The depressed have often been ostracized or institutionalized. In recent years the conversation has begun to change, and the stigma has lessened--but as anyone who suffers from depression knows, we still have a long way to go. In Companions in the Darkness, Diana Gruver looks back into church history and finds depression in the lives of some of our most beloved saints, including Martin Luther, Charles Spurgeon, Mother Teresa, and Martin Luther King Jr. Without trying to diagnose these figures from a distance, Gruver tells their stories in fresh ways, taking from each a particular lesson that can encourage or guide those who suffer today. Drawing on her own experience with depression, Gruver offers a wealth of practical wisdom both for those in the darkness and those who care for them. Not only can these saints teach us valuable lessons about the experience of depression, they can also be a source of hope and empathy for us today. They can be our companions in the darkness.

    But over the next 12 years, this white city slicker entered a world of life, death, nature, and manhood that came to seem not brutal or outdated but beautiful in a way his experience in Washington was not. The Everlasting Stream is the absorbing, touching, and often hilarious story of how hunting with these "good ol' boys" forced an "enlightened" man to reexamine his modern notions of guilt and responsibility, friendship and masculinity, ambition and satisfaction.In crisp prose that bring autumn mornings crackling to life, Harrington shares the lessons that led him to leave Washington. When his son turned 14, Harrington began taking him hunting too, believing that these rough-edged, whiskey-drinking men could teach his suburban boy something worthwhile about lives different from his own, the joy of small moments, and the old-fashioned belief that a man's actions mean more than his words.The Everlasting Stream is a funny, intimate, inspiring meditation on the meaning of a life well lived.CHAPTER ONEWalt recounts the first time he went shooting with his father-in-law, Alex, in rural Glasgow, Kentucky, during a Thanksgiving visit with his wife. “I lived in Washington DC, where most people I knew believed hunters were sick, violent men.” His attitude toward his African-American hunting mates (“I was white, and I figured it was going to be my worry to fit in”) is “condescending as hell,” but it all turns around when he shoots his first rabbit, and surprises himself with the purity of his exhuberence when he calls out, “I got him!” He discusses the repulsion over having to clean his rabbit, but when his guests act similarly repulsed when he serves them rabbit dinner, he says “I think I’m going to kill some more.”CHAPTER TWOHe describes hunting with Alex, Bobby, Lewis and Carl in a gully half the length of football field. “Over the years I’ve become convinced that Alex, Bobby, Lewis, and Carl have discovered the secrets of living life well,” although “the idea that these men had anything to teach me didn’t come to me for many Thanksgiving vacations.” He is attracted by how well they get to know a place through hunting it: “How many of us can say that about any place in our lives?” The men are like relics of a bygone era, but they eventually convinced him that he should bring his son along too. He introduces Carl and Bobby, who have retired from factory jobs—they own sixty acres together in the country. Lewis bought his own 18-wheel rig a few years ago and still hauls freight. Alex is retired and has many hobbies. The men talk in a colorful drawl about their dogs, teasing each other mercilessly.CHAPTER THREEHe talks about hunting at the Old Collins Place. Every time he comes back there, he sees something for the first time. He talks about how ambitious he was as a kid, determined to make a name for himself in journalism. He meets his wife-to-be, Keran, and works thankless 70-hour weeks until he finally writes a profile of George Bush that gets him major attention, a huge raise, and freedom to cover other figures such as Jesse Jackson, Jerry Falwell, etc.CHAPTER FOUR: BOBBY’S BARNHis son Matt catches a rabbit and gets a sip off the post-hunting bottle of Wild Turkey. He discusses his tough decision of taking the boy hunting for the first time when he was seven: “Really I rolled the dice. I knew that most affluent city perople would shield their sons from such rough men and gritty settings. But after my first few years of hunting I deced that the forests, fields, wind, rain moon, stars, leaves, weeds, guns, killing, cursing, drinking—and naturally the men themselves—would be good for Matt.” He describes skinning and gutting a rabit—he does it without squeamishness because “it has to be done,” the same way you have to clean up a kid’s vomit.LAWSON BOTTOMHe discusses the time it dawned on him that he had come to savor things—the Miro painting he owns, for instance— and asks himself “I love my work but what if the day comes when I don’t? What happens to all of this? What happens to me? Will I be trapped in my affluence for the rest of my life?” (The climax of his career comes when President Bush is seriously considering appointing him as his official biographer, and even invites him to a celebrity-studded dinner, but eventually Bush decides the security risk is too great. Harrington considers it a blessing in disguise, thinking about all of the quality time he would have lost with his son, etc.)THE EVERLASTING STREAMHe recalls a morning of picture-perfect contentment at a place called the Everlasting Stream—“such memorable moments are like waking versions of lucid dreams. We are within them and outside them at once as they are happening.” He reflects “To this day I don’t believe I have ever seen men so at ease, so thoroughly enjoying one another’s company.” He realizes he hasn’t had true friends like these since he was kid.BEHIND BC WITT’S FARMHe talks about the way that moment at the Everlasting Stream has caused him to think of hunting not just as a diversion, but to think of it off and on throughout the year. Carl takes him to the four-room shack where he grew up and Harrington is shocked by how small and run-down it is. Carl says “We hunted to eat.”THE SQUAREHe describes being in the zone—“hunters since Socrates onward have described an ethereal hunter’s state of mental and emotional clarity. What nature writer James Swan calls the Zen of hunting--- ‘a state of awe and reverence, which I sthe emotional foundation for transcendence.”LEWIS’S GARAGEHe talks about the joys of hanging out in Lewis’s garage after hunting. “I have come to love hearing the men laugh. After all the years, if I were blind I’d still know the men by their laughs.” .. “Listening to the men is like watching a pinball bounce around its board. The action is impossible to predict but it isn’t random. The point is to relax and lety my time with the men wash over me in the way that a Christmas midnight Mass with candles and organ and incense would wash over me as a boy.”

