Path to Hope: America's New Face


Book Description

/About The Book Life is the pursuit of happiness, something that is ordained not by men, but bestowed by God. Our Path to hope is our purpose, something we all must discover if we are to truly live up to our potential as human beings. In this book, I will address one of the most pressing concerns facing our country today: Immigration and cultural diversity. One is the problem and the other is the solution. As a citizen of the world, I will use my experiences to show how cultural diversity is not to be feared, but used to benefit us all. In difficult economic times, native citizens will naturally look for scapegoats, and immigrants, both legal and illegal, fit the bill. But if we are to move forward, we need to find ways to allow immigrants to freely contribute to our society in order to solve the problems we accuse them of causing. If we embrace the cultural diversity rather than fight it, we will succeed. In the global economy, we cannot afford to discount such a valuable resource as the many who leave their homes for a better life, fueled by their own Path to Hope. Immigration isn’t the problem, it’s the answer! Even when unemployment is high, millions of jobs remain unfilled 49% of businesses find it hard to fill critical jobs, 15% above the global average. By 2018, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics jobs won’t be filled even if every American graduate with an advanced degree finds employment. Immigrants bring critical skills Construction will add 1.8 million jobs by 2020. 60% of Latino immigrants arrive with a sophisticated knowledge of the trade. 25% of scientists and engineers in the U.S. are foreign-born. Immigrants are 13% of the U.S. population but make up 28% of in-home health workers. Immigrants have higher work force participation rates than those born in the U.S. The U.S. must attract and retain human capital Immigration caps force 20,000 American-educated students to leave the U.S. every year. As the U.S. population ages, unfilled jobs will hinder growth By 2030, the U.S. will need to add 25 million workers to the labor force to sustain current growth. Without immigrants, the U.S. will not have enough new workers to support retirees. More than one-third of the U.S. population growth is attributed to new immigrants. By 2050, 93% of growth in the U.S. working-age population will be due to immigrants and their children. 75% of the foreign-born labor force is in the vital 25-54 year-old category - higher than their U.S.-born counterparts. Multi-lingual immigrants boost trade Every 100 H1-B visas creates 183 jobs for American-born workers. Every 100 H2-B visas creates 464 additional jobs.




The Anatomy of Hope


Book Description

Why do some people find and sustain hope during difficult circumstances, while others do not? What can we learn from those who do, and how is their example applicable to our own lives? The Anatomy of Hope is a journey of inspiring discovery, spanning some thirty years of Dr. Jerome Groopman’s practice, during which he encountered many extraordinary people and sought to answer these questions. This profound exploration begins when Groopman was a medical student, ignorant of the vital role of hope in patients’ lives–and it culminates in his remarkable quest to delineate a biology of hope. With appreciation for the human elements and the science, Groopman explains how to distinguish true hope from false hope–and how to gain an honest understanding of the reach and limits of this essential emotion.




The AfterGrief


Book Description

A validating new approach to the long-term grieving process that explains why we feel "stuck," why that's normal, and how shifting our perception of grief can help us grow--from the New York Times bestselling author of Motherless Daughters "This is perhaps one of the most important books about grief ever written. It finally dispels the myth that we are all supposed to get over the death of a loved one."--Claire Bidwell Smith, author of Anxiety: The Missing Stage of Grief Aren't you over it yet? Anyone who has experienced a major loss in their past knows this question. We've spent years fielding versions of it, both explicit and implied, from family, colleagues, acquaintances, and friends. We recognize the subtle cues--the slight eyebrow lift, the soft, startled "Oh! That long ago?"--from those who wonder how an event so far in the past can still occupy so much precious mental and emotional real estate. Because of the common but false assumption that grief should be time-limited, too many of us believe we're grieving "wrong" when sadness suddenly resurges sometimes months or even years after a loss. The AfterGrief explains that the death of a loved one isn't something most of us get over, get past, put down, or move beyond. Grief is not an emotion to pass through on the way to "feeling better." Instead, grief is in constant motion; it is tidal, easily and often reactivated by memories and sensory events, and is re-triggered as we experience life transitions, anniversaries, and other losses. Whether we want it to or not, grief gets folded into our developing identities, where it informs our thoughts, hopes, expectations, behaviors, and fears, and we inevitably carry it forward into everything that follows. Drawing on her own encounters with the ripple effects of early loss, as well as on interviews with dozens of researchers, therapists, and regular people who've been bereaved, New York Times bestselling author Hope Edelman offers profound advice for reassessing loss and adjusting the stories we tell ourselves about its impact on our identities. With guidance for reframing a story of loss, finding equilibrium within it, and even experiencing renewed growth and purpose in its wake, she demonstrates that though grief is a lifelong process, it doesn't have to be a lifelong struggle.




Changing Faces: A Journey of Hope and Perseverance


Book Description

Moments after giving birth to their first child, Lisa and Steve Brown are devastated to learn that even the doctors didn’t know his prognosis, much less how to explain it to them. Their newborn son, Logan, looked profoundly different. What challenges would this young family face in the future? Twelve days later, they handed their newborn son over to surgeons for them to build and remodel his skull. Before the initial shock and grief wore off, they learned this would become the first of many surgeries and challenges they would endure. Lisa D. Brown tells her family’s riveting story that will take you through their journey of real life hardships, diagnoses, new family additions, bullying, acceptance, humor, and perseverance. This inspiring story offers hope and encouragement to others to face fear and find joy in life’s journey.




