Seasons Calling


Book Description

This collection of haiku and Western-style verse by an American living in Japan brings a special poetic vision to the endless cycle of life, and to its separate rhythmic movements. Readers will find again and again in these pages the sharpened sensibility and clear observation developed by the haiku discipline. One of the aims of this book, according to its author, is to reveal the similarities between haiku and Western-style verse. Its undeniable achievement is a rediscovery of the universals of emotion and expression uniting all people. In Haiku style, though not always in haiku form, these poems invite the reader to a poignant perception of identity in apparently unrelated things and people--a Westerner falling in love or out of love with Japan; a country girl dazzled by Ginza's bright lights; a sleeper wakened by "all-night thunder," wondering "who can dream of the old days with, such violence"; a wanderer among the tombstones of Tokyo or a New England cemetery. And readers will find again in these pages the sharpened sensibility and clear observation developed by haiku discipline.




The 6 Seasons of Calling


Book Description

What if you don’t have a calling from God . . . but callings? Often we think of our calling as a singular moment of divine purpose revealed to us in young adulthood and static for the rest of our lives. But consider how God usually works. He created the cosmos in six successive days. Might He not also have six seasons of calling for the lives of His people? In The 6 Seasons of Calling, Brian Sanders helps you view your calling as something ongoing and dynamic. Because your calling is rooted in your relationship with God and your perception of His voice, it isn’t a static or one-time experience. Of course, your calling doesn’t constantly shift and change. Yet God has ordained six basic seasons as your life unfolds: Childhood – the season of bonding Adolescence – the season of learning Early Career – the season of serving Mid-Career – the season of creating Late Career – the season of giving Transition – the season of leaving Instead of wandering aimlessly through life, let the six seasons of calling provide structure for your development. Locate yourself in this sequence. Live mindfully in each season. Learn from its lessons. Look for what might be next. And remember . . . only at the end of your life will you see why each season was valuable and not to be rushed.




Seasons Calling


Book Description




Calling All Years Good


Book Description

A uniquely comprehensive discussion of vocation from infancy to old age Do infants have a vocation? Do Alzheimer's patients? In popular culture, vocation is often reduced to adult work or church ministry. Rarely do we consider childhood or old age as crucial times for commencing or culminating a life of faith in response to God's calling. This book addresses that gap by showing how vocation emerges and evolves over the course of an entire lifetime. The authors cover six of life's distinct seasons, weaving together personal narrative, developmental theory, case studies, and spiritual practices. Calling All Years Good grounds the discussion of vocation in concrete realities and builds a cohesive framework for understanding calling throughout all of life.




Seven Seasons of the Man in the Mirror


Book Description

In Patrick Morley's compelling follow-up to The Man in the Mirror, a man is taken beyond the day-to-day problems he faces and is confronted with seven major seasons of life that can make him or break him. Includes a leader's guide for small groups. In his phenomenally successful The Man in the Mirror, award-winning author Patrick Morley took men for a close-up on crucial aspects of their manhood and challenged them to establish wise priorities in life. In Seven Seasons of the Man in the Mirror, Morley shifts the focus to wide-angle. Looking at the broad sweep of life itself, he helps men determine where they are, where they're headed, and how to get there. Drawing on the lessons of his own life and wisdom from the Bible, Morley presents hard-won perspectives on the seven seasons of Reflection, Building, Crisis, Renewal, Rebuilding, Suffering, and Success--and in so doing, addresses men's deep longing for direction and purpose. With candor and passion, he speaks to issues every man must face. He illustrates them with true, modern-life stories. And he presents meaty questions for men to chew on and decisions for them to act on. This penetrating, richly encouraging book will help men turn from empty pursuits to the joy, passion, and eternal satisfaction of manhood's highest purpose. This book was previously titled The Seven Seasons of a Man's Life.




The Seasons of God


Book Description

What season of life are you in? Each of us goes through periods of life that have a certain character—a few months or a few years, good times or difficult circumstances, times of brilliant joy or periods of dark clouds. Often we say, “It’s just the season of life I’m in.” But did you know that just as God has purposes for the seasons of nature, he also uses seasons in your life to grow you, work with you, and talk to you? Richard Blackaby explains in The Seasons of God how understanding the principles of the seasons can offer us hope, direction, insight, and intimacy with God himself. It’s a thoughtful exploration of God’s patterns at work in our lives—how His will is being carried out in the best way…at the best time. Your plans, your relationships, your career, your ministry—all have their unique God-intended moment. God’s Word expresses it this way: “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven.” So what’s your season of life? And what is God telling you through the season you’re in?




