Moonlight Sonata at the Mayo Clinic


Book Description

A lyrical and honest portrait of illness and the way it changes life and faith, from the award-winning author of Things Seen and Unseen. “A fabulous book—brilliant, tender soulful.” —Anne Lamott In the winter of 2009, Nora Gallagher was told she had an inflamed optic nerve, cause unknown, that if untreated would leave her blind. With this news, and the search for a diagnosis and treatment, her once busy and fast-moving life tunneled into a quieter country she calls Oz: unfamiliar, slower, deeply rooted in uncertainty and vulnerability. Moonlight Sonata at the Mayo Clinic, written as Gallagher was still recovering, is a moving meditation on serious illness, what helped her through and what didn’t, why a wall exists between the sick and the healthy, and what can take it down partway. It is also a testament of modern faith—accepting of both science and intellect—and a hard-won revelation of what lies at the heart of ordinary suffering.




Things Seen and Unseen


Book Description

"Gracefully written and moving ... Things Seen and Unseen starts with Nora Gallagher entering the labyrinth of her life ... and ultimately it leads to the center of her being."--The Boston Globe It started with an occasional Sunday, a "tourist's" visit to a local church. Eventually Nora Gallagher entered into a yearlong journey to discover her faith and a relationship with God, using the Christian calendar as her compass. Whether writing about her brother's battle against cancer, talking to homeless men about the World Series, or questioning the afterlife ("One world at a time"), Gallagher draws us into a world of journeys and mysteries, yet grounded in a gritty reality. She braids together the symbols of the Christian calendar, the events of a year in one church, and her own spiritual journey, each strand combed out with harrowing intimacy. Thought provoking and profoundly perceptive, Things Seen and Unseen is a remarkable demonstration that "the road to the sacred is paved with the ordinary." "Like Kathleen Norris in Amazing Grace, Gallagher is renewing the language of ultimate concerns."--San Francisco Chronicle "The deep serenity that suffuses Gallagher's work, the lyrical cadences in which she writes, do not blunt the sharp edges of what she discovered in her quest for meaning."--Los Angeles Times




Patagonia


Book Description

Reprints a selection of grand color photographs and adventure accounts from the sales brochure of Patagonia, apparently a company that sells climbing equipment. Paul Theroux, Gretel Ehrlick, Tom Brokaw, Thomas McGuane, and Rick Ridgeway are among the contributors. There is no index or bibliography. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR




Practicing Resurrection


Book Description

The author of the highly praised memoir Things Seen and Unseen now bears witness to the way death yields new life as she searches for direction in the wake of her brother's death. “Honest and human and surprisingly humorous in its clarity of vision.” —The Washington Post Book Review In her memoir Things Seen and Unseen, Nora Gallagher reflected on a year of spiritual renewal and the fact of mortality with uncommon wisdom and grace. We rejoin her in Practicing Resurrection. A desire to reclaim her own “wild life” and a sense of the sacred in the world compels her to assess everything: her marriage, her writing career, and her commitment to parish life. A profound testimony to the urgency of living with meaning, to the natural world’s solace and sacredness and a beautiful and often harrowing account of the search for vocation. Gallagher




Patagonia Tools for Grassroots Activists


Book Description

For over twenty years, Patagonia has organized a Tools Conference, where experts provide practical training to help make activists more effective. Now Patagonia has captured Tools’ best wisdom and advice into a book, creating a resource for any organization hoping to hone core skills like campaign and communication strategy, grassroots organizing, and lobbying as well as working with business, fundraising in uncertain times and using new technologies. Patagonia hopes the book will be dog-eared and scribbled in; a solid, inspiring guide and reliable companion. The book is organized in two sections: Strategies, and Tools. Each chapter, written by a respected expert in the field, covers essential principals as well as best practices. A hands-on case study accompanies each chapter and demonstrates the principles in action. Sprinkled throughout are inspirational thoughts from acclaimed activists, such as Jane Goodall, Bill McKibben, Wade Davis, Annie Leonard, and Terry Tempest Williams. An activist's companion in the environmental movement.