    The problem with these libraries is that they contain books that are generally written by professionals for their peers. Where the Hell Is God? combines the best of the professional's insights with the author's own experience and insights to speculate on how believers can make sense of their Christian faith when experiencing tragedy and suffering. Starting with a very personal story of the author's sister being left a quadriplegic from a car accident twenty years ago, Where the Hell Is God? gently leads the reader through some "take-home" messages that are sane, sound, and practical. Among these messages are: God does not directly send pain, suffering, and disease. God does not punish us; God does not send accidents to teach us things, though we can learn from them; and God does not will earthquakes, floods, droughts, or other natural disasters. This concise, accessible, and experience-based book will help people who are suffering as well as those who minister to them and their families.

    It is a lovely, wise and lucid book of deep humanity. Above all, it is a useful book - a book to be read by those who find it hard to forgive themselves: the stumblers and agnostics who hardly dare believe that God is within them.

    You see, survival of the colored race in America is at a difficult point where it has to be taught to our youth. The old practices of lynching and segregation which are thought to have been eradicated from our society lives on but in various other forms: police brutality, income inequality, unemployment and single motherhood… designs to keep our communities in perpetual turmoil and slavery.This book should be required reading for the youth and a lesson to any group that man’s inhumanity to man has not ended in America and is practiced around the world.

    This sequel to her bestselling book MEE Thinks shares more of her whimsical thoughts about a host of topics such as noisy neighbors, unexpected gifts, early retirement, and putting first things first. This thoughtful, creative, poignant, funny book will lift your spirits and encourage you to think more deeply than ever before about the things that really matter in life (as well as some that don't matter so much)!

    

    When I was initiated into sannyasa, I thought I had become a different person forever. The reality was far from it. The only solace: I was not the only one. Having met numerous seekers who visit our ashram to meet My Guru, Om Swami, I realized that most of them had similar woes. My failures were everyday failures for others just as much. They too were dancing to the fickle tunes of their unanchored and untamed minds. But there was hope. Simple instructions from the ingenious mind of My master rescued me. It is his infallible wisdom that I have tried to capture in this book. I hope the lessons in these pages bring you as much peace and clarity as they brought me.

    But for Catholics, who were already struggling with the abuse crisis and a dramatic rise in disaffiliation, this trial is not only economic, social, or medical; it is spiritual. Plunged into a time of darkness and separated from the sacraments and their parish communities, the faithful are feeling isolated, disheartened, and uncertain about what the future holds.This new book from Word on Fire Institute Fellow Dr. Stephen Bullivant is an insightful and encouraging analysis of the coronavirus, shedding light not only on the Church’s present moment or similar crises of the past but also on the immediate future. A former Oxford professor and expert in Catholic disaffiliation, Dr. Bullivant looks at the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the Church from both the spiritual and secular perspectives, weaving in his own personal reflections as a Catholic convert and a husband and father. It is a unique roadmap for this challenging time, one that will help to bring clarity, focus, and energy to Catholics everywhere.

