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The First Day of Peace Spiritual Quotation
Spanning two generations, The First Day of Peace shows how a taken-for-granted policy of "live and let live" can quickly crumble under the stresses of climate disasters. Only when it morphs into conscious acts of compassion can true peace prevail. Two communities of people — one on the mountain with access to river water and one in the valley with lake resources — leave each other alone until a severe drought strikes the land. Unwilling to share what little they have with each other, the two communities build hostility which later spills over into wrestling and fist fights. As the conflict escalates among adults, Tatiana Gardel's illustrations add magnificently to the story by showing us two young girls, one from each community, who notice each other, wave, then even spend their isolated winter days each making a doll that resembles the other. We see these two grow up and give the dolls to their children, passing along the value of respect for the other even though the two young women have never had a chance to exchange words. It's one of their children, a mountain girl, who during a terrible storm sees the devastation in the valley and tells her people, "We need to help." "From house to house, her idea spread. Love catches on," the book tells us. The First Day of Peace is a project of The Peace Studio, a nonprofit that promotes peace by supporting performing artists, jounalists, and other storytellers committed to healing divides, building mutual respect and dignity, and showing a path to living together in harmony. The book's authors, Todd Shuster and Maya Soetoro-Ng are cofounders of the nonprofit, with many other artistic, literary, and peace-making credits to their names. The story will most appeal to readers ages four to eight, but Maya Soetoro-Ng's Afterword is meaningful for all ages. She writes: "We at The Peace Studio feel that books like this are urgently needed to empower young people to address the challenges of their time. We are all in the center of so many storms — both literal and metaphorical — and we need to share stories that offer guidance on how to remain resilient through drought, fire, enduring rain, and intense wind. We survive when we help one another and learn to share."
An invitation to compassionately share resources so that peace can prevail.
Crafting Calm Spiritual Quotation
For more than 15 years, Maggie Oman Shannon has explored cross-cultural forms of prayer and spiritual practice through her work as an interfaith minister, spiritual director, workshop and retreat leader, writer and blogger. She offers creative tools, resources, and guidance for walking the modern contemplative path. She currently serves as the Spiritual Director of Unity Spiritual Center of San Francisco. She also led a Spirituality & Practice online retreat on "Ways to Pray from Around the World," which is now available on-demand. Visit her website at www.maggieomanshannon.com and follow her on Pinterest and Facebook. Oman Shannon has published two marvelous collections of prayers — Prayers for Healing and Prayers for Hope and Comfort — and other books on creative ways to understand and establish our connection with Spirit — The Way We Pray: Prayer Practices from Around the World; A String and a Prayer: How to Make and Use Prayer Beads and One God, Shared Hope. Her new book, Crafting Calm, falls in the second category. One of Oman Shannon's special talents is the ability to seamlessly meld creativity, spiritual practice, devotional activity, and a love of the arts and crafts. In this exceptionally fine book, she quotes art teacher Shaun McNiff: "Just as the religious person makes time for prayer during the day, the creative person makes time for expression. . . . Art as spiritual exercise suggests that any person can find a way to make time for the creative act each day." Oman Shannon believes we are all creations of a Creator and have been graced with creativity. In her case, projects are ways to commune with or be a vehicle of the Divine. Her embrace of this path was catalyzed when her spiritual director observed, "You have a gift for seeing ways to create spiritual practices out of ordinary things." Now her home office/studio is full of things she has collected for spiritually oriented crafts: beads, mint boxes, bits of ribbon. Over the last decade, she has helped workshop participants make prayer beads, love boxes, pastel mandalas, tiny shrines, blessing baskets, and much more. As theologian Mary Daly put it: "It is the creative potential itself in people that is the image of God." We agree with that and would add that we are all co-creators with the Holy One, fashioning an evolving world with our spiritual projects and practices. This book is organized into eight chapters that speak to different intentions one can hold when creating: crafting for calm, clarity, comfort, contemplation, creation, community, connection with others, and connection with Spirit. For added value, Shannon has included lists of resources for certain crafts, ideas for particular projects, and questions for journaling and reflection in preparation for a project. We also were pleased to see the variety of inspiring quotations that spice up the proceedings. Here are some of our favorite projects and practices of the 40 covered in the paperback: Annointing Oils Sacred Bath Salts Personal Prayer Flags Prayer Cards Power Pouches Prayer Stones Prayer Cards Portable Shrines Spiritual Toolboxes Personal Holy Books Maggie Oman Shannon is an enthusiastic guide through all these project possibilities. She often shares about her personal attempts with different crafts, openly admitting that some things are just not for her. We were relieved by this . . . and encouraged to try some new things anyway! Crafting Calm is a practical resource we're sure you will enjoy dipping into when you feel inspired or are looking for inspiration. Here are some great ways to expand your repertoire of spiritual practices while discovering fresh ways to express your God-given creativity.
