It was supposed to be a wonderful day, a day of family reunion, love, joy... everything. Yet, it became the nightmare that haunted me for the rest of my life. What if I have the courage to fight back a little bit more? What if I have the strength to fight back a little bit more? What if I have the intelligence to find the killer? Everything will be different. I will have a chance to tell my parents who I am, to get accepted, to crush the barriers inside my heart. Maybe, I will feel better.

"This volume containing a translation, annotations, and historical studies of Giun's (1200-1253) Verse Comments on Dōgen's Treasury of the True Dharma Eye (Shōbōgenzō hinmokuju) represents the initial book-length contribution to a crucial though previously unnoticed sub-field in Japanese Buddhist studies involving text-historical and literary-philological examinations of a key example of the copious premodern collections of annotations and interpretations of the masterwork of Zen master Dōgen. It is the first study of the life and thought of Giun and of the 60-fascicle version of Dōgen's masterwork, which are crucial for understanding the history of the Sōtō Zen Buddhist sect's intellectual development. The main translation of this texts consists of four-line verses and capping phrases composed by Giun, which is accompanied by additional capping phrases that were contributed by an eighteenth-century commentator, Katsusdō Honkō. The book also provides an examination of the background and influences exerted on and by Giun's Verse Comments in relation to various aspects of Dōgen's writings and Zen thought in China and Japan"--

Either by choice or by circumstance, we all encounter times of starting over. Seasons of hardships, abundance, seeking, and struggle all have a purpose because growth demands change. Dare to Bloom urges us to be both vulnerable and resilient in new seasons of life as we boldly position ourselves for what God has for us next. Serial entrepreneur and author, Zim Flores (neè Ugochukwu), reveals the challenges she's faced and how even her failures have helped shape her sense of purpose. Her parents had big plans for her life. The daughter of Nigerian immigrants, Zim Flores was uprooted from her community as a young girl, marking the beginning of her quest for true identity. Though she experienced unprecedented worldly success as a teenager and young adult, Zim declares that even when we feel pressured by the world around us, our true identity is never at risk. In Dare to Bloom, Zim offers practical and hard-won truths about: How to reclaim your true identity How to surrender your desired outcomes to God How to move forward after broken friendships How to find comfort during your darkest hours How to navigate new beginnings with hope for whatever is next How to joyfully participate in your own story--even when you don't know what the future holds Dare to Bloom is a powerful gift for readers in times of transition or struggle who need a reminder that their true identity never changes. It empowers those who feel stuck in their current circumstances to follow God obediently into the unknown, finding joy in each new beginning. Inside you'll find: Breathtaking photography from Zim's travels Thoughtful questions for reflection at the end of each chapter Zimisms--wisdom-filled phrases from the author When everything changes around us, it can be easy to think that we're only as good as our last success. Though our identities are challenged day by day, Dare to Bloom encourages us to reclaim our identity in God, who is unchanging through it all.

There is a lot I still don't know about life or about what the future might bring but I do know who I am and how to incorporate life being more about where we choose to go and not just about where we come from. I believe you can throw out the script we get handed during childhood and make different choices whilst implementing determination and positive affirmation. I have used my faith to demonstrate where I found my strength, this can be applied to any type of belief system someone may have. I hope this book can be an inspiration regardless of who you are or where you are in your own life journey and to encourage that it is not where you start but where you finish that really counts. As a result, I accept the idea that through withered weeds it is truly possible for flowers to bloom.