    Within the first four years of his career, Josh participated in several record sales, including the highest sale in the history of Brentwood Park and the highest sales on the exclusive Roxbury, Foothill and Monovale Drives, making him one of Los Angeles' hottest agents. Flagg has participated in sales up to $25,000,000."The best thing I have seen Josh do, was wrap an entire house in a big red bow before delivering the keys to the new owners. He is very creative, and that is why he is so successful."In Josh s mind, there are no limitations. Josh is also one of the stars of BRAVO TVs, Million Dollar Listing, returning for its fourth season February 2011. In his new book, Million Dollar Agent: Brokering the Dream, Josh writes about having travelled to more than fifty countries, his years growing up in one of the most famous cities in the world (Beverly Hills) and how to develop a successful career in high-end real estate."My funniest experience so far was when I fell into the pool of a client s house in the middle of a showing, clothes, jewelry and all! Well I couldn t let that slow me down, so I put on the owners robe, threw on some slippers and continued the showing. The buyers sent me a pair of swim-trunks when we closed escrow." -- Josh Flagg

    Every thought you had. Every word that someone says.You remember that the sky was cloudless, and the day was hot and thick with humidity. You remember it was a day that totally changed what you believed your life would be.I had one of those days… My story of being a writer begins the day I vowed I would never write.I’m going to warn you now that this book is not going to be a “straight line journey”. I don’t believe anyone’s life is a straight journey. I believe we all travel many twisted roads to get to where we are right now. We experience things we don’t believe are significant – only appreciating their significance years later when we are able to look back and see how each event fits into the grand puzzle of our complicated lives. It could be that my journey is more twisted than most, but if that is true it’s what was necessary to prepare me to write.I savor and appreciate every moment now; even the ones I thought would destroy me. I truly never thought I would never write this book because I am a very private person. A conversation with the person I trust most in the world convinced me to change my mind. She convinced me my readers deserved to hear the story of just how The Bregdan Chronicles came to be.You’ll learn about the day I decided to never write again. And, the bedridden period of my life that finally made me write my first book.You’ll learn about my years of living with a prejudiced family, enduring the bigotry and rioting of the Charlotte school system in the 60’s & 70’s, and my defiance that taught me the truth.You’ll learn the family secret that almost devastated me when I discovered it. You’ll learn just why I decided to write about the Civil War & Reconstruction.

    Find out what really happens behind the closed doors of labour rooms, on inpatient wards, during outpatients clinics and inside homes. Special Deliveries is filled with stories about home births, outdoor births, water births, hospital births and other life changing moments that will appeal to anyone with an interest in pregnancy and childbirth. Identifying factors and events have been altered so that all the stories within this book, although based on elements of factual midwifery practice, have been fictionalised in order to maintain the anonymity and / or confidentiality of those the author cared for and worked with throughout the years.

    But Crissy's path to success was far from easy. Born and bred in the backstreets of Liverpool, her poor but idyllic young life was plunged into darkness at the age of eight, when her grandfather began to abuse her both physically and sexually. Pregnant and married to a violent bully at sixteen it seemed that trouble and turmoil would always stalk her. Having finally escaped her violent marriage, Crissy began to turn her life around. She tells of her first experience as a performer when a friend bet her that she wouldn't enter a stand-up competition - she ended up being runner up in the north west region. Establishing herself on the comedy circuit she was then cast in Ladybird Ladybird for which she won Best Actress at the Berlin Film Festival. From there, Crissy became a familiar face on television, landing roles in a host of popular programmes including Brazen Hussies, alongside Julie Walters. This is a candid, harrowing and often hilarious memoir. Crissy has been through some of the most shocking experiences imaginable, but what really shines through from every page, is her indomitable, wicked sense of humour. By turns harrowing and laugh-out-loud funny, this is one of the most astonishing books you will ever read.

    

    The Nazis had overrun a great deal of the continent, bent on the domination of the world and the annihilation of an entire people. The death camps, unknown to most outside Europe, claimed more than six millions Jews during that time. Some endured -- and most have breathtaking stories of survival. Why they survived when so many perished is a matter of coincidence, luck, the will to live and the courage and sacrifice of many others. The full scope of that sacrifice will never be completely chronicled, it is just too vast. "Good-bye for Always, The Triumph of the Innocents" is the story of the youngest members of the Widerman family, who moved to Paris from Poland, only to be caught up in the horror of the Nazi occupation. In 1942, Cecile and Betty Widerman began a journey into the belly of the worst beast mankind has to offer. For two years they were literally one step ahead of death, as Nazi cruelty sought to envelop them as it had millions of others. How they survived, why they survived and who nearly gave their own lives to protect them is a story of inspiration and will that is sure to live forever.