Misfits Mystics Love And Life

Kirkus Reviews: "A set of poetic works with subtle moves that show the intricacy of the author's craft and his increasing mastery of the form. "

The night is gathering the dreams, The darkness and its troubling schemes.My lips quiver, please understand my state;How long do I need to be awake, in your wait?Tonight's the night! Don't be late.The day is breaking with birds' wings;Even my loneliness poetically sings.Alone and worried, I wait for you, To just confess that I love you.- ""A Confession"", Page-30Misfits, Mystics, Love, and Life is a collection of poetic works that truly takes you on a journey. From the emotional repercussions of war and broken human systems to the bliss and tumult of falling in love, Raminder Bajwa's poetry is sure to speak to your soul on multiple levels. Often child-like and innocent but steeped in old soul wisdom, the 17,223 words within these 219 pages are an expression of the spirit and, like all poetry, will resonate with other souls and touch on ideas and emotions deep within. Mr. Bajwa touches on vital topics, explores the emotional landscape, and encourages love and understanding through his heartfelt word

“A lively memoir mixed with short biographies of appealing religious outcasts.” —PUBLISHERS WEEKLY With untested ideals and a thirst for adventure, Christiana Peterson and her family moved to an intentional Christian farming community in the rural Midwest. It sounded like a simple and faithful way to follow Jesus, not to mention a great place to raise kids. In Mystics and Misfits, Peterson discovers that community life is never really simple and that she needs resources beyond her own to weather the anxiety and exhaustion of trying to save a dying farm and a floundering congregation. She turns to Christian mystics like Francis of Assisi, Simone Weil, and Dorothy Day to find sustenance for the everyday struggles and unique hardships of community life. With a contemplative’s spirit and poet’s eye, Peterson leads readers into an encounter with the God of the wild mystics and the weird misfits.

The history of Christianity if filled with misfits. This collection of sermons intruces us to heretics and mystics from the very earliest church to the present day, including the Gnostics, Origen, Julian of Norwich, Michael Servitus, Emanuel Swedenborg, Soren Kierkegaard, Madame Blavatsky, Teilhard de Chardin and many, many more. With humor and compassion for these misunderstood characters, John Mabry explores their teachings and how they can speak to us today, helping us be better people of faith, regardless of one's denomination or even religion. Mabry holds a PhD in World Religions and serves as co-pastor of Grace North Church in Berkeley, CA.

This witty and provocative study of sex and marriage manuals reveals the patterns of permissiveness and prohibition, and, tellingly, the mechanisms of suasion and enforcement - from sermons and hellfire to mutilation and electroshock - that have informed popular sex education over the past hundred and twenty years. From the roaring '20s to the 1960s sexual revolution and after, Teaching America about Sex reveals that, even as sexual behavior changed during periods of upheaval, the prescriptive literature on sex has remained traditional at its core, promoting primarily sex within marriage for the purpose of reproduction.

This is a book for everyone who wants to lead a deep, true, and passionate life and leave the world better for having passed this way.

In this fun and fresh sequel to Saints and Misfits, Janna hopes her brother’s wedding will be the perfect start to her own summer of love, but attractive new arrivals have her more confused than ever. Janna Yusuf is so excited for the weekend: her brother Muhammad’s getting married, and she’s reuniting with her mom, whom she’s missed the whole summer. And Nuah’s arriving for the weekend too. Sweet, constant Nuah. The last time she saw him, Janna wasn’t ready to reciprocate his feelings for her. But things are different now. She’s finished high school, ready for college…and ready for Nuah. It’s time for Janna’s (carefully planned) summer of love to begin—starting right at the wedding. But it wouldn’t be a wedding if everything went according to plan. Muhammad’s party choices aren’t in line with his fiancée’s taste at all, Janna’s dad is acting strange, and her mom is spending more time with an old friend (and maybe love interest?) than Janna. And Nuah’s treating her differently. Just when things couldn’t get more complicated, two newcomers—the dreamy Haytham and brooding Layth—have Janna more confused than ever about what her misfit heart really wants. Janna’s summer of love is turning out to be super crowded and painfully unpredictable.

Haunted by her hellish past as the school leper and the distraught daughter of a war-bitten Austrian mother, Andrea leaves home to find the happiness she knew as a young child in the flowering meadows of Iowa. She is confronted with people from drug dealers to escaped convicts to beggars, with the black of night as she huddles up against her car seat in abandoned campgrounds, with countless jobs working with the elder, the mentally ill, animals, and cancer patients. And along the way, she dives head first into the flip side of the physical realm. Did she really take a walk with her guardian angel? Its the world of trance channeling, psychic readings, and past lives as an unconventional woman seeks answers in an unconventional way. Still, the problem remains: she is trapped in a condemning world. She leaves again and again, each time angrier than the time before. Her head now fraught with endless dialogue, lucid memories, and smothered feelings, she begins to writehiding from bullies, leaving her body, talking to spirits, speaking out for animals, riding a motorcycle, traveling to Europe, getting married, singing in an opera, dancing in a ballet, smoking pot. Its a life extraordinaire as Andrea attempts to survive in world intolerant of misfits. Also woven into the story are a meek and mild father, a harassing grandfather, a loony brother who assumes the personality of Mr. Spock from Star Trek, and a psychic minister. Andreas story offers both laymen and mental health enthusiasts an intimate look into Aspergers, borderline personality traits, and serious attention issues. It depicts a very unusual yet understandable life. Who doesnt want to belong? To be loved? These are ordinary feelings magnified to the level of total despair by extraordinary situations. What stirs one, stirs us all.