Is it possible that angels, saints, and even our departed ancestors support and inspire us throughout our lives? How can we connect with them in a real way? Christine Valters Paintner, popular spiritual writer and abbess of the online Abbey of the Arts, says these sacred beings are paving the way for our journey toward God’s love, even as we pass through a world rife with struggle, discord, and violence. In The Love of Thousands, she helps us open up our spiritual imagination to encounter our heavenly helpers, allowing us to become everyday mystics. Paintner describes saints, angels, and our ancestors as sacred beings who surround us like concentric circles, watching over us with compassion and offering us spiritual guidance throughout our lives. In The Love of Thousands, she guides us to see the ways these beings support us, from the care of our guardian angels, to the wisdom of the mystics, to the witness of our loved ones who have crossed the threshold to the light of God’s presence. Paintner’s gentle guidance reveals that we can be inspired and sustained when we are open and attentive in exploring our connections to these holy companions walking alongside us. Transformed by the encounter, we can grow into the kinds of ancestors—part of the Communion of Saints—who offer spiritual support and wisdom to others in turn. Throughout The Love of Thousands, we are led to explore and better understand the teachings from scripture and tradition about the four archangels, the protection offered by our guardian angels, and what it might look like to wrestle with angels as Jacob did in the Old Testament; the witness of the saints and mystics, with an exploration of how we are all called to be mystics; the tradition of relics and the practice of pilgrimage; the presence of our ancestors, inviting us first to claim the blessings of our family heritage and then to embrace grief and explore healing the wounds of our lineage. Each chapter includes a reflection, practice, meditation, and creative exercise that will help cultivate an ongoing relationship with angels, saints, and our ancestors. Paintner also suggests various ways to engage with this book to reflect more deeply on the spiritual content, such as reading it over the course of a year or with others as a form of spiritual pilgrimage.

Whether she is writing about bats, bees, procupines, or wolves, contemplating the mysteries of caves, or delving into the traditions, beliefs, and myths of Native American cultures, Linda Hogan expresses a deep reverence for the dwelling we all share--the Earth. 16 line drawings.

Praise for Lightsey Darst: "This is a vital poetry of the Deep South ripe with bones, blood and bogs, Snow Whites, Gretels and debutantes all stirred into a harrowing stew of lust, dusk and summer." —New York Times "A terrific collection. . . . Full of horror, bleak humor, and suspense, these poems read like mini-thrillers, daring you to put the book down." — Entertainment Weekly Desire & the page felt it. I told myself, something is happening. You could make weather happen then. Dear not only in dream life, dear never until storm.

Two words saved my life, two simple, but mighty words-THANK YOU! The most compelling chapter of my story began with a Love Note, one simple handwritten gesture of love, hope and gratitude.My purpose was handed to me in the shape of an envelope, a simple, paper container with a sealable flap that holds a little bit of hope for our everyday heroes. As it turned out, a life of stationary was my destiny, not a stationary life. And it all began on the heels of a broken heart. For the better part of my life, I dreamed of and even prayed for an epic love story, and this is a love story on so many levels. I just never expected it to come at such a great toll. But then again, if you look back through the course of history, the greatest love stories always do. Natalie June Reilly is a writer and the founder of the Nothing but Love Notes movement that has inspired a generation of gratitude in the form of a handwritten Love Note. She is happily living out her days, having landed the beach, the boy and now the book. None of which would have happened, if not for God's grace, a mother's love and, of course, a Love Note.

Thousands is book 4 in the USA Today Bestselling Romance, DOLLAR SERIES “Love had been stolen from me for reasons entirely my fault. But then a miracle happened, and Pim gave me something I thought was lost forever. She gave me a love I’d earned. Love that ruined me. Love that made me hopelessly hers…” Once upon a time, I didn’t think I’d ever be normal. Now, I’m talking and trusting, and it’s all thanks to Elder. He gave me my life back, and I gave him my heart, but love stories like ours are never simple. I did something to protect him. He did something to survive me. We screwed up. And now, it’s no longer just about us. It’s about safety, sanctuary, and sin.

The New York Times-bestselling collection of poems from celebrated poet Mary Oliver In A Thousand Mornings, Mary Oliver returns to the imagery that has come to define her life’s work, transporting us to the marshland and coastline of her beloved home, Provincetown, Massachusetts. Whether studying the leaves of a tree or mourning her treasured dog Percy, Oliver is open to the teachings contained in the smallest of moments and explores with startling clarity, humor, and kindness the mysteries of our daily experience.