Backstop


Book Description

You know Backstop. He plays for any team in any city in America with a major league ball club. You cheer him when he delivers, and boo him when he doesn't. In what could be his last game after 14 years in the major leagues-the seventh game of the World Series-Backstop chronicles his rookie season, takes the reader to Chicago where he finds romance, and reveals the heartbreak he endured in the aftermath of an adulterous affair. Fellow Michigan writer and author of Landscape with Fragmented Figures Jeff Vande Zande writes of Backstop: "J. Conrad Guest offers an entertaining and instructive journey into both major league baseball and major league matters of the heart." While Rachael Perry, also a Michigan writer, says, "Baseball, like love, is a game of errors and regrets. Pop-outs, ground-outs, strike-outs. A bad swing, a bad throw, a bad hop. But what captivates us most is the possibility of the next at-bat, of the chance for a rally, of an unlikely clutch play that suddenly changes the stakes. This is where J. Conrad Guest meets us in Backstop: in this beautiful, hopeful place closest to our hearts, where we play for the love of the game, and we love with everything we have."




A Mic for All Seasons


Book Description

When Kenny Albert was growing up, family gatherings sounded a lot like a dispatch from the first all-sports radio station. There was his father, Marv, whose voice shaped the sound of modern basketball, and there too were his uncles Al and Steve— a trio of professional play-by-play men with a listenership that spanned the country. It was only a matter of time before Kenny, armed with a toy tape recorder, yearned to follow in their footsteps. Some 3,000 broadcasts later, Kenny Albert has amassed countless stories from the world of sports and media. A Mic for All Seasons is his chronicle of a charmed yet unlikely journey, from a youth spent calling games in his bedroom for a fictitious audience to ten-hour bus rides with a minor-league hockey team, plus the time he worked five different sports in one chaotic, 19-day stretch. The only play-by-play broadcaster who currently calls all four major sports in North America, Albert details the stand-out moments from his three-decade career, including the 1994 Stanley Cup Final, Jose Bautista's bat flip in the 2015 ALCS, and the U.S. women's hockey Olympic gold-medal winning shootout in Pyeongchang in 2018. Part memoir, part behind-the-scenes look at the world of broadcast media, A Mic for All Seasons also features stories about life in the booth, game preparation, travel hijinks, marquee events, meetings with star athletes and coaches, and much more.




Birdsong by the Seasons


Book Description

A multimedia experience that lets you look at—and listen to—birds in a whole new way! Birdsong by the Seasons is a celebration of birdsong from January through December. The stories begin with a pileated woodpecker on New Year’s Day; they unfold through the year, covering Florida’s limpkins and scrub-jays in February, prairie birds in May, scarlet tanagers in July, and a chorus of singing birds in Massachusetts just before Christmas. With this book, the acclaimed author of The Singing Life of Birds—a winner of the John Burroughs Medal—provides a unique experience: with his gentle guidance, the pairing of sonograms with the audio makes birdsong accessible and fascinating. This Kindle ebook contains embedded audio files. This audio content will only play on Kindle Fire tablets (excluding the Kindle Fire 1st Generation) and iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch devices. It cannot be accessed on Kindle e-readers (including the Kindle, Kindle Paperwhite, Kindle Touch, and Kindle Voyage) or on Kindle reading apps on other tablets or computers.




Four Seasons of Ministry


Book Description

Ministers often find themselves caught in the day-to-day pressures of leading a congregation and yearn to experience the unfolding of their professional lives from a larger perspective. Four Seasons of Ministry serves as a guide for what you will find on your ministerial journey and gives meaning to the routine and repetitive tasks of ministry. Authors Bruce G. and Katherine Gould Epperly, each of whom has over 25 years of experience in various pastoral roles, invite clergy to see their ministries in the present as part of a life-long adventure in companionship with God, their loved ones, and their congregations. There is a time and a season to every ministry. Healthy and vital pastors look for the signs of the times and the gifts of each swiftly passing season, but they also take responsibility for engaging the creative opportunities of each season of ministry. Those who listen well to the gentle rhythm of God moving through their lives and the responsibilities and challenges that attend the passing of the years, vocationally as well as chronologically, will be amazed at the beauty and truth that shapes and characterizes the development of their ministries.