Emergence
Labeled Autistic

Temple Grandin

Softbound

$12.95

Temple Grandin's story is as miraculous and inspiring as that of Helen Keller. Mainly through her own determination and with the help of some very loving and insightful adults along the way, she discovered ways to free her self from the chains of autism and then went on to find ways to allow the special gifts of autism to be placed in service of the world. What we can learn from her is a lot.

As a child, she longed for affection, but because she was terrified of human contact and easily overstimulated, she became increasingly isolated instead. She also suffered from extreme anxiety attacks and was truly a prisoner of her autistic constitution.

Because she was also acutely observant and had a real understanding for the animals in her life (farm animals as well as pets), she was able to equate the responses of those animals to her own feelings and then to find ways to help herself out of the anxiety attack syndrome. And from there, her work both as a developer of effective autistic therapies and as a an animal scientist blossomed. As an adult, she is regarded as one of the most gifted animal scientist, and one of the highest functioning autistic individuals in the world.

Here story is remarkable: it teaches us as much about what it means to be human as it teaches about autism and its potentials. I just love this book.

A Child's Christmas in Wales

Dylan Thomas

Illustrated by Edward Ardizzone

Softbound

$9.95

What to say about this great tale of Christmas with Aunts in the kitchen and Uncles in the parlor, of snowballs and cats, fires and dinner gongs, and the myriad other adventures available to a wide-eyed child in snowy, Christmas-y Wales? Actually, I don't know quite what to say, other than if you haven't read it yet, do. You'll love it. If you have read it, well, do read it again -- it is too jam-packed with delight and love not to go back to at least once a year, especially at Christmas time.

This edition is the one with the very best, right-on-target illustrations, just right for the story and just lovely on their own.

As an invitation for more fun (and to remind those who've read it why it's such a frolic), here's the opening page:

One Christmas was so much like another, in those years around the sea-town corner now and out of all sound except the distant speaking of the voices I sometimes hear a moment before sleep, that I can never remember whether it snowed for six days and six nights when I was twelve or whether it snowed for twelve days and twelve nights when I was six.

All the Christmases roll down toward the two-tongued sea, like a cold and headlong moon bundling down the sky that was our street; and they stop at the rim of the ice-edged, fish-freezing waves, and I plunge my hands in the snow and bring out whatever I can find. In goes my hand into that wool-white bell-tongued ball of holidays resting at the rim of the carol-singing sea, and out come Mrs. Prothero and the firemen.

Have a wonderful Christmas!

Dante to Dead Man Walking
One Reader's Journey through the Christian Classics

Raymond A. Schroth, S.J.

Softbound

$14.95

My definition of spiritual is broad. The books that follow are spiritual classics in that, with the exception of a few published within the last decade, they have worked their magic on centuries and generations of readers. They speak to the human spirit, to that divine gift by which we transcend the limitations imposed by our self-absorption, our narrow-mindedness and our moral cowardice. If we approach a book in the way Karl Rahner says we should approach life - fully open to human experience and God's grace - it can transform us in much the same way that a friend, a teacher, or a coach can help us become something we have not been before.

- from the author's Introduction

Reading this book is liking taking a guided tour of some of the greatest works of literature Western Civilization has produced. And having a guide who is expert beyond any reasonable expectation!

There are 50 essays covering 50 authors or works - a sampling of those discussed ranges from The Book of Genesis to Dante Alighieri to Dostoyevsky, James Joyce, Willa Cather, Evelyn Waugh, Edward Steichen, C. S. Lewis, Flannery O'Connor, Shusaku Endo. Of course, there are many more. Schroth's essays go right to the heart of the matter -- what is it about the subject that is exciting, that keeps the author and his/her work alive in our hearts, that moves us forward as we read?

If you like literature, you'll love this book!

Teresa of Avila
The Progress of a Soul

Cathleen Medwick

Softbound

$12.95

This biography has become one of my favorite books - I have read it more than once and given it to many people since first finding. Unfortunately, it found its way to the bottom of my "books to upload" pile, so I am only now getting it to you. I can almost hear Teresa saying, "Finally! Now let's get on with it!"

Medwick's retelling of St. Teresa of Avila's life is almost always from the perspective of how Teresa herself would have seen (or has written that she did see) the events around her. I love this, as it offers the utlimate in both historical accuracy and respect toward a very great woman who wove beatiful pathways toward salvation into a fabric of Western Civilization. Additionally, the author's penning of the story itself has the readability of a good novel even as it conveys a mindset and circumstances that, outwardly at least, are so very different from what we commonly encounter in the modern world. I feel that Teresa is a woman for our time as much as she was a woman for her own time - and that this biography offers one of the best portraits of this person who we can all benefit by knowing better.

