Creating a Way Out


Book Description

Creating a Way Out is meant to help the individual focus on day-to-day encounters by learning to let their spiritual side guide them through the unknown and unexpected events that will occur in a day. Trying to overcome day-to-day stresses is sometimes more than what we are capable of bearing alone. Each of us deals with day-to-day occurrences differently. What may work for one day may not work for the next. I have encountered different types of stressors— physical, mental, and emotional. I tried to physically confront my stressor but found myself more drained and filled with despair because things didn’t turn out like I wanted them to. They would change as the day went on, leaving me with a sense of not knowing what to do next. That’s when I learned that trying to do battle with my illness was not something I could do alone. I needed someone or something to be with me always if I were ever to survive this hurdle in life. One of the best messages I learned was the statement “It’s not by work but by grace.” This statement is confusing at first because everything we learn from a physical point of view teaches that things in life are gained by hard work or chance. But from a spiritual or emotional prospective, that’s not how it works. You are spiritually blessed, which means graced. Or from an emotional standpoint, you give acceptance or receive acceptance, which is a type of grace. That’s why we must let the spiritual part of us deal with our day-to-day activities without our physical interference. We may create a brighter day for ourselves. Sure, you’re asking yourself how we cannot interfere with one’s spiritual self, day in, and day out. The answers to that question can be found in Creating a Way Out by living one day at a time. Understand that creating a way out is not a book on religion. It’s not a book on mental psychology. Creating a Way Out is a day-by-day map of what works for me, and it did work for me. So I give to you Creating a Way Out 365 Days a Year one day at a time. There are several ways to use this book on your travels throughout your adventure in life. • You can use it by opening it page by page like in the normal process of reading. • You can wake up in the morning and, without looking at the page, ask yourself what’s on your mind, open the book to a page without looking at the page number. It will make a reference to your thoughts. • You may have someone tell you something they are struggling with, open the book to a page, and if they are sincere and truly believe it can help, it will. I am sure there are other uses for the book as well. Let the spiritual side in you guide you to the many uses of this book. May you be blessed in so many ways as I have. R. L. Leonard




Making a Way Out of No Way


Book Description

* A womanist theology of change * Integrates postmodern thought, womanist theology, and process philosophy




Making a Way Out of No Way


Book Description

In her new book, Monica A. Coleman articulates the African American expression of "making a way out of no way" for today's context of globalization, religious pluralism, and sexual diversity. Drawing on womanist religious scholarship and process thought, Coleman describes the symbiotic relationship among God, the ancestors, and humanity that helps to change the world into the just society it ought to be. Making a Way Out of No Way shows us a way of living for justice with God and proposes a communal theology that presents a dynamic way forward for black churches, African traditional religions and grassroots organizations.




"Making a Way Out of No Way"


Book Description

In barely forty years of life Martin Luther King (1929-1968) distinguished himself as one of the greatest social reformers of modern times: civil rights leader, defender of nonviolence in the struggle of desegregation, champion of the poor, anti-war proponent, and broad-minded visionary of an interrelated world of free people. His many verbal and written communications in the form of sermons, speeches, interviews, letters, essays, and several books are replete with Bible proverbs as «Love your enemies», «He who lives by the sword shall perish by the sword», and «Man does not live by bread alone» as well as folk proverbs as «Time and tide wait for no man», «Last hired, first fired», «No gain without pain», and «Making a way out of no way». He also delighted in citing quotations that have become proverbs, to wit «No man is an island», «All men are created equal», and «No lie can live forever». King recycles these bits of traditional wisdom in various contexts, varying his proverbial messages as he addresses the multifaceted issues of civil rights. His rhetorical prowess is thus informed to a considerable degree by his effective use of his repertoire of proverbs which he frequently uses as leitmotifs or amasses into set pieces of fixed phrases to be employed repeatedly.




