The photographer, Doug Tanner, a keen early morning runner, started e-mailing his photographs of sunrises and other wonders of nature to his coauthor to encourage her through a difficult stage of grief. Heather added some quotes from spiritual writers and meditations written by herself. The pictures inspired them to share their wonder of nature and God’s creation more widely beyond the local Redlands area in Queensland, Australia, where they live.

Multicultural, Nondenominational, Nonsectarian Includes steps for exploring the book's theological foundations with students from kindergarten through Grade 4 and above. Lesson plans, classroom activities and more. Contributors: Renée Frank Holtz, Elizabeth McMahon Jeep, Rabbi Sandy Eisenberg Sasso, Rabbi Jeffrey L. Schein, Alice Weinstein. About God’s Paintbrush Through fantasy, involvement and the imagination, God’s Paintbrush invites children of all faiths and backgrounds to encounter God openly through moments in their own lives—and helps the adults who love them to be a part of that interactive encounter. This book provides a gift of images that nurture and encourage children in making meaning of their world.

Mitchell Morrison and Josie Sedgwick have spent their whole lives at the Indian Paintbrush Community Village, a commune full of colorful characters tucked in the mountains of North Carolina, and they aren't particularly close--at least, not anymore. Josie wishes she could spend all of her time at Paintbrush planting tomatoes, hiking the trails, or throwing giant communal birthday parties, while Mitchell can't wait to escape the bizarre spiritual sharing and noisy community dinners. Luckily for both of them, high school graduation is just around the corner. But when Mitchell's mother makes a scandalous announcement that rocks the close-knit Paintbrush community, and Josie's younger sister starts to make some dangerously bad decisions, the two find themselves leaning on each other for support--and looking at each other in a whole new light. Their childhood friendship blossoms in to something more as they deal with their insane families, but as graduation approaches, so does life in the real world, forcing Josie and Mitchell to figure out what, exactly, their relationship is--and if it can survive their very different plans for the future.

"Where is God?" “What does God look like?” “How does God make things happen?” With little hands, and big hands. With young hands and old hands, With your hands.” Mixing sparks of curiosity and spiritual imagination, this wondrous book lights children's creativity and shows how God is with us every day, in every way. It is a vibrant invitation to children and their adults to explore—together—what, where, and how God is in our lives. Multicultural, Nondenominational, Nonsectarian; Endorsed by Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish Religious Leaders

Connect with the birth, growth, change, joy, love and inner strength of mothering. Take a spiritual voyage through blessings, prayers, anecdotes and meditations about the sacred undertaking that is motherhood. These words of hope and healing, pain and promise, are for all mothers--traditional, single, adoptive, foster, step and bereaved--and are drawn from many faith traditions, including Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim and Native American. Special multifaith ceremonies offer ways to honor many aspects of motherhood, such as: becoming a new mother, either through birth or adoption; welcoming children into the larger community; and acknowledging the experience of weaning a child. Insightful and wise, the expressions in this soulful collection illustrate the paradox of motherhood and will speak to your heart as you see motherhood in a whole new--and holy--way. Contributions stem from both ancient and contemporary sources, and many contributions were written specifically for this book. Contributors: Maya Angelou * Dev Arjan *Isaac Babel * 'Abdu'l-Bahá * Sarah K. Bain * Winona L. Baker * Ellen Bass * Rev. Susie Crawford Beil * Big Thunder * Kathryn Black * Johanna Bodenstab * Emily Brontë * Martin Buber * DeLona Campos-Davis * Jane Welsh Carlyle * Gilbert Keith Chesterton * Rev. Linda Morgan Clark * Fr. Robert DeGrandis * Anita Diamant * Mary Douthitt *George Eliot * Saint Ephrem * Euripides * Kathleen Finley * Saint Francis of Assisi * Erich Fromm * Robert Frost * Saint Gertrude the Great * Kahlil Gibran * Maria Mazziotti Gillan * Stacey Goldblatt * Grace of Monaco * Hafiz * Leigh Hancock * Hanh, Thich Nhat * Fr. Edward Hays * Margaret Hebblethwaite * Jackie Heil * Sibilla Hershey * Lauri Hewitt * Rev. Gina Hilton-VanOsdall * Alicia Hokanson * Gerard Manley Hopkins * Jill E.Hopkins * Margaret Anne Huffman * Linda Lawrence Hunt * Crystal Hurdle * Jane Richardson Jensen * Saint John of the Cross * Julian of Norwich * Kabir * Hazrat Inayat Khan * Charles Kingsley * Laurie Klein * Jacqueline Kramer * Jean Baptiste Lacordaire * Fiona Tinwei Lam * Anne Lamott * Lao-Tzu * D. H. Lawrence * Dr. Donald Liebert * Rev. Lauren J. McFeaters * Rev. Dr. Henry McKeating * Lauren McLaughlin * Rosemary Bray McNatt * Maude Meehan * Amy Klauke Minato *Mirabai *Gabriela Mistral (pseudonym for Lucila Godoy y Alcayaga) * Janet Morley * Claire Rudolf Murphy * Sarah Napthali * Sister Nivedita (Margaret E. Noble) * Gunilla Norris * Theodore Parker * Christine Ryan Paulus * Margaret G. Payne * William Penn * Petronius * Po Chü-i * Jan Reynolds * Rivage (pseudonym for Mary Newman) * William H. Robinson * Christina Rossetti * George William Russell * Sappho * Rabbi Sandy Eisenberg Sasso * Meghan Nuttall Sayres * Edythe Haendel Schwartz * Ramprasad Sen * William Shakespeare * Trish Shields * Masaoka Shiki * Sadhu Sundar Singh * Mirabai Starr * Janeen Steer * Jonathan Swift * Rabindranath Tagore * Henry David Thoreau * Tukaram * Mark Twain * Miguel de Unamuno * Swami Vivekananda * Gloria Waggoner * Sophia Waldenberg * Jeanne Murray Walker * Robert E.Webber * John Woodroffe * Virginia Woolf