Here's a glimpse of what you will find between the covers of this book:

From the time Teresa of Avila (1515-1582) entered a convent at the age of sixteen, she exhibited an independence of spirit not readily tolerated by the sixteenth-century Church or the sixteenth-century political community. Her expansive nature, intensity, and energy would fuel a lifetime of accomplishment, including most significantly the reform of Carmelite convents and the writing of a body of work that today is considered the cornerstone of Christian mysticism. In a finely wrought, multidimensional portrait of Teresa, Cathleen Medwick brings to life a woman of very human contradictions: a devoted daughter of the Church who bent the ruls - and barely survived the Spanish Inquisition - to achieve her goals; a practical, no-nonsense manager whose very personal brand of spirituality manifested itself in flamboyant, arguably erotic, raptures; a woman who, despite debilitating illness, traveled around Spain with the assurance (if not the authority) of a man to organize and strengthen Carmelite communities.

There is much more that could be added, but you'll have more fun if I don't tell you every little thing. Do enjoy - this is truly a book for the heart.

Against the Pollution of the I

Selected Writings of
Jacques Lusseyran

Hardbound, Dust Jacket

$18.95

With strength, clarity, beauty, and grace, Jacques Lusseyran describes regions of the heart entered only by the most courageous. We learn of the extraordinary capacities of sensing, of the inner light of spiritual attention, and an ever-present depth of joy that cannot be taken away either by blindness or by the threat of death - such is the tenacity of love. I have never been quite somoved by a book. Thanks to this writing, this exquisite language, this gifted imagination, we know what we are supposed to be and become as human; he has shown us by his life.

Robert Sardello, Ph.D

This collection of six little-known essays and lectures is filled with the inner light that Jacques Lusseyran found after losing his sight at the age of eight. This light - the universal and Divine source of faith and hope - sustained not only Lusseyran but also his fellow inmates in the Nazi prison camp of Buchenwald, as two of the essays describe. Despite the constraints of blindness in daily life and society's inevitable prejudices, Lusseyran felt - and makes us feel - that our disabilities, whatever they may be, are in truth our most precious gifts. Blindness enabled Lusseyran to discover aspects of the world that he would never have otherwise known. He vividly describes many senses beyond our usual five - available to all of us if only we pay attention. In these essays, Lusseyran reaches out compassionately to all people and urges a dialogue between those with and without eyes.

It is our inner light that Lusseyran refers to as the I in the title essay. He declares that the I's central vitality is under attack by everything that steals our attention away from it and does not revere it. His love for humanity compels him to declare the I in desperate need of protection. With this remarkable collection of essays, Lusseyran offers a way to unveil the light-filled inner I and transform our lives.

Book of the Heart
The Poetics, Letters, and Life of John Keats

Andrés Rodríguez

Softbound

$16.95

Keats stands as a prophetic precursor behind much in today's radical attempts at cultural and self-transformation. Unfortunately, he is remembered, if at all, mostly as a Romantic poet whose value and standing was magnified by his early death. Eclipsed by the lushly sensuous affection of his poems, the real meaning of his life and the greatness of his achievement in poetics - how one makes sense out of experience - has been ignored.

Now Andrés Rodríguez redresses the balance by granting to Keats' Letters their huge intellectual and spiritual labor. In these Letters, among the most inspiring spiritual documents of the West, we see the poet forming and transforming a passionate life of great joys and sorrows into a self of imagination and power.

Book of the Heart gives the Letters the central place in our literature they deserve. This is a book--for all kinds of readers--about the power of the life of imagination. -Robert Hass

Sacred Places
A Spiritual Science Insight on the 4th Estate - The Mineral Earth

Alan Whitehead

Softbound

$22.95

This is a fascinating study of myth, legend, geography, minerology, and the weather! Alan Whitehead, who lives in the area of Sydney, Australia, takes a close look at our visible Earth, then dives into Aboriginal and world mythology and cosmology to emerge with insights esoteric and exoteric, questions, and a basket of facts that will keep you happily reading (and chuckling! - this is also one of Alan's more humorous offerings) as you learn and wonder about the planet upon which we make our homes. Alan has succeeded in writing a book that is at once a great rainy-day read and a really valuable resource. I'm confident you'll enjoy it as much as I did!

