If you feel that you've gone astray from your authentic self and want to find your way back to her, to Divine Love, and to yourself, this book is for you. The Divine Pause is an invitation to take a moment, reflect, recenter and reconnect with your Inner Wisdom in the midst of our noisy world, one affirmation at a time.

Our lives are full of words. We rarely pause to attend to them, much less take time for personal retreat. This book encourages you to stop and revel in the sights, sounds, and meanings of what we say about God. Rachel Hackenberg offers the word-weary, the word-lover, and the spiritually hungry to explore the words of faith anew and thereby meet The Word afresh. Through twelve deceptively light-hearted chapters on letters and definitions, grammar and poetry, this book spa rks spiritual inspiration even as it provides practical exercises for an enlivening personal retreat experience! Rachel G. Hackenberg is an ordained United Church of Christ minister and author of Writing to God and Writing to God: Kids’ Edition. She facilitates workshops on prayer & worship, clergy renewal, and congregational vitality. She blogs at faithandwater.com. "Rachel Hackenberg invites us to reconsider and re-engage with the words we typically use to describe, rather than to fully express, our faith. Sacred Pause is a book to savor. It's as much a devotional as it is a guide for a creative retreat that will change the way you'll encounter Scripture and live the Gospel." —Meredith Gould, PHD, author of Service as a Spiritual Practice "This book will awaken you to a sensational faith, encompassing all your senses and enabling you to experience the holiness of God in the quotidian adventures of life. An antidote to spiritual stagnation, this text will get you out of your chair and onto your feet, dancing with God, singing with the Spirit, and jumping for joy with Jesus." —Bruce Epperly, author of Holy Adventure

This handbook in practical spirituality proposes that the level of stress, violence, fear and disconnect from Nature in the global society has risen in direct proportion to a fall in the collective level of conscious awareness. In order to reverse this trend a conscious impulse is required. Human beings need to rediscover the mystical underpinning of all religions and the engine of spiritual transformation: the art of presence. Only by learning to be present and stay present is it possible to dissolve harmful energy - in the form of false opinions and negative feelings - and create positive energy that imbues actions with intelligence, compassion and respect for the sacredness of all life. To this end, a practice in sensory awareness is offered. It is called 'the Pause'. Pausing affirms the body-mind continuum by empowering the senses as conduits of conscious awareness. When pausing is then applied to ordinary activities such as speaking, working, thinking and relating to others, spiritual evolution accelerates. The fruit of a re-awakened life is healing — for ourselves, for society, and for the entire Earth community.

With over 25,000 copies sold of the hardcover version, this paperback edition of Macrina Wiederkehr's bestselling book,Seven Sacred Pauses: Living Mindfully Through the Hours of the Day, invites readers to learn how to pray the hours through the practice of consciously pausing at the seven sacred moments of each day, making their daily passage through time a more sacred pilgrimage. Using scripture, poetry, reflections, personal stories, and quotes from a rich array of spiritual teachers for many religions, Wiederkehr helps readers become more attuned to living in the present moment and develop a kindred spirit with the rich tradition of the sacred hours. Seven Sacred Pauses is a wonderful gift to those who seek to find balance in their busy days and to bring the practice of the Divine Hours home to their own hearts.

Feeling overwhelmed, burned out, or stuck? Discover the power of the pause. Sometimes life throws you for a loop. You’re stressed out at your job; you’re torn between work and family; your motivation and productivity are taking a nosedive. Your impulse might be to lean in and tough it out, but what you may really need to do is take a step back. Reassess your life with a clear head and dive back in with purpose and poise. In this enlightening book, Rachael O’Meara guides you through the steps of your own pause journey: - The signs that you’re in need of a meaningful break - Planning your optimal pause—whether it’s as short as a day or as long as an epic journey - Reentering the world with renewed clarity and purpose. Incorporating the latest findings from psychology and neuroscience and peppered with inspiring stories of successful pauses, this book will show you that the fastest way to happiness is to slow down. Whether you pause by taking a five-minute walk outside, spending a day unplugged from digital devices, or taking a few weeks off to yourself, Pause will give you the tools to find what “lights you up” and the ability to lead the most satisfying and fulfilling life you choose. As seen in The Washington Post.

