When Everything Falls Apart

Describes a traditional Buddhist approach to suffering and how embracing the painful situation and using communication, negative habits, and challenging experiences leads to emotional growth and happiness.

"An impressive achievement. Much more than a cautionary tale or a back-to-the-land parable, Simon Heath's trilogy of novels is foremost a warm, generous meditation on an abiding truth underpinning individual lives and societies alike. Always, there are challenges and upsets; always, love, family, and community sees us through the worst of it, and shows us the best." —Charles Foran, author of Mordecai and Planet Lolita "When Everything Falls Apart is a hyper-realistic account of ordinary people caught in a world without power, and a handbook for survival in an all-too-believable future. It's also a hell of a good read." —Brent Preston, author of The New Farm: Our Ten Years on the Front Lines of the Good Food Revolution Brian and Karen are in the midst of mid-life crises, their marriage falling apart, the things that used to drive them suddenly without meaning. It’s a bad time for a second pregnancy. And then the power goes out. And stays out. When a massive solar flare knocks out the world’s electric grids, Brian, an extremely pregnant Karen and their 8 year-old daughter Robin find themselves in the middle of a city that is wholly unprepared for an emergency of this magnitude. They decide to move to their off-grid house north of Toronto, but when their car is stolen they must decide between trying to survive in an increasingly desperate city or find their way out by other means. When Everything Falls Apart is the story of a family’s epic journey and their struggle to find each other along the way.

Add layoffs, foreclosures, and skyrocketing health-care costs to the inevitable crises of every life, and you have today’s landscape. Amid these challenges, even those who thought they had solid coping skills feel that their center cannot hold as things fall apart. In her first book in many years, bestselling author Daphne Rose Kingma takes us on a path of emotional and spiritual healing, with particular attention to the complex and frequently overwhelming circumstances of our lives right now. The perfect combination of empathic friend, sage counselor, savvy problem solver, and even gallows humorist, Kingma looks straight into the predicaments so many of us face. She then offers ten deceptively simple yet profoundly effective strategies for coping on practical, emotional, and spiritual levels. The devastating events cannot be changed, but after reading this book, you will be, having recovered a sense of equanimity, spirit, and strength. Whether you’re struggling with money issues, job loss, relationship problems, an unexpected health crisis, or all of the above, this book will light your path and heal your heart.

“A true classic of world literature . . . A masterpiece that has inspired generations of writers in Nigeria, across Africa, and around the world.” —Barack Obama “African literature is incomplete and unthinkable without the works of Chinua Achebe.” —Toni Morrison Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read Things Fall Apart is the first of three novels in Chinua Achebe's critically acclaimed African Trilogy. It is a classic narrative about Africa's cataclysmic encounter with Europe as it establishes a colonial presence on the continent. Told through the fictional experiences of Okonkwo, a wealthy and fearless Igbo warrior of Umuofia in the late 1800s, Things Fall Apart explores one man's futile resistance to the devaluing of his Igbo traditions by British political andreligious forces and his despair as his community capitulates to the powerful new order. With more than 20 million copies sold and translated into fifty-seven languages, Things Fall Apart provides one of the most illuminating and permanent monuments to African experience. Achebe does not only capture life in a pre-colonial African village, he conveys the tragedy of the loss of that world while broadening our understanding of our contemporary realities.

Life crises can throw you into a tail-spin—a lost job, a failed relationship, a struggling business, a financial mess. Where do you start? How do you pull it together? How do you begin again? Tom Holladay experienced a catastrophe first-hand when a sudden flood in California destroyed his home, his church, and the homes of many church members. Tom and his congregation had to rebuild, and they used the principles in the book of Nehemiah to get back on their feet. Now a teaching pastor at Saddleback Church, Tom will help you discover seven principles for putting it together again that will give you the direction you need to get rolling on that fresh start. Holladay will walk you through seeing every problem as an opportunity, facing the obstacles head on and taking your first step, knowing how to expect and reject opposition, build on your success, and dedicating yourself to the One who rebuilds our souls. The task of starting again can seem impossible. And sometimes you just need to rebuild your confidence and regain a sense of purpose. If you’re trying to find the emotional energy, but you just don’t have it in you, let Holladay encourage you. He understands how difficult and rewarding the business of rebuilding is. This book is your encouraging how-to guide to starting again and stepping into a better future.

Instant bestseller: Buddhist teacher Pema Chödrön shares life-changing practices for living with wisdom, confidence, and integrity amidst confusing situations and uncertain times We live in difficult times. Life so often seems like a turbulent river threatening to drown us and destroy our world. Why, then, shouldn’t we cling to the certainty of the comfortable—to our deep-seated habits and familiar ways? Because, Pema Chödrön teaches, that kind of fear-based clinging keeps us from the infinitely more powerful experience of being fully alive. The Buddhist teachings she presents here—known as the “Three Commitments”—provide a treasure trove of wisdom for learning to step right into the unknown, to completely and fearlessly embrace the groundlessness of being human, for people of all faiths. When we do, we begin to see not only how much better it feels to live an openhearted life, but we find that we begin to naturally and more effectively reach out to help and heal all those around us.

Pema Chödrön reveals the vast potential for happiness, wisdom and courage even in the most painful circumstances.

Destination Hope: A Travel Companion When Life Falls Apart offers camaraderie and a beacon of hope for women who feel alone in loss, struggle, or change of circumstance. This book is not a self-help book filled with platitudes from people who think they have life figured out. Instead, Marilyn Nutter and April White link arms with the audience and encourage their readers through stories of their personal challenges in widowhood and chronic illness. Women are encouraged to see loss and hardship as part of life’s journey and are reminded to turn their gaze upwards, to the Provider of Hope. Within the pages of Destination Hope comes a sisterhood, a bond, that is formed only through the mutual understanding of loss and the need to find hope in hard times. Destination Hope is arranged into six chapters called Milepost Markers, which address various losses, disappointments, or obstacles. Each entry concludes with a Rest Area for reflection and journaling. A Postcard with a quotation related to the topic sends readers off with an encouraging word, as they travel on towards their destination hope.