In a Sunburned Country

Bill Bryson

Softbound

$14.95

My mother sent me this book after she had finished reading it. The timing was perfect as I was just poking around for something new to read. As I read, Bob became so intrigued by the eruptions of laughter coming from my side of the bed that he read it after I had finished. Then, it was my turn to lose sleep listening to him chortle . . . repeatedly.

When he was done, I sent the book to Alan and Susan Whitehead in Sydney, Australia - wanting to share the laughs and also make sure that a native Australian would find nothing offensive or just plain wrong. They loved it, though Alan reported being glad to hand the book on to their son (now grown and living elsewhere), as he found it hard to get any work done above Susan's laughter. (Susan submitted no report of what Alan's guffaws had cost her).

And so, I pass this along to you - this is one of the funniest travel books in print, as well as being one of the most humanly insightful accounts of a remarkable land. Australia is a country that is also a continent, that abounds with friendly people, extremely hot, dry weather, and the largest gathering of lethal (really lethal) wildlife to be found anywhere on our dear planet. Bill Bryson's love of the place, and his wonderful sense of humor, combine to make this one of the best books anyone could read, anywhere. You'll have great fun with this one! Enjoy!!!

Sacred Places/Sunburned Country Special

Allan Whitehead

Bill Bryson

Softbound

Regular Price - $37.90

Set Price: $35.00

These two books are a great read back to back - doubles both the pleasure and the insight!

Looking for Mary
or, The Blessed Mother and Me

The Remarkable Story of One Woman's Stumble from Darkness into Light

Beverly Donofrio

Softbound

$14.00

This is the best true story I have read in years and years. Beverly Donofrio, author of Riding in Cars with Boys, tells her story with openness, good will, humor and, finally, love - the sort of love that sets real-life miracles in motion and transforms lives. She begins her tale as the well-loved daughter of a good Catholic family who ends her high school career as "the girl who got pregnant." In the course of raising their young son, her husband develops a drug habit of nasty proportions, which leads to divorce, which leads her into a life as bohemian-academic-single-mom and a series of relationships with men which, if they aren't totally disasterous, are nipped in full bloom . . . by her. And I haven't even mentioned what happens to her son.

One day a garage-sale picture of Mary sneaks into her life along with a full-hearted neighbor who teaches her to garden. As is Mary's way, first in small, almost unnoticable ways, Beverly's life begins to change. And then, in some pretty dramatic ways. From Los Angeles to Medjugore to Guadalupe's Mexico, Beverly's journey of the heart, her reunion with the Blessed Mother is a no-holds-barred snapshot of all our lives - and of the promise they all hold. Read this book - you'll love it!

* * * * *

As an aside, I have spent the last year or so actively looking for a statue of Mary that I thought was artistic, spiritually inspired, and beautiful. (When you read this book, you'll see why it's appropriate that I mention this here.) It's not an easy task. Although beautiful statues of Kwan Yin are available on what seems like every street corner (which is fine with me - I really like them), there is an amazing lack of grace in most available sculpted images of Mary. I still don't understand that phenomenon, but I can share with you one series of statues that I've found that are truly inspired. Go to www.inspirationsbymicco.com and click on Window Shopping to see them. My favorite is Our Lady of Grace, but each of the 5 aspects of Mary has it's own very special beauty. Sam Micco is the very gifted designer of these beautiful statues - I spoke with him and he told me his story, which he has posted as part of his web site - it is well worth reading.

The Awakened One
A Life of Buddha

Sherab Chodzin Kohn

$14.95

I am amazed by this book and what it's author has accomplished. Although I have not exhausted the available literature on the life of Buddha, I have read quite a bit and so far have seen nothing that rivals the rare combination of impeccable research and fluid storytelling. The Awakened One reads like a novel (a very good novel), yet every detail is based on accurate research and deep understanding. In a lesser writer's hand, the attempt to reach such a goal would have resulted in either a stodgy, academic treatise or what I have come to call an "intellectual-lite" story - something "accessible," but too breezy and vapid to be worth the undertaking. Instead, The Awakened One is biography at its best - a beautifully told story of a life we all want to know about; it is also teaching at its best. Buddha's principal doctrines are presented in a way that is not only clear and succinct, but that enables the reader to understand them not as abstract doctrine, but as insights which were themselves events in the life of the Buddha.

Whether you are looking for more understanding of Buddha and his teachings, or whether you simply want to sit by the fire and enjoy a good book, you'll love The Awakened One.

