Listening For Our Song

-- Over fifty meditations suitable for public and private use. -- Part of the series of collected meditations that includes Day of Promise, What We Share, and All the Girls of Life. -- Includes inspiring observations about the natural world, solitary reflections and celebrations of family and community life. Meditations prompt the quiet reflection we need to counter the busy days of our lives. Ranging from solitary reflections to social commentary, from wry humor to poignant memory, these readings urge us to reconnect with our inner selves.

After a devastating accident crushed my dreams, I ended up back in my hometown teaching kindergarten. I was trying to make the best of it. That is, until the world I had to leave behind, showed up in my classroom in the form of a five-year-old little girl. Her father living the exact life I almost had.Adam Jacobson is known as the bad boy of rock. While he and his band tour the world, they leave a trail of mayhem. What no one knows is behind the music is a caring, straightedge man with a secret - a daughter who the world is about to discover.When they move to my small town, their secret is blown. He needs my help to keep her out of the media, and with each exchange we grow closer. Only problem is I need to stay away from the memories he ignites, and the temptations he brings my way.Secrets I've kept and thoughts of that fatal night come crashing back into my life. I have to wonder if it was more than fate that brought his little girl into my classroom.

For over half her life, Sally Patton has engaged in a contemplative, spiritual practice to awaken from separation consciousness. In Life Is a Song of Love, she draws upon channeled non-dual teachings from Yeshua and Mother Mary, combined with a variety of teachings from many faith traditions and spiritual paths, to answer a unique call to be an emissary of Divine Feminine Compassionate Consciousness. The Holy Mother has returned to heal into wholeness the division between feminine and masculine energies, necessary to end thousands of years of patriarchal domination. Sally helps women wake to the strength of the Mother within, embracing the sacredness of all life on Mother Earth.

Assist Our Song combines accessible teaching about the theology and shape of worship with essential information about the forms of music used, including congregational hymns, songs, canticles and psalm chant, and music performed by choirs and musicians. It explores the range of resources available, how to extend repertoire, blending the old with the new, changing patterns of church life, and other practical issues. Its aims are the heightening of the profile of music within the church, increasing the skills and understanding on the part of musicians and choirs, assisting leaders of worship and empowering congregations to see themselves also as ‘ministers of music’ It offers practical assistance for the ‘delivery’ of music – choosing music, making the most of choirs and working with musicians. It will be welcomed by all who lead, provide or curate music in worship, as well as clergy and ordinands who lack musical expertise or confidence.

What happens in our unconscious minds when we listen to, produce or perform popular music? The Unconscious – a much misunderstood concept from philosophy and psychology – works through human subjects as we produce music and can be traced through the music we engage with. Through a new collaboration between music theorist and philosopher, Smith and Overy present the long history of the unconscious and its related concepts, working systematically through philosophers such as Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, psychoanalysts such as Freud and Lacan, to theorists such as Deleuze and Kristeva. The theories offered are vital to follow the psychological complexity of popular music, demonstrated through close readings of individual songs, albums, artists, genres, and popular music practices. Among countless artists, Listening to the Unconscious draws from Prince to Sufjan Stevens, from Robyn to Xiu Xiu, from Joanna Newsom to Arcade Fire, from PJ Harvey to LCD Sound System, each of whom offer exciting inroads into the fascinating worlds of our unconscious musical minds. And in return, theories of the unconscious can perhaps takes us deeper into the heart of popular music.

God raises up Methodists for such a time as this. Here is a ditty Len Sweet's Methodist grandfather used to sing: A Methodist, a Methodist will I be A Methodist will I die. I've been baptized in the Methodist way And I'll live on the Methodist side. What "genius" of Methodism inspired this kind of love and loyalty in the earlier years of the faith? What did it mean to live in "the Methodist way" and to die on "the Methodist side?" Perhaps it is time to resurrect a neo-Wesleyan identity and to challenge the prevailing "one-calorie Methodism" that characterizes so much of our tribe today. What makes a Methodist? How can we re-ignite the spark of genius that motivated such commitment in our cloud of witnesses? The essence of Methodism's genius resides in two famous Wesleyan mantras: "heart strangely warmed" (inward experiences with a fire in the heart) and "the world is our parish" (outward experiences with waterfalls of cutting-edge intelligence). For Wesley, internal combustion, the former, led to external combustion, the latter. In the 18th century, Methodists in general (and in their younger years, the Wesley brothers themselves) were accused of being too "sexy." What else could all those "love feasts" and "strangely warmed hearts" be about? Why else were all those women in positions of leadership? With this book the author hopes to bring back to life some of Methodism's sexiness so that our current reproduction crisis can be reversed.

God raises up Methodists for such a time as this. Here is a ditty Len Sweet’s Methodist grandfather used to sing: A Methodist, a Methodist will I be A Methodist will I die. I’ve been baptized in the Methodist way And I’ll live on the Methodist side. What “genius” of Methodism inspired this kind of love and loyalty in the earlier years of the faith? What did it mean to live in “the Methodist way” and to die on “the Methodist side?” Perhaps it is time to resurrect a neo-Wesleyan identity and to challenge the prevailing “one-calorie Methodism” that characterizes so much of our tribe today. What makes a Methodist? How can we re-ignite the spark of genius that motivated such commitment in our cloud of witnesses? The essence of Methodism’s genius resides in two famous Wesleyan mantras: “heart strangely warmed” (inward experiences with a fire in the heart) and “the world is our parish” (outward experiences with waterfalls of cutting-edge intelligence). For Wesley, internal combustion, the former, led to external combustion, the latter. In the 18th century, Methodists in general (and in their younger years, the Wesley brothers themselves) were accused of being too “sexy.” What else could all those “love feasts” and “strangely warmed hearts” be about? Why else were all those women in positions of leadership? With this book the author hopes to bring back to life some of Methodism’s sexiness so that our current reproduction crisis can be reversed.

Usually, when we change our friends, our thinking changes as well. The Beauty of Thinking is the true story of Barissa Rodgerss own account of transforming her mind from negativity to positivity. The Beauty of Thinking will inspire readers to have hope and persevere. Readers will learn how to deal with the obstacles they face in life. They will also realize that their words can teach and inspire themselves and others. Rodgers shares her own experience with obstacles in her life and how she has gained wisdom from these experiences. This powerful book explains that the power to change comes from the inside. Changing your life for the better is what we will experience in our lives. Thanks to The Beauty of Thinking, readers will learn that when we change from negativity to positivity, we will gain more wisdom and better friends. There are many experiences in lifesome experiences are good, and others are bad. However, when we take a good look at who we truly are and want to change for the better, we will naturally change from negativity to positivity. Positive thinking takes you on a journey that allows you to love yourself more.