40 creative projects and practices for calm, comfort, contemplation, creation, and community.
The Spirituality of the Gospels Spiritual Quotation
Thomas Moore is known for his consistently thought-provoking explorations of soul in all its shades and textures; his classic Care of the Soul and the books that have followed demonstrate his ability to reinvigorate and inhabit old concepts. He is also a master of everyday spirituality, a lifestyle nurtured during the 12 years he spent as a monk in a Catholic religious order before he became a psychotherapist. He has long been a student of the wisdom to be gleaned from different religious traditions, describing himself as a "Zen Catholic whose spirituality is so baked into life that it is nearly invisible." All these threads of his experience come together in this program, which was originally offered during Lent in 2011 and is formatted to run from Ash Wednesday through Easter Sunday. After years of incubation and meditation, Moore has uncorked what he calls a "spirituality of the Gospels" based upon his reading of the four New Testament Gospels in Greek. "This is a spiritual vision in and about the world," he notes. "It's a spirituality that does not have to be tied to a particular tradition and is accessible to anyone — people lovingly involved in the Christian tradition, lovingly involved in another tradition, not interested in religion, or somewhere in the gray areas of this spectrum." Using his fertile imagination, drawing upon his own translations of the Gospels, Moore offers fresh interpretations to deepen and enliven anyone's spiritual life. Calling the texts "intelligent, challenging, and incredibly inspiring," Moore encourages us to take to heart the distinctive imagery of the Gospels and the many insights to be found there about the central themes of the human adventure. He explores how Jesus gives us a rounded and ripe sense of the kingdom of God; challenges our long-accepted ideas about purity, wealth, and power; and gives us parables that turn things upside down. Sayings by and stories about Jesus model a path of love, empathy, sharing, self-possession, sensuality, and treating all people well. This unique program is designed to deepen your devotional life, draw you closer to all your neighbors, and enable you to reframe the special ways in which the Gospel Jesus weds the spiritual and the earthly. The e-course consists of these elements: • 40 emails with a Gospel passage, a commentary on it by Thomas Moore, a practice to bring the teaching into your daily life, and a suggested creative project; 6 additional emails about other elements of the retreat. • 4 short audios and 3 short video "classes" from Thomas Moore on key themes in the Gospels. • Recordings of 2 live hour-long teleconferences with Thomas Moore in which he answers questions asked during the first offering of this course in March/April 2011). (6 CEHs for Chaplains available.)

Fresh interpretations of intelligent, challenging, and incredibly inspiring gospel texts.

Conscious Living, Conscious Aging Spiritual Quotation
Ron Pevny is the founder and director of the Colorado-based Center for Conscious Eldering and conducts workshops and retreats across North America at venues such as the EarthRise at IONS Retreat Center and Ghost Ranch, New Mexico. He received his masters in integral counseling and psychotherapy from the California Institute of Integral Studies. He is a certified Sage-ing Leader with Sage-ing International. He is the creator and administrator of the 13-organization Conscious Aging Alliance, of which S&P's own Elder Spiritual Project is a part. We are very impressed with Ron Pevny's book which is right in sync with our positive view of conscious aging and "the challenge of creating an elderhood with meaning, passion, growth, and service." Recognizing the immense value this visionary work will have for older people who are yearning for inner growth and spiritual renewal, we highly recommend Conscious Living, Conscious Aging to you and hope that it finds a huge audience. It is a substantive resource that both covers the whys and wherefores of this movement and gives practical guidance of how you can incorporate this way of being into your daily life. Pevny begins with a description of his own personal journey to serve as a teacher and enabler for those who are willing to commit themselves to becoming wise conscious elders. He has created rituals and practices to empower older adults "to live with more fulfillment, intention, and joy as they age." Or, to put it another way, conscious eldering is the definitive journey to wholeness. As we navigate the move from middle-age to elderhood, we will experience three stages. The first is severance as we let go of all that will not deepen us in the coming years. The second is a neutral zone where we search for the skills, talents, and virtues which will help us become all we were meant to be. And in the third stage of reincorporation, we find and explore new gifts and possibilities as we move forward into uncharted territory. With substance and flair, Pevny examines the stepping stones to the inner work of conscious aging: life review which is the key to healing the past: forgiveness and grief work; the rewriting of disempowering stories; coming to terms with death and the end of our lives; confronting the Great Mysteries in solitude and silence (especially in nature); courting synchronicity; coming alive through creative expression; and strengthening your spiritual connection. Community is crucial for the full flowering and flourishing of conscious aging and Pevny covers discussion groups/wisdom circles; working with others on conscious aging practices; finding a life coach or counselor; co-housing; communities of shared passions; and exploring the sharing solution. In a special chapter on exercises, the author presents the art of writing a legacy letter; working with a Death Lodge; understanding and using the wisdom of dreams; and the practice of Ten Intentions for Ten Years. Pevny ends on a high and holy note: "There is no greater legacy that we can leave for the generations that will follow us, and no greater gift that we can give to ourselves, than to aim high as we age, ever reaching for our best. The world needs the wholeness, wisdom, and gifts of conscious elders." Try a Spiritual Practice on You
A book of immense value for those yearning for inner growth and spiritual renewal as elders.
