More Than We Remember

One night changes everything for three women. . . . When Addison Killbourn's husband is involved in a car accident that leaves a woman dead, her perfectly constructed life crumbles apart. With her husband's memory of that night gone and the revelation of a potentially life-altering secret, Addison has to reevaluate all she thought she knew. Emilia Cruz is a deputy bearing a heavy burden far beyond the weight of her job. Her husband is no longer the man she married, and Emilia's determined to prevent others from facing the same hardship. When she's called to the scene of an accident pointing to everything she's fighting against, she's determined to see justice for those wronged. Brianne Demanno is hiding from reality. She was thriving as a counselor, but when tragedy struck a beloved client, she lost faith in herself and her purpose. When her neighbors, the Killbourns, are thrown into crisis, Brianne's solitary life is disrupted and she finds herself needed in a way she hasn't been in a while. As the lives of these women intersect, they can no longer dwell in the memory of who they've been. Can they rise from the wreck of the worst moments of their lives to become who they were meant to be?

People have always tried to explain whatever they want to talk about or have to deal with in their worlds. To explain something to oneself or to others makes it comprehensible. If the explanation becomes socially tenable, it provides a person or a tribe with a perspective on their world, a way of knowing it. That perspective becomes their reality. It is a virtual reality, created by people for the use of those people. Virtual realities are products of our talk and our minds, which archive and channel the meaning of things. First, our minds get created, and then our minds create uspersonally and collectively. All human worlds (that we know anything about) function as they do based upon the meaning of their worlds and them in it. Most of the other animals on earth dont have much to say about their pasts or their future. People do because they invented the concept of the past and the concept of the future in order to think and talk about them. Those who superseded us in our particular cultures invented explanations to give virtual reality to everything they wanted to talk about or do something about. We live in and through those explanations, as we understand them. We invent our explanations on top of those we inherit, and that we and our progenies will grow up living in and through. This counter-intuitive premise is that we do not live in any natural world. We live consciously (and even subconsciously) in our worlds as we have explained themor could explain them. Physiological or biological events certainly do occur. But we deal with them according to what they meanto us. Random events like accidents do occur. But we can explain them before they occur and after they occur. There is nothing that occurs in our worlds that we cannot explain or justify in some way. Whether or not it rains is something we do not control. But to talk about it or think about it, we have to do so in and through our explanations. Your lover may be dumping you for his or her own a priori explanations. How you deal with it depends upon how you explain it to yourself. We liveand we diein accordance with our explanations of our worlds and of us in them. We live our explanations.

After years of estrangement, the lives of Zara Mahoney and her twin sister, Eve, are suddenly and completely intertwined again. Eve's troubled lifestyle causes the state to take custody of her two children and contact Zara and her husband, asking them to consider foster care. Newlywed Zara thought she'd finally been given a fresh start and feels wholly unprepared to care for a niece and nephew whose existence she wasn't even aware of. Meanwhile, Eve may have a real chance to start over this time with the help of Tiff Bradley, who's dedicated to helping women everyone else has given up on after facing a heartbreaking tragedy in her own family. Over the course of one summer, all three women's hearts and lives hang in the balance as Eve desperately works toward a new life. Can they redefine their expectations of how life should be to find the hope they--and those they love--so desperately need?

When four college friends graduated from the University of Northwest Oregon, their lives stretched before them, full of promise and vows to stay connected. But life has a way of derailing well-laid plans. Now they haven't spoken in twenty-five years. But against all odds, three of them have found themselves back in the same place--at their alma mater, wondering how they got there. When they discover their fourth friend, Hope, has died, Jenna, Ireland, and Vicky decide to embark on a wilderness adventure to honor her memory--and for secret reasons of their own. Jenna wants to show her husband that she's more than a helpless, overweight, middle-aged empty nester. Ireland wants to get back to the nature she loves and hide from the charges being pressed against her. And Vicky wants to show she cares for something besides her ministry--and put off the disaster waiting at home for as long as possible. They never bargained for the dangers they face in an unforgiving wilderness. Now they'll have to work together if they hope to make it home alive. While the three women fight to survive the elements, their toughest battles may be with themselves.

Author Sonja Boon’s heritage is complicated. Although she has lived in Canada for more than thirty years, she was born in the UK to a Surinamese mother and a Dutch father. Boon’s family history spans five continents: Europe, Africa, Southeast Asia, South America, and North America. Despite her complex and multi-layered background, she has often omitted her full heritage, replying “I’m Dutch-Canadian” to anyone who asks about her identity. An invitation to join a family tree project inspired a journey to the heart of the histories that have shaped her identity. It was an opportunity to answer the two questions that have dogged her over the years: Where does she belong? And who does she belong to? Boon’s archival research—in Suriname, the Netherlands, the UK, and Canada—brings her opportunities to reflect on the possibilities and limitations of the archives themselves, the tangliness of oceanic migration, histories, the meaning of legacy, music, love, freedom, memory, ruin, and imagination. Ultimately, she reflected on the relevance of our past to understanding our present. Deeply informed by archival research and current scholarship, but written as a reflective and intimate memoir, What the Oceans Remember addresses current issues in migration, identity, belonging, and history through an interrogation of race, ethnicity, gender, archives and memory. More importantly, it addresses the relevance of our past to understanding our present. It shows the multiplicity of identities and origins that can shape the way we understand our histories and our own selves.