A vibrant and touching children's picture book about adoption and foster care set against the backdrop of Jasmine's fun-filled birthday parties. Underneath all the sprinkles, this is a story about a diverse family and the power of belonging.

One of NPR's Best Books of the Year “Straight’s memoir is a lyric social history of her multiracial clan in Riverside that explores the bonds of love and survival that bind them, with a particular emphasis on the women’s stories . . . The aftereffect of all these disparate stories juxtaposed in a single epic is remarkable. Its resonance lingers for days after reading.” —San Francisco Chronicle In the Country of Women is a valuable social history and a personal narrative that reads like a love song to America and indomitable women. In inland Southern California, near the desert and the Mexican border, Susan Straight, a self–proclaimed book nerd, and Dwayne Sims, an African American basketball player, started dating in high school. After college, they married and drove to Amherst, Massachusetts, where Straight met her teacher and mentor, James Baldwin, who encouraged her to write. Once back in Riverside, at driveway barbecues and fish fries with the large, close–knit Sims family, Straight—and eventually her three daughters—heard for decades the stories of Dwayne’s female ancestors. Some women escaped violence in post–slavery Tennessee, some escaped murder in Jim Crow Mississippi, and some fled abusive men. Straight’s mother–in–law, Alberta Sims, is the descendant at the heart of this memoir. Susan’s family, too, reflects the hardship and resilience of women pushing onward—from Switzerland, Canada, and the Colorado Rockies to California. A Pakistani word, biraderi, is one Straight uses to define a complex system of kinship and clan—those who become your family. An entire community helped raise her daughters. Of her three girls, now grown and working in museums and the entertainment industry, Straight writes, “The daughters of our ancestors carry in their blood at least three continents. We are not about borders. We are about love and survival.” “Certain books give off the sense that you won’t want them to end, so splendid the writing, so lyrical the stories. Such is the case with Southern California novelist Susan Straight’s new memoir, In the Country of Women . . . Her vibrant pages are filled with people of churned–together blood culled from scattered immigrants and native peoples, indomitable women and their babies. Yet they never succumb . . . Straight gives us permission to remember what went before with passion and attachment.” ––Los Angeles Times

"She, Mo Ying, was a lonely Girl on the brink of life and death, and was also a terrifying killer. She struggled all day on the edge between right and wrong, so she could only pretend to be weak in her heart.He was his Noble Consort, but she was also a person that he could not love and hate. He was so similar to the person she once loved, she thought that being moved would take it for granted, but she felt tired because of his unknown attitude. When she gave up, she realized that her forgiveness for him was not because of love, but because of a memory that she could not let go.The man who had always been scheming against her but always saved her at the last moment had been using his unique method to tell her that the world was dangerous, and had also used his extremely obscure method to protect her.She had gone through two countries to stay by their side. One was to make a vow from her previous life, and the other was to pay back the debt she had owed him. She was destined to have a different kind of love in this life.In his previous life, he had put on ten miles of makeup for her, but even if he died, he would never be able to change her love. In this life, he had calculated everything, including his loved ones, to ascend to the throne, yet he repeated the same thoughts little by little.

In 1954, a pastor named Jim Jones opened a church in Indianapolis called Peoples Temple Full Gospel Church. He was a charismatic preacher with idealistic beliefs, and he quickly filled his pews with an audience eager to hear his sermons on social justice. As Jones’s behavior became erratic and his message more ominous, his followers leaned on each other to recapture the sense of equality that had drawn them to his church. But even as the congregation thrived, Jones made it increasingly difficult for members to leave. By the time Jones moved his congregation to a remote jungle in Guyana and the US government began to investigate allegations of abuse and false imprisonment in Jonestown, it was too late. A Thousand Lives is the story of Jonestown as it has never been told. New York Times bestselling author Julia Scheeres drew from tens of thousands of recently declassified FBI documents and audiotapes, as well as rare videos and interviews, to piece together an unprecedented and compelling history of the doomed camp, focusing on the people who lived there. The people who built Jonestown wanted to forge a better life for themselves and their children. In South America, however, they found themselves trapped in Jonestown and cut off from the outside world as their leader goaded them toward committing “revolutionary suicide” and deprived them of food, sleep, and hope. Vividly written and impossible to forget, A Thousand Lives is a story of blind loyalty and daring escapes, of corrupted ideals and senseless, haunting loss.