Terry Hershey, a popular author and retreat leader, understands that slowing down is difficult when you live in a fast-forward world. However, he also knows from personal experience that there is always a price to pay if we don't regularly take time simply to pause--to cease activity, to treasure quiet time, and to discern the deep meaning of life's little moments. In The Power of Pause, Hershey uses powerful stories and meditations, inspiring quotes, and a specific call to action at the end of each chapter to help us understand the profound value of slowing down in our daily lives and taking time for the truly important things. Over the course of 52 brief chapters, we learn how to take back the life God always intended for us to have by letting go of the things that keep getting in our way.

Topical. Relevant. Fresh. Pause for Power: A 365-Day Journey through the Scriptures will inspire readers to experience an unforgettable year of spiritual growth. Wiersbe Bible studies and commentaries have become a trusted resource for exploring scripture. Pause for Power continues that legacy. This unique devotional is designed to help readers discover spiritual insights through a simple, yet informative, approach to God’s Word. In just a few minutes each day, readers will encounter powerful truths that can impact their daily lives. Features include: Select scripture readings that explore practical, everyday topics Themed commentary from Wiersbe’s popular “BE” series Thoughtful questions that prompt personal reflection A small prayer that carries a big idea Readers will experience an unforgettable year in God’s Word.

USA TODAY BESTSELLER Truth of the Divine is the latest alternate-history first-contact novel in the Noumena series from the instant New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Los Angeles Times bestselling author Lindsay Ellis. The human race is at a crossroads; we know that we are not alone, but details about the alien presence on Earth are still being withheld from the public. As the political climate grows more unstable, the world is forced to consider the ramifications of granting human rights to nonhuman persons. How do you define “person” in the first place? Cora Sabino not only serves as the full-time communication intermediary between the alien entity Ampersand and his government chaperones but also shares a mysterious bond with him that is both painful and intimate in ways neither of them could have anticipated. Despite this, Ampersand is still keen on keeping secrets, even from Cora, which backfires on them both when investigative journalist Kaveh Mazandarani, a close colleague of Cora’s unscrupulous estranged father, witnesses far more of Ampersand’s machinations than anyone was meant to see. Since Cora has no choice but to trust Kaveh, the two must work together to prove to a fearful world that intelligent, conscious beings should be considered persons, no matter how horrifying, powerful, or malicious they may seem. Making this case is hard enough when the public doesn’t know what it’s dealing with—and it will only become harder when a mysterious flash illuminates the sky, marking the arrival of an agent of chaos that will light an already-unstable world on fire. With a voice completely her own, Lindsay Ellis deepens her realistic exploration of the reality of a planet faced with the presence of extraterrestrial intelligence, probing the essential questions of humanity and decency, and the boundaries of the human mind. While asking the question of what constitutes a “person,” Ellis also examines what makes a monster.

Mark's out of the military, these days, with his boring, safe civilian job doing explosives consulting. But you never really get away from war. So it feels inevitable when his old army buddy Jason comes calling, with a lucrative military contract for a mining job in an obscure South-East Asian country called Quanlom. They'll have to operate under the radar-Quanlom is being torn apart by civil war, and the US military isn't strictly supposed to be there. With no career prospects and a baby on the way, Mark finds himself making the worst mistake of his life and signing on with Jason. What awaits him in Quanlom is going to change everything. What awaits him in Quanlom is weirdness of the highest order: a civil war led by ten-year-old twins wielding something that looks a lot like magic, leading an army of warriors who look a lot like gods. What awaits him in Quanlom is an actual goddamn dragon. From world-renowned artists Asaf and Tomer Hanuka (twins, whose magic powers are strictly confined to pen and paper) and Boaz Lavie, The Divine is a fast-paced, brutal, and breathlessly beautiful portrait of a world where ancient powers vie with modern warfare and nobody escapes unscathed.

A Joyful Pause is about coming home to yourself. Have you noticed that everything is changing? Work has shifting demands, home life is busy, and the world around us is changing at an unparalleled speed. Now is the time to find the place in each of us that is steady in the midst of change. Learning how to pause is a helpful practice. We can build the habit of taking a few moments out of each day to turn our awareness inward. The practices that restore body, mind, and connection to spirit take time, and they ask us to create a bit of quiet and some internalization. A Joyful Pause is structured to make this easy for you to do. The connection we seek is in the pause, and through that connection, we come to know that we are home. A Joyful Pause helps you fill your life with more connection. These practices are here to help you bring more of your whole self into your life every day and to feel the love that is always there, just under the surface of our experiences.