Higher Life

When we sow our seeds in the garden of life, do we settle for a meager display of two or three flowers? Or, do we aim for a pageantry of rich colors and breathtaking beauty? So asks author David Bruce in these exquisite essays inspiring us to live an active spiritual life. Fresh and concise, he ranges in theme from living with purpose, spiritual practice, and digital distractions to reincarnation, the human condition, and advice on books and reading. Free of dogma, he helps the open-minded inquirer find ultimate meaning.

At night, in Huda's fragrant garden, a breeze sweeps in from the desert encircling Baghdad, rustling the leaves of her apricot trees and carrying warning of visitors at her gate. Huda, a secretary at the Australian embassy, lives in fear of the Mukhabarat - the secret police who watch and listen for any scrap of information that can be used against America and its allies. They have ordered her to befriend Ally Wilson, the deputy ambassador's wife. Huda has no wish to be an informant, but fears for her teenage son, who may be forced to join a deadly militia.

Based on more than five years of clandestine reporting on the front lines, No Turning Back is an utterly engrossing human drama full of vivid, indelible characters that shows how hope can flourish even amid one of the 21st century's greatest humanitarian disasters.

Solitude is the inspirational core for many writers, artists, and thinkers. Alone with our thoughts, we can make discoveries that matter not only to us but to others. To be solitary is not only to draw sustenance from being alone, but to know that our ultimate responsibility is not only to our partner or our own offspring, but to a larger community. Fenton Johnson's lyrical prose and searching sensibility explores what it means to choose to be solitary and celebrates the notion that solitude is a legitimate and dignified calling.

We tend to think about bad feelings—feelings like anger, envy, spite, and contempt—as the weeds in life's garden. But this isn't quite right, according to philosopher Krista K. Thomason. Bad feelings are the worms, not the weeds. They're just below the surface, and we like to pretend they aren't there, but they serve an important purpose. Thomason draws on insights from the history of philosophy to show what we've gotten wrong about bad feelings and to show listeners how we can live better with them.

Another "Backwards Glance" story with a look at the Chambers Academy Graduation class of 1972 who are celebrating their 50th year after high school this summer. We take a look at the beginning days of Chambers Academy in a local motel with sixteen students and four teachers, to where we are today. We remember staff and faculty from our beginning and look at how our class grew up together and became life long friends. Finally, we celebrate where we are today individually and as an educational institution.

Welcome to small-town Connecticut, a place whose inhabitants seem to have it all - the status, the homes, the money, and the ennui.

The Hunters - Adam, Kate, and their children Hal and Charlotte - are a typical family, with typical concerns: work, money, love, the trials of adolescence. What sets them apart is Prince, their black Labrador.

In 1914, a young man from Minnesota ventures out to eastern Montana to file a land claim under the Homesteading Act. He steps off the train in the tiny town of Glasgow, his rifle in a scabbard over his shoulder, his only luggage a carpenter’s tool box and a case holding some clothes. The author, that homesteader’s granddaughter, has woven together Prairie Dust: The Life and Times of Fremont Gideon from family stories about his many adventures. Fremont expanded his original 320-acre claim into a 4,000-acre cattle ranch. Then one day all of it was threatened by a life-changing event.

Mark Doty has always felt haunted by Walt Whitman's bold, perennially new American voice, and by his equally radical claims about body and soul and what it means to be a self. In What Is the Grass, Doty - a poet, a New Yorker, and an American - keeps company with Whitman and his Leaves of Grass, tracing the resonances between his own experience and the legendary poet's life and work.

You are the ultimate teen. It’s time to unleash the power within. Embark on a transformative journey with Derek T Freeman's groundbreaking 2-in-1 compilation that combines his acclaimed first two books – "Building Unstoppable Self-Confidence for Teens" and "88 Life-Changing High School Hacks (A Sur-Thrival Guide)." This isn't just a book; it's a transformative guide designed to empower teens to not only navigate high school but to dominate every aspect of life beyond. Book 1: Building Unstoppable Self-Confidence for Teens 5 simple steps to find your uniqueness and embrace the amazing ...

LIVING SUPERFOOD LONGEVITY: Master the Possibilities of High Quality Life Extension - Why do we age? What are the primary controllable factors that can allow us to not only live much longer, but to also enjoy healthy and vital maturation during our senior years? These and so many other questions are answered within this book. This represents a lifetime commitment of not only accessing cutting edge research science on health, nutrition, detoxification and other longevity strategies, but this also shows how our longevity is the most natural state of human evolution. Yet, not all people are ...

With Muse of Fire, Michael Korda, the bestselling author of Alone and Hero, takes a novel approach to World War I by telling its history through the lives of the soldier-poets whose verses memorialize the war's unimaginable horrors. He begins with Rupert Brooke and the halcyon days before violence engulfed his generation—destroying the self-contented world of Edwardian England—and ends with the tragic death of Wilfred Owen, killed only days before the armistice brought an end to a war that took over 25,000,000 lives.

Are you tired of working long hours and feeling burned out? Do you feel like there's never enough time in the day to get everything done? If so, you're not alone. Many professionals today are working longer hours than ever before, leaving them feeling stressed, exhausted, and overwhelmed. But it doesn't have to be that way. In "Surviving the 80-Hour Work Week," the author and career expert offers practical strategies and tools for managing stress, maintaining work-life balance, and achieving success in high-demand jobs. Whether you're a medical professional, lawyer, investment banker, ...

You can train your brain to pay attention more effectively. Acclaimed neuroscientist Dr Amishi Jha has dedicated her life's work to understanding the science of attention at every level - from brain-imaging studies in the lab to field testing soldiers, firefighters and athletes. Her mission has been to scientifically determine how we can harness the full power of our attention to better meet all that life demands.

Alexandra Robbins wanted to find out if the stereotypes about sorority girls were actually true, so she spent a year with a group of girls in a typical sorority. The sordid behavior of sorority girls exceeded her worst expectations - drugs, psychological abuse, extreme promiscuity, racism, violence, and rampant eating disorders are just a few of the problems. Pledged combines a sharp-eyed narrative with extensive reporting and the fly-on-the-wall voyeurism of reality shows to provide the answer.

Twelve months after her younger sister Anahita's death, Mitra Jahani reluctantly returns to her parents' home in suburban New Jersey to observe the Iranian custom of "The One Year." Ana is always in Mitra's heart, though they chose very different paths. While Ana, sweet and dutiful, bowed to their domineering father's demands and married, Mitra rebelled, and was banished.

Dave Kindred has covered dozens of Super Bowls and written about stars like Muhammad Ali, Tiger Woods, and Michael Jordan. But a high-school girls basketball team—the Lady Potters of Morton, Illinois—stands apart from the rest.

It's better to cycle at home from 4 minutes up to a maximum of 15 minutes in only 2 months Physical activity is absolutely important in the life of a human being. Nobody should ever stop practicing it, even in old age. But don't worry. I don't want to convince you to go to the gym or leave the house and start running like crazy aimlessly. I promise of this ebook where I will explain how it is possible to stop pedaling endless minutes (or hours) on the bike you have at home (or in the gym) starting from a minimum of 4 minutes a day up to a maximum of 15 minutes a day within two months. I'm ...

Jasper looks like any other average teenage boy but looks can often be deceiving. Jasper holds a deep secret; only he and two of his sisters know about his secret. He must keep this secret from his school at all costs. Jasper is outnumbered; he lives with his six teenage sisters and his mother. The story includes adventure, family situations, secrets and a little romance. Then there are those nuns to tend with and where do they fit into all this?