Mike Breaux doesn’t do life halfway—maybe that’s why he thinks a "cannonball” is the only suitable entry into a swimming pool. “Deep down, I think all of us sense we were put on this planet to do something significant—to touch someone’s life; to do some good.” Again and again, he’s seen the cannonball approach make that happen. “Water goes flying everywhere! The ripples go out, hit the side, and come back in.” In this book, Breaux shares the concept of creating “ripples”—where a life touches a life, which touches a life, which touches a life.

Are you looking for witty inspiration to help you get started making change in your local community? Sooner or later every one of us needs to write a letter to the editor. "Making Ripples in Wilder’s Town" provides tips and advice about getting involved, about creating constructive, civil debate and about writing effective letters to the editor. This book provides a humorous look at New England small town life and politics. In addition to providing insights into life in Peterborough, New Hampshire, this book shines some light on the changes that have taken place since Thornton Wilder first wrote the the play, Our Town. The author of this book has made hundreds and hundreds of written contributions to newspapers throughout his life. This book is a resource for people struggling to make democracy work. Print may be dead, but it is alive and kicking in this collection of letters from a small New England town. "....Although we haven’t always agreed with his opinions, we have always been inspired by his passion. He encourages thinking, not complacency...." excerpt from 'About the Author'

· On trend contemporary projects that modernize traditional blocks, embrace minimalism, and rely on bold colors and contrast · Contains 12 modern quilt patterns that are great for any level sewer · Build skills with step-by-step instruction and photography, and tips on piecing, hand or machine appliqué and quilting, and finishing · Color theory, fabric selection, and elements of design are all clearly explained · Author Stephanie Soebbing is a savvy social media marketer with an e-commerce site, weekly podcast, and 40,000+ online followers

Caroline sets up a stand to sell her Grandmother's sweet lemonade to raise money for the new wheelchair her friend Shannon needs, which inspires others to help, as well, in bigger and better ways. Includes tips for encouraging children to be philanthropic.

The first novel by the author of acclaimed national bestseller The Sunday Wife, now reissued in paperback. In a small Alabama town in Zion County, life is finally looking up for 20-year-old Donnette Sullivan. Having just inherited her aunt's old house and beauty shop, she's taken over the business. Her husband, Tim, recently crippled in an accident, is beginning to cope not only with his disability but also with the loss of his dreams. Once a promising artist who gave up art for sports, Tim paints a sign for Donnette's new shop, Making Waves, that causes ripples throughout the small southern community. In a sequence of events -- sometimes funny, sometimes tragic -- the lives of Donnette, Tim, and others in their small circle of family and friends are unavoidably affected. Once the waves of change surge through Zion County, the lives of its people are forever altered.

In Postcolonial Preaching, HyeRan Kim-Cragg argues that preaching is the act of dropping the stone of the Gospel into a lake, making waves to move hearts and transform the world wounded by colonial violence. The ripple effect serves as a metaphor and acronym to guide to preaching that takes postcolonial concerns seriously: Rehearsal, Imagination, Place, Pattern, Language and Exegesis (RIPPLE). Kim-Cragg explains each “ripple” in this approach and exercise of creating and delivering sermons. The author delivers fresh insights while drawing on some traditional homiletical perspectives in the service of a homiletic that takes the reality of racism, migration, and environmental degradation seriously. Moreover, Kim-Cragg demonstrates the postcolonial sermon in action by including annotated homilies. This book contributes to the very first wave of the application of postcolonial scholarship in preaching. Given the continuing extent and influence of colonial worldviews and legacies, this approach should become a staple in preaching over the next generation.

Musical sounds are some of the most mobile human elements, crossing national, cultural, and regional boundaries at an ever-increasing pace in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Whole musical products travel easily, though not necessarily intact, via musicians, CDs (and earlier, cassettes), satellite broadcasting, digital downloads, and streaming. The introductory chapter by the volume editors develops two framing metaphors: “traveling musics” and “making waves.” The wave-making metaphor illuminates the ways that traveling musics traverse flows of globalization and migration, initiating change, and generating energy of their own. Each of the nine contributors further examines music—its songs, makers, instruments, aurality, aesthetics, and images—as it crosses oceans, continents, and islands. In the process of landing in new homes, music interacts with older established cultural environments, sometimes in unexpected ways and with surprising results. They see these traveling musics in Hawai‘i, Asia, and the Pacific as “making waves”—that is, not only riding flows of globalism, but instigating ripples of change. What is the nature of those ripples? What constitutes some of the infrastructure for the wave itself? What are some of the effects of music landing on, transported to, or appropriated from distant shores? How does the Hawai‘i-Asia-Pacific context itself shape and get shaped by these musical waves? The two poetic and evocative metaphors allow the individual contributors great leeway in charting their own course while simultaneously referring back to the influence of their mentor and colleague Ricardo D. Trimillos, whom they identify as “the wave maker.” The volume attempts to position music as at once ritual and entertainment, esoteric and exoteric, tradition and creativity, within the cultural geographies of Hawai‘i, Asia, and the Pacific. In doing so, they situate music at the very core of global human endeavors.

How might a small decision you make, an action you take, a phone call you initiate change your path? Impact other lives? Months after spying a bottle wedged into a fallen cottonwood snag in the Columbia River, Ernest pulls it from the river. The bottle's note connects Ernest, an old man living in a tiny Oregon town, to teenage Annie, provoking a mysterious and sudden friendship between Ernest's daughter Amelia with Sarah, the daughter of the most recent resident of the home Annie once occupied. The two middle-aged women's quest to learn more about Annie and her secret introduces readers to stories about family members through backstory, and introduces new characters, all connected through the finding of the bottle. Together, Amelia and Sarah explore their unfinished business with their mothers, intimate relationships, and regrets over life choices as they embark on their personal searches for something bigger in their very different lives.

Make Waves encourages readers to step up and be the one to initiate change in their work and lives. Author Patti Johnson walks readers through the tools and techniques that they can use to create change in their own situations. Johnson elaborates on these tools even further to give readers a sense of how to encourage and instill these "wave-making" behaviors in others within their organization. Using several diverse case studies as illustrative examples, Make Waves highlights the important steps that individuals at any level can take toward positive change. By reinforcing readers' desires to contribute and make a difference, Johnson connects on an individual level and bridges the gap between that desire and the actions necessary to realize bigger changes. Change can be big or small. It is the act of stepping up that Johnson embraces, as well as the ripple effect on those around. Interviews with famous Wave Makers, as well as everyday people, illustrate why it is important to be the one to start change. Wave Makers profiled include: Clint Hurdle: Manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates; believes in positive attitude and culture and changes the MLB clubhouse; this year leading the Pirates to their first winning season since 1992. Charley Johnson: Started Pay It Forward foundation. Joe Nussbaum: Started Big Event at Texas A&M when in college in the '80s and has continued to grow; largest one-day college community service day in the country and has been adopted by over seventy universities. Emma Scheffler: High school soccer player who started Insulin Angels, a nonprofit for children diagnosed with diabetes, after her own diagnosis; feared her dream of college soccer was over, so engaged other students and local hospitals after thinking about how to make her diagnosis a positive. Allen Stephenson: Started Southern Tide at twenty-two-years old when in med school and followed a passion to create a clothing line; built momentum by creating interest and participation on southern college campuses; they are now growing rapidly and it started with a great polo shirt.