Nature's Best Hope


Book Description

“Tallamy lays out all you need to know to participate in one of the great conservation projects of our time. Read it and get started!” —Elizabeth Kolbert, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Sixth Extinction Douglas W. Tallamy’s first book, Bringing Nature Home, awakened thousands of readers to an urgent situation: wildlife populations are in decline because the native plants they depend on are fast disappearing. His solution? Plant more natives. In this new book, Tallamy takes the next step and outlines his vision for a grassroots approach to conservation. Nature’s Best Hope shows how homeowners everywhere can turn their yards into conservation corridors that provide wildlife habitats. Because this approach relies on the initiatives of private individuals, it is immune from the whims of government policy. Even more important, it’s practical, effective, and easy—you will walk away with specific suggestions you can incorporate into your own yard. If you’re concerned about doing something good for the environment, Nature’s Best Hope is the blueprint you need. By acting now, you can help preserve our precious wildlife—and the planet—for future generations.




Writing Hope Strategies for Writing Success in Secondary Schools


Book Description

This book provides ways of thinking about the teaching of writing in secondary schools (with applications to college writing) and shares research-based strategies for immediate use in the classroom. The strengths-based, classroom-tested, student-centered writing hope strategies shared within the Writing Hope Framework (WHF) are designed to allow students to work within their own unique writing processes and insert their individual writers’ voices and styles authentically. The Writing Hope Framework allows students to choose which strategies and stages of the writing process they wish to engage in for purposeful writing goal attainment; it recognizes unique writing approaches and accounts for these differences in curricular design and implementation. Teachers can assess the writing abilities and self-beliefs of the students in their classes using a variety of strategies provided and then guide students in their pathways selection processes for writing. Given the nature of this research and its application, it is the intention of this book to bring readers through a process of hope that can facilitate life hope and writing hope in the classroom for and with students. Hope is not exclusively for the already hopeful students; it is also, and perhaps more critically, for those students who do not presently see hope in their lives but who can. Every student is capable of hope if it is facilitated effectively and purposefully.




The Road to Qua Qua Farm


Book Description

The Road to Qua ~ Qua Farm is an inspirational story of a young couple living on a hippie commune in the early 1970's. Together with a small band of Hippies from Boston, they moved to the back woods of Nova Scotia. The Old Weagle Farm was over one-hundred years old, run down, and in need of major repair; but the ideal place to live communally in a healthy environment, free from the norms, and values of society. They would learn to live off the land, and barter for things they could not provide for themselves. Daily living was pushed to the limits with the absence of electricity, indoor plumbing, and central heating. Determined to break tradition, their journey led them to this place, and they were determined to find out why!Their Quest was spiritual in nature, as they discovered the dusty road leading to the farm was just the beginning of a journey to awaken their souls, and satisfy the emptiness within their hearts. It would be a quest toward the King and His Kingdom! Striving for a life filled with material possessions, power, and pleasure, still touches generations today. Through personal experience, and circumstances beyond their control, they began to realize this pursuit was empty, and meaningless, leaving an unquenchable thirst that could not be satisfied. Compelled to search for the true meaning of their existence, their lives, attitudes, and characters were transformed along the Road to Qua ~ Qua Farm. The true stories within the pages of this book will inspire, and encourage you to achieve your hopes, and dreams while helping you to discover for yourself the real purpose of your life. For what will it profit a man to gain the whole world, and loose his soul?




A New Way to Hope


Book Description

"Dr. Bill, I know I'm not going to win this battle with cancer. Can you teach me how to die?" What is it about this stage in life that calls us to seek instruction?I have come to discover that the real issue is not the event called death but the ongoing journey prior to death that we call dying. Everyone has their own unique journey with dying. It is in that final stage in a person's life that I have had the privilege of knowing and giving care to my clients.This is a series of true stories, from my files. These are the shared voices of people who would find a new way to hope. A hope that would empower them to embrace the mystery of living meaningfully and purposefully until they died. And the story of one who could not."No, Sam. But I am prepared to work with you so that you will find a hope to live with, until you die."




Burning Center, Porous Borders


Book Description

Burning Center, Porous Borders articulates what the church is and is called to be about in the world, a world now globalized to the point that the local is lived globally and the global is lived locally. The church must respond creatively and prophetically to the challenges-economic disparity, war and terrorism, diaspora, ecological threat, health crisis, religious diversity, and so on-posed by our highly globalized world. It can do so only if the church's spiritual center burns mightily. Conversely, it can burn mightily in the spirit of Christ only if its borders are porous and allows the fresh air/spirit of change to blow in and out. While there is much rhetoric about change, the most common response to change is to continue doing business as usual. This is particularly the case in the face of perceived global threats. In spite of the hoopla and euphoria of the global village, walls of division and exclusion are rising, hearts are constricting, and moral imagination shrinking. In response to this context, Burning Center, Porous Borders proposes alternative ways or images of being a church: burning center and porous borders, wall-buster and bridge-builder, translocal (glocal), mending-healer, radical hospitality, community of the earth-spirit, household of life abundant, dialogians of life, and community of hope. In Burning Center, Porous Borders congregational vitality and progressive praxis kiss and embrace!




The Rural New-Yorker


Book Description