Crafting Calm Spiritual Quotation
For more than 15 years, Maggie Oman Shannon has explored cross-cultural forms of prayer and spiritual practice through her work as an interfaith minister, spiritual director, workshop and retreat leader, writer and blogger. She offers creative tools, resources, and guidance for walking the modern contemplative path. She currently serves as the Spiritual Director of Unity Spiritual Center of San Francisco. She also led a Spirituality & Practice online retreat on "Ways to Pray from Around the World," which is now available on-demand. Visit her website at www.maggieomanshannon.com and follow her on Pinterest and Facebook. Oman Shannon has published two marvelous collections of prayers — Prayers for Healing and Prayers for Hope and Comfort — and other books on creative ways to understand and establish our connection with Spirit — The Way We Pray: Prayer Practices from Around the World; A String and a Prayer: How to Make and Use Prayer Beads and One God, Shared Hope. Her new book, Crafting Calm, falls in the second category. One of Oman Shannon's special talents is the ability to seamlessly meld creativity, spiritual practice, devotional activity, and a love of the arts and crafts. In this exceptionally fine book, she quotes art teacher Shaun McNiff: "Just as the religious person makes time for prayer during the day, the creative person makes time for expression. . . . Art as spiritual exercise suggests that any person can find a way to make time for the creative act each day." Oman Shannon believes we are all creations of a Creator and have been graced with creativity. In her case, projects are ways to commune with or be a vehicle of the Divine. Her embrace of this path was catalyzed when her spiritual director observed, "You have a gift for seeing ways to create spiritual practices out of ordinary things." Now her home office/studio is full of things she has collected for spiritually oriented crafts: beads, mint boxes, bits of ribbon. Over the last decade, she has helped workshop participants make prayer beads, love boxes, pastel mandalas, tiny shrines, blessing baskets, and much more. As theologian Mary Daly put it: "It is the creative potential itself in people that is the image of God." We agree with that and would add that we are all co-creators with the Holy One, fashioning an evolving world with our spiritual projects and practices. This book is organized into eight chapters that speak to different intentions one can hold when creating: crafting for calm, clarity, comfort, contemplation, creation, community, connection with others, and connection with Spirit. For added value, Shannon has included lists of resources for certain crafts, ideas for particular projects, and questions for journaling and reflection in preparation for a project. We also were pleased to see the variety of inspiring quotations that spice up the proceedings. Here are some of our favorite projects and practices of the 40 covered in the paperback: • Annointing Oils • Sacred Bath Salts • Personal Prayer Flags • Prayer Cards • Power Pouches • Prayer Stones • Prayer Cards • Portable Shrines • Spiritual Toolboxes • Personal Holy Books Maggie Oman Shannon is an enthusiastic guide through all these project possibilities. She often shares about her personal attempts with different crafts, openly admitting that some things are just not for her. We were relieved by this . . . and encouraged to try some new things anyway! Crafting Calm is a practical resource we're sure you will enjoy dipping into when you feel inspired or are looking for inspiration. Here are some great ways to expand your repertoire of spiritual practices while discovering fresh ways to express your God-given creativity.
40 creative projects and practices for calm, comfort, contemplation, creation, and community.

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