Grace. We talk asthough we understand the term. The bank gives us a grace period. The seedy politician falls from grace. Musicians speak of a gracenote. We describe an actress as gracious, a dancer as graceful. We use the wordfor hospitals, baby girls, kings, and premeal prayers. We talk as though weknow what grace means. But do wereally understand it? Have we settled for wimpy grace? It politely occupies aphrase in a hymn, fits nicely on a church sign. Never causes trouble or demandsa response. When asked, "Do you believe in grace?" who could say no? Max Lucadoasks a deeper question: Have you been changed by grace? Shaped by grace?Strengthened by grace? Emboldened by grace? Softened by grace? Snatched by thenape of your neck and shaken to your senses by grace? God's gracehas a drenching about it. A wildness about it. A white-water, riptide, turn-you-upside-downness about it. Grace comes after you. It rewires you. Frominsecure to God secure. From regret riddled to better-because-of-it. Fromafraid to die to ready to fly. Grace isthe voice that calls us to change and then gives us the power to pull it off. Let's makecertain grace gets you. Endorsements for GRACE: "God's grace--His unconditionally loving, unmerited favor--issometimes difficult for people to grasp, even though each one of us is indesperate need of it. But in Max Lucado's new book, GRACE, it is completely embraceable and understandable. ThroughLucado's characteristic narrative style and profound biblical understanding, welearn that God's grace is truly much more than we deserve and greater than weimagine. " --Dr. Charles F. Stanley "Max Lucado has blended his creative writing style withhonesty about how he has experienced God's grace, mercy and forgiveness in hisown times of failure and despair. Youwill find comfort as Max shines the light of the Word of God revealing thatJesus Christ is truly the only hope that brings everlasting peace." --Franklin Graham, President and CEO, Samaritan's Purse, Billy Graham Evangelistic Association "Reading Max Lucado on grace is like hearing Warren Buffetton money or Julia Child on food--it's a subject he spent a lifetime falling inlove with." --John Ortberg, pastor and author, Menlo Park PresbyterianChurch "Few writers are better than Max Lucado, no subject isbetter than God's grace." --Randy Alcorn, author of Heaven and If God is Good "Max gives us encouragement, hope and a needed reminderthat the grace we all possess as followers of Jesus should empower us to movemountains, vs simply settling for pushing wimpy molehills." --Brad Lomenick, President and Executive Director, Catalyst "Max offers up a biblical vision of God's grace that comesdrenched in sweat and with a set of six-pack abs; a life-defining newness andrelationship-refining kindness straight from the heart of God." --Tim Kimmel, author of GraceBased Parenting "Some writers aim for the mind, others for the heartand a small number for the soul. With his latest book, 'Grace, ' Max Lucado hitsthe trifecta, touching on all three." -- Cal Thomas, Syndicated and USA Today Columnist and Fox News Contributor "If you love the writings of Max Lucado, this will probablybecome your favorite." -- Stephen Arterburn, Founder and Chairman of New LifeMinistries, host of "New Life Live " and best selling author "I can think of no more needed message for weary peopleeverywhere, and no better writer than Max Lucado to paint so gloriously thehope that "Christ in you" affords." --Louie Giglio, creator of Passion Conferences and pastor, Passion City Church

Every time I write my life story, it comes out how I feel but not always what I see. Every time I look in the mirror, it shows me all I can never hide raw & uncensored. It gives truth to me. How many of us have an alias pen name, nickname that were known as, other than our birth name? You dont have to raise your hand or nod your head, but at least try to smile even if its hard. I was bred & raised a Christian, but I feel I am less of a man & more of a God. Every poem I write at least one person like, but the ones written in sorrow & blood, People never forget & surprisingly love. Its hard for me to bleed externally when Ive been bleeding internally since I was born. By age eleven I had 13 wisdom teeth, & doctors call me extraordinary, by 14 I was suspended 15 times in two years, statistics called me ordinary! By 17 I was brilliant again, from publishing my first poetry book, result of heartbroken. Should have told the witch doctor never heal me, shouldve congratulated Cupid, for failing again, should have went to every wishing well, & retrieved every penny for my thoughts, instead of publishing my first poetry book, entitled, Poems From The Heart

God, Jesus Christ, the Holy Bible and the church are being tested. God has decided to speak out after many years of silence. There has been a conscious shift in the energies of our planet, which is allowing the stranglehold of religion to weaken. This has started a movement of a new belief by God. God is no longer prepared to put up with the avarice and greed, which has caused religion to use the word of God to manipulate people for power and control. God is no longer prepared to allow mankind total free-will, to continue to self-destruct and move further away from the spirituality that we were given. The day of reckoning is approaching; accelerated by mankind's material greed. There is definately life after death; but only for those who believe. This book is set to 'Rock the Casbah' with the shocking truth about the power and control of religion and the Holy Bible.