Spiritually nourishing approaches to help you become more insightful, inspired parents and raise soulfully engaged children. Kipnes and November share their hard-won parenting techniques and spirit-filled activities, rituals and prayers to help you cultivate strong Jewish values and cherished spiritual memories in your own family.

A new edition of the classic that helped launch the Centering Prayer movement. Centering Prayer is a precious part of the ancient spiritual traditions of the West. When Finding Grace at the Center was first published in 1978, people all over the world welcomed this practical guide to a simple and beautiful form of meditative prayer. Reflections and advice on Centering Prayer’s possibilities—and its pitfalls—are presented with clarity and simplicity, with a vision of the deeper life of the soul that contemplative prayer can bring about. Now, with a new foreword by Rev. Cynthia Bourgeault, PhD, another generation will discover the amazing difference Centering Prayer can make in their lives.

Deepen Your Capacity to Live Free from Addiction--and from Self and Selfishness "Twelve Step recovery is much more than a way to escape the clutches of addictive behaviors. Twelve Step recovery is about freeing yourself from playing God, and since almost everyone is addicted to this game, Twelve Step recovery is something from which everyone can benefit." --from the Introduction In this hope-filled approach to spiritual and personal growth, the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous are uniquely interpreted to speak to everyone seeking a freer and more God-centered life. This special rendering makes them relevant to those suffering from specific addictions--alcohol, drugs, gambling, food, sex, shopping--as well as the general addictions we wrestle with daily, such as anger, greed, and selfishness. Rami Shapiro describes his personal experience working the Twelve Steps as adapted by Overeaters Anonymous and shares anecdotes from many people working the Steps in a variety of settings. Drawing on the insights and practices of Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Taoism, Hinduism, and Islam, he offers supplementary practices from different religious traditions to help you move more deeply into the universal spirituality of the Twelve Step system.

It was only a few years ago, God shed his light on me. Anointed me with the gift of writing poetry. He opened my eyes to understand from the scripture that I read. A powerful message came down from above and descended here on me. The grace of God bestowed on me, the special gift that was given. Burns in my soul, lets the words flow on this paper it is written. O may I thank him daily for what he has given to me. May my heart yearn to do his will, to use this gift he placed in me. To see the mighty hand of God, the creator of all things. Who used a humble servant, made her a child of the king!

Thinking is a wonderful tool if it is used the right way. That is to say to imagine or to recollect what is stored up in your top storehouse, or even to form an opinion by having your mind occupied on a certain subject combined with the information to your disposal and then conceive what is possible.