Bones of the Master
A Buddhist Monk's Search for the Lost Heart of China

George Crane

Softbound

$17.00

I read an excerpt of Bones of the Master in the Spring 2000 issue of Tricycle. It knocked my socks off - such beauty, such writing, what a story! Without even bothering to question, I ordered a copy the very next day. Then I proceeded to read it as though it were food and I were starving. It filled me completely.

Bones of the Master is a true story about a Ch'an (Chinese Zen) Buddhist Master, Tsung Tsai, then living in upstate New York. At the age of 72, Tsung Tsai determined to return to China - from which he had escaped during the Great Leap Forward in 1959. His purpose was to find the bones of his beloved Master, rebury them with proper Buddhist rites, and create a shrine in his master's memory. He selects as his traveling partner his neighbor and "heart friend," George Crane, the author of the book. Crane's life up to that point had as little to do with the renunciation of desire as Tsung Tsai's had to do with its cultivation - the way they weave their worlds together is as much an adventure as their remarkable trek into the mountains of Inner Mongolia to carry out their unlikely task. The Truth that Tsung Tsai shares with us along the way is as powerfully transforming as it is beautiful and wise.

Bones of the Master is so valuable on so many levels that I am joyous to offer it to you!

Thinking in Pictures
and other reports from my life with autism

Temple Grandin, Ph.D.

$13.95

Prepare for an incredible journey into the workings of the human mind - both normal and abnormal. Temple Grandin, a Ph.D. animal researcher who is also autistic, has gifted us all with an intimate "insiders account" of autism. You will learn more about the nature of this syndrome and of the workings of your own mind from this account than you could from any collection of theoretical reports. Further, because Temple is also a consummate scientist, her report is filled with the latest discoveries about the neurological basis of autism and about what therapies have been found to work and for whom they are effective. This is a great book that is certain to help anyone working with any special human needs. Outstanding!

A Bridge of Dreams
The Story of Paramananda, a Modern Mystic, and His Ideal of All-Conquering Love

Sara Ann Levinsky

Regular price $12.95
Forever Special price $11.00

This is one of the most wonderful biographies ever written about one of the most exemplary people to have ever walked the Earth. It is a beautifully written book about a man with an extraordinary destiny and a love-inspired soul. The man who became Swami Paramananda was someone whose soul was so fully permeated by the living impulse of Love that even through the pages of a book written forty-four years after his death by someone who never met him, he is able to reach out and touch our hearts. We believe this book has so much to offer to modern spiritual seekers that we will continue to discount the price in the hopes that, as the book finds its way into more homes, its message will find its way into more hearts.

A Beginner's Guide to Constructing the Universe
The Mathematical Archetypes of Nature, Art & Science

Michael S. Schneider

Softbound

$18.95

Looking for ways to share the glorious beauty of mathematics with your students? Or to inspire yourself with the wonder of creation? This is your book.

Michael Schneider leads us on a spectacular, lavishly illustrated journey along the numbers one through ten to explore the mathematical principles made visible in flowers, shells, crystals, plants, and the human body, expressed in the symbolic language of folk sayings and fairy tales, myth and religion, art and architecture. Here is a comprehensive guide to the patterns that recur throughout the universe and underlie human affairs.

Among the many things you will see and learn are:

• Why cans, pizza, and manhole covers are round.
• Why one and two weren't considered numbers by the ancient Greeks.
• Why squares show up so often in goddess art and board games.
• What property makes the spiral the most widespread shape in nature, from embryos and hair curls to hurricanes and galaxies.
• How the human body shares the design of a bean plant and the solar system.
• How a snowflake is like Stonehenge, and a beehive like a calendar.
• How our ten fingers hold the secrets of both a lobster and a cathedral.

And there's much, much more. This is a resource you'll turn to again and again - a dazzling revelation of the beauty of creation.

Note: you may also want to read The Power of Limits - another breathtaking exploration of the numeric relationships that underlie the beauty in all things.

The Power of Limits
Proportional Harmonies in Nature, Art, and Architecture

György Doczi

$24.95

image size deceptive - actually an oversize trade paperback

The Power of Limits (finally back in print!) is an exposition of the rhythms and harmonies of both natural and artistic forms. I have used its contents for meditative contemplation for many years now, and have not come even close to exhausting the insights and revelations Doczi's remarkable book contains. Whenever I get frustrated at how slowly postive change comes about, I reach for The Power of Limits so that I can be reminded of the grace and beauty that limitation brings the world. Steiner defined art as "the impress of the spirit upon matter." Doczi shows us what that means.