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Excerpt from Surviving Cancer, Healing People: One Cat's Story (Sula, Parish Cat at Old Mission): I Am Not Alone

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Excerpt -- I Am Not Alone (photo by Kaleena Scargill) Some of the people who form a big part of my mission struggle with cancer. I do understand them—their fears, their pain, their sometimes-sadness. I feel those things, too, at least as much as a cat can feel. I know that God made humans to have even deeper feelings and a greater range of feelings, and I am glad that some of those feelings include loving animals because it is through that love that I can connect with them and bring them the message of God’s love. I have to tell you about one of my special friends, Loryn. She understands me because she had cancer, and I understand her because I had cancer—the same way Cody and I understand, support, and love each other. Maybe it is better if I am not the one to tell her story, though. Maybe she should tell her own story. I think you will find it more interesting that way. So, here is what she wrote for my book about her experience: Over seven years ago, I

Book Alert: Divorced! Survival Techniques for Singles over Forty (Romer)

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Divorced! Survival Techniques for Singles over 40  shares the stories of men and women just like you who have gone through the trauma of divorce, and now feel comfortable talking about it. Turning to God, to friends, family and even therapy, these adults were able to pull their lives back together again. Whether your divorce was recent or years ago, the guidelines in this book will help you put heartache aside and begin a new and fulfilling life. Read more posts about Joanna Romer and her many books HERE .

Book Alert: The Subversive Utopia

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The Subversive Utopia   examines the critical role of modern architects in shaping and transforming national Israeli memory with special regard to Jerusalem. Using as a background the attempts of various architects since the 19th century to construct a national Jewish style, the author focuses his analysis on Louis Kahn’s design of the Hurva synagogue in the Old City of Jerusalem. Th is study scrutinizes and pieces together discrepant archival documents, drawings, and accounts of intentions, interpretations, events, policies, and projects in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. Th e book reveals an unrecognized crucial interplay of Kahn’s Hurvah design  with the competing traditional and national symbols of Jerusalem, such as the old Hurvah, the Western Wall, and most important, the mythical Jewish Temple and the Dome of the Rock. Th e drastic impact of Kahn’s idiosyncratic design on shaping Jerusalem and its national memory is traced through subsequent archaeologica

Excerpt from A Guide to Bliss: Transforming Your Life through Mind Expansion (Tubali): A Sharing

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A sharing  S ., 20 years old, completely inexperienced in spiritual practices and in therapeutic processes, after her first experience expanding a positive emotion.  When I was asked, at the beginning of the process, to revive the most positive experience in my life, the first image that came into my mind was the day on which I had parachuted for the first time. I had been waiting to jump from the tiny plane; my entire body was already outside of it, and I had felt sure of myself—happy, free and limitless. I had felt that it would be much better to be up in the sky than down on the ground. When I took the leap, it was like floating, and my entire body felt fresh and alive. I was particularly excited while hovering over the sea and seeing the green areas all around. I identified the emotion as “Freedom” and located it in my heart. It felt like confidence and also, lightness, as if all my cells were opening up. The shape was a circle; the color, pink; the feeling, lighthearted

Excerpt from Blest Atheist (Mahlou): Beginning of Chapter 1 (The Church in Siberia)

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“Khristos voskres” (Christ is risen). One person after another greeted me with these words as I climbed the stairs of the little, wooden church in Akademgorodok, a tiny town at the end of the man-made Ob Sea, bejeweling the Siberian steppe 45 minutes south of the city of Novosibirsk . The intertwining snow-covered birch and kedr (Siberian pine) trees created an illusion of a land of fantasy, made more so in the late evenings by the moon reflecting off the naked silver-white birch bark onto the dark red-brown trunks and evergreen branches of the pines. This was not yet the taiga ; it was somewhat south for that, but nonetheless the birch and kedry stood closely side-by-side like brothers-in-arms against a hostile white and cold universe.             “V istinu voskres” (Truly, He is risen). If my words of response rang hollow, there was a reason. They came from the lips of a bona fide atheist, convinced that religious congregations were at least in part delusional. Certain

Excerpt from The Seven Wisdoms of Life: a journey into the chakras (Tubali): Male and Female Energy of Third Chakra

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Male and Female Energy [of the Third Chakra] The male energy of the third chakra can be symbolized by the sword: a powerful force that can break through any kind of obstacle and move persistently towards a goal. It never wavers, for it has a tremendous aspiration and the energy to follow it. We need this male energy when we have a vision that we wish to manifest in the world of time and space. The female energy of the third chakra can be symbolized by the shield. Just as we need a sword, we need a shield: the sword is needed for offense, while the shield is needed for defense. So, the female energy equips us with a protective shield, which can actually push away any kind of pressure and over stimulation. It can equip us with stillness when someone offends us, and it can equip us with persistence when we are being pressured to let go of our authenticity. The Seven Wisdoms of Life was selected as a finalist for Book of the Year Award in 2013 and the Best Books USA Award in 2

Excerpt from The Rose and the Sword: How to Balance Your Feminine and Masculine Energies (Back & Hucknall): Final Chapter, Authors' Commentary

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Commentary There is no ending to this story or to this book.  We could have wrapped it up like a nice neat package, but that would be totally unreal.  The underlying message of this book is that the integration of the positive masculine and feminine must begin first in each of us as individuals and then spread outward into our relationships and social structures, such as our organizations and communities and ultimately into our national and international relations.  If we look at the chaos that exists in our present world, we can only see the rising tide of conflict in the Middle East and in other corners of the planet where the social systems are still in the Dark Ages in terms of balance of the masculine and feminine.  In this country, we surely have a long way to go, but, at least, over the last century, we have seen movement.  If we look around the world, there are pockets of integration slowly emerging.      Clearly, the evolution of humanity into a futuristic world a