“Magical, witty and stunning, João Melo’s stories bring to mind the work of Borges and Ishiguro and some ineffable otherness that is his alone. Discovering his work could be the highlight of a literary career”. Elizabeth McKenzie Catamaran Literary Reader and Chicago Quarterly Review’s editor “Melo’s stories make the banal and everyday dramas of the folk of Luanda extraordinary, and the extraordinary occurrences mundane. Suffused with irony and wit, the messages of these stories contain serious, sometimes tragic underlying truths with which we can all identify. What the Brazilian Machado de Assis did for Rio de Janeiro in the late nineteenth century, João Melo does for his native Luanda in the early twenty-first”. David Brookshaw Emeritus Professor in Luso-Brazilian Studies University of Bristol “Western readers who still assume that African societies haven’t reached modernity would be advised to follow Angolan writer João Melo as he forges his distinctive African postmodernism. These droll, cosmopolitan, self-aware stories, whose narrators are never innocent of the ills of the society they inhabit, shuffle local and universal cultural references in the certain confidence that they are interchangeable”. Stephen Henighan University of Guelph, Ontario Author of The World of After João Melo, born in 1955 in Luanda, Angola, is an author, journalist, and communication consultant. He is a founder of the Angolan Writers Association, and of the Angolan Academy of Literature and Social Sciences. He was professor, advertiser, member of the parliament (1992-2017) and minister (2017-2019). Currently, he lives exclusively from writing, and splits his time between Luanda, Lisbon and Washington, D.C. His works include poetry, novels, articles and essays and have been published in Angola, Portugal, Brazil, Italy, Cuba, Spain and US. A number of his writings had also been translated into French, German, Arabic, and Chinese. Some of his stories and poems translated into English appeared in Words Without Borders, Catamaran Literary Reader, Chicago Quarterly Review, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, Olongo Africa, The Shallows Tales Review, Lolwe, A Gathering Together, Iskanchi, Gávea-Brown and Brittle Paper. He was awarded the 2009 Angola Arts and Culture National Prize in literature category.

The complete English translation of one of the great Zen classics and works of Japanese literature, by the founder of the Soto school—now in a single volume Treasury of the True Dharma Eye (Shobo Genzo, in Japanese) is a monumental work, considered to be one of the profoundest expressions of Zen wisdom ever put on paper, and also the most outstanding literary and philosophical work of Japan. It is a collection of essays by Eihei Dogen (1200–1253), founder of Zen’s Soto school. Kazuaki Tanahashi and a team of translators that represent a Who’s Who of American Zen have produced a translation of the great work that combines accuracy with a deep understanding of Dogen’s voice and literary gifts. This eBook includes a wealth of materials to aid understanding, including maps, lineage charts, a bibliography, and an exhaustive glossary of names and terms—and, as a bonus, the most renowned of all Dogen’s essays, “Recommending Zazen to All People.”

"The Encyclopedia of Flowers is a series of 'definitive stationary observations' in which Makoto Azuma focuses on the market-related changes in the form of species becoming extinct and new ones appearing, as his mission and life work. The flowers featured here are described using their common formal Latin scientific names in a list and index." --vol. 3 book jacket

In our technology-driven, workaday world, connecting with nature has never before been more essential. A Wilder Life, a beautiful oversized lifestyle book by the team behind the popular Wilder Quarterly, gives readers indispensable ideas for interacting with the great outdoors. Learn to plant a night-blooming garden, navigate by reading the stars, build an outdoor shelter, make dry shampoo, identify insects, cultivate butterflies in a backyard, or tint your clothes with natural dyes. Like a modern-day Whole Earth Catalog, A Wilder Life gives us DIY projects and old-world skills that are being reclaimed by a new generation. Divided into sections pertaining to each season and covering self-reliance, growing and gardening, cooking, health and beauty, and wilderness, and with photos and illustrations evocative of the great outdoors, A Wilder Life shows that getting in touch with nature is possible no matter who you are and—more important—where you are.

A combination of Talented Poets coming together to celebrate the beauty of the word.

Little Ida liked the student, who always had a tale to tell, a lot. So, one morning, when little Ida's flowers had all withered, she asked the student what could have happened to them. Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875) was a Danish author, poet and artist. Celebrated for children’s literature, his most cherished fairy tales include "The Emperor's New Clothes", "The Little Mermaid", "The Nightingale", "The Steadfast Tin Soldier", "The Snow Queen", "The Ugly Duckling" and "The Little Match Girl". His books have been translated into every living language, and today there is no child or adult that has not met Andersen's whimsical characters. His fairy tales have been adapted to stage and screen countless times, most notably by Disney with the animated films "The Little Mermaid" in 1989 and "Frozen", which is loosely based on "The Snow Queen", in 2013. Thanks to Andersen's contribution to children's literature, his birth date, April 2, is celebrated as International Children's Book Day.