Making a Way out of No Way


Book Description

The Second Great Migration, the movement of African Americans between the South and the North that began in the early 1940s and tapered off in the late 1960s, transformed America. This migration of approximately five million people helped improve the financial prospects of black Americans, who, in the next generation, moved increasingly into the middle class. Over seven years, Lisa Krissoff Boehm gathered oral histories with women migrants and their children, two groups largely overlooked in the story of this event. She also utilized existing oral histories with migrants and southerners in leading archives. In extended excerpts from the oral histories, and in thoughtful scholarly analysis of the voices, this book offers a unique window into African American women's history. These rich oral histories reveal much that is surprising. Although the Jim Crow South presented persistent dangers, the women retained warm memories of southern childhoods. Notwithstanding the burgeoning war industry, most women found themselves left out of industrial work. The North offered its own institutionalized racism; the region was not the promised land. Additionally, these African American women juggled work and family long before such battles became a staple of mainstream discussion. In the face of challenges, the women who share their tales here crafted lives of great meaning from the limited options available, making a way out of no way.




The Way Out


Book Description

The partisan divide in the United States has widened to a chasm. Legislators vote along party lines and rarely cross the aisle. Political polarization is personal, too—and it is making us miserable. Surveys show that Americans have become more fearful and hateful of supporters of the opposing political party and imagine that they hold much more extreme views than they actually do. We have cordoned ourselves off: we prefer to date and marry those with similar opinions and are less willing to spend time with people on the other side. How can we loosen the grip of this toxic polarization and start working on our most pressing problems? The Way Out offers an escape from this morass. The social psychologist Peter T. Coleman explores how conflict resolution and complexity science provide guidance for dealing with seemingly intractable political differences. Deploying the concept of attractors in dynamical systems, he explains why we are stuck in this rut as well as the unexpected ways that deeply rooted oppositions can and do change. Coleman meticulously details principles and practices for navigating and healing the difficult divides in our homes, workplaces, and communities, blending compelling personal accounts from his years of working on entrenched conflicts with lessons from leading-edge research. The Way Out is a vital and timely guide to breaking free from the cycle of mutual contempt in order to better our lives, relationships, and country.




Smart Ball


Book Description

Smart Ball follows Major League Baseball's history as a sport, a domestic monopoly, a neocolonial power, and an international business. MLB's challenge has been to market its popular mythology as the national pastime with pastoral, populist roots while addressing the management challenges of competing with other sports and diversions in a burgeoning global economy. Baseball researcher Robert F. Lewis II argues that MLB for years abused its legal insulation and monopoly status through arrogant treatment of its fans and players and static management of its business. As its privileged position eroded eroded in the face of increased competition from other sports and union resistance, it awakened to its perilous predicament and began aggressively courting athletes and fans at home and abroad. Using a detailed marketing analysis and applying the principles of a "smart power" model, the author assesses MLB's progression as a global business brand that continues to appeal to a consumer's sense of an idyllic past in the midst of a fast-paced, and often violent, present.







A Way Out of No Way


Book Description

An African American folk saying declares, "Our God can make a way out of no way.... He can do anything but fail." When Dianne Swann-Wright set out to capture and relate the history of her ancestors--African Americans in central Virginia after the Civil War--she had to find that way, just as her people had done in creating a new life after emancipation. In order to tell their story, she could not rely solely on documents from the plantation where her forebears had lived. Unlike the register of babies born, marriages made, or lives lost that white families' Bibles contained, ledgers recorded Swann-Wright's ancestors, as commodities. Thus Swann-Wright took another route, setting out to gather spoken words--stories, anecdotes, and sayings. What results is a strikingly rich and textured history of a slave community. Looking at relations between plantation owners and their slaves and the succeeding generations of both, A Way out of No Way explores what it meant for the master-slave relation to change to one of employer and employee and how patronage, work relationships, and land acquisition evolved as the people of Piedmont Virginia entered the twentieth century. Swann-Wright illustrates how two white landowners, one of whom had headed a plantation before the Civil War, learned to compensate freed persons for their labor. All the more fascinating is her study of how the emancipated learned to be free--of how they found their way out of no way.




The Way Out is in


Book Description

Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh is best known as a prolific author, poet, teacher, scholar and peace activist. Yet he is also a master calligrapher, distilling ancient Buddhist teachings into simple phrases that resonate with our modern times, capturing and expressing his lifetime of meditative insight, peace and compassion. This book offers a rare opportunity to spend time in the presence of his beautiful creations. For Thich Nhat Hanh, creating calligraphy is more than creating art - it is also a meditative practice. He is fully present for every moment, from drinking his tea, to sitting down and taking a brush, and using the tea to make the ink. Each calligraphy is made of mindful sitting, breathing, walking, smiling - and love.