Accompany Me


Book Description

In her deeply affecting and profound portrait of illness and how it can dramatically alter the fabric of our lives and our faith, Nora Gallagher depicts the process of alienation she experienced when she encountered her first major crisis of health. Learning to suddenly have to ask for help, to heal, and to find her own capacity for wellness and resilience—Gallagher makes a powerful call for a more meditative, shared existence in which we can sit quietly with one another, open our hearts, listen, accept, and throw off the narrative of business and function that pervades our lives and blinds us to compassion. Meditative, touching, and an inspiration—Accompany Me welcomes people from all walks of life and tradition to join Gallagher on her journey to rediscover her faith, her home and her comfort in a community of all of the other souls who spend their days with one another in the land of the vulnerable. A Vintage Shorts Original. An ebook short.




Return from Tomorrow


Book Description

The True Story of an Uncharted Journey Through the Afterlife As a world war raged around him, a young soldier named George Ritchie barely comprehended his own death as he left the physical world--only to return minutes later. Yet in the space between death and coming back to life, he experienced eternity. In this riveting true story, Dr. George Ritchie shares some of the most stunning and detailed descriptions of life after death. You'll encounter other non-physical beings, travel through different dimensions of time and space, and discover a series of worlds--some hellish in their separation from life, some glorious in their heavenly brilliance. But most amazingly, you'll witness his transformational meeting with the Light of the world, the Son of God. Hailed as one of the most amazing visions of the afterlife ever recorded, Ritchie's experience forever changed the course of his life and his understanding of the realm beyond our own--and it can do the same for you.




Out of the Woods


Book Description

Combining the soul-baring insight of Wild, the profound wisdom of Shop Class as Soulcraft, and the adventurous spirit of Eat, Pray, Love: Lynn Darling’s powerful, lyrical memoir of self-discovery, full of warmth and wry humor, Out of the Woods. When her college-bound daughter leaves home, Lynn Darling, widowed over a decade earlier, finds herself alone—and utterly lost, with no idea of what she wants or even who she is. Searching for answers, she leaves New York for the solitary woods of Vermont. Removed from the familiar, cocooned in the natural world, her only companions a new dog and a compass, she hopes to develop a sense of direction—both in the woods and in her life. Hiking unmapped trails, Darling meditates on the milestones of her past; as she adapts to her new surroundings, she uses the knowledge she’s gained to chart her future. And when an unexpected setback nearly derails her newfound balance, she is able to draw upon her newfound skills to find her bearings and stay the course. In revealing how one woman learned to navigate—literally and metaphorically—the uneven course of life, Out of the Woods is, in the words of Pulitzer-prize winning author Geraldine Brooks, “a marvelous book . . . both a compass and a manifesto for navigating the often-treacherous switchbacks of the second half of life.”




The Oxford Handbook of Music Therapy


Book Description

Music therapy is growing internationally to be one of the leading evidence-based psychosocial allied health professions to meet needs across the lifespan.The Oxford Handbook of Music Therapy is the most comprehensive text on this topic in its history. It presents exhaustive coverage of the topic from international leaders in the field.




The Wedding Book


Book Description

The Idea Book. The How-to Book. The Everything Book. It’s the ultimate wedding planning bible from the ultimate wedding planner. From getting engaged to getting to the altar to taking off for your honeymoon to preserving the memories forever, this is the book to help you bring your dream wedding to life, no matter how big or small your budget. The Wedding Book is: Your fashion consultant, menu planner, etiquette expert, and floral designer An insider source for stretching budgets and negotiating contracts A digital-savvy friend for making the most of Instagram, Etsy, Pinterest, and wedding planning websites and apps A wise shoulder to lean on when sticky family issues come up Whatever the subject—cakes, stationery, dress shopping, lingerie, tents, Uber, insurance, porta-potties, party favors, the toasts, looking great in photos, tipping, and thank-you notes—The Wedding Book has the answer. Includes lists, schedules, budgeting tools, and timelines.




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