Showing posts with label creativity. Show all posts
Showing posts with label creativity. Show all posts

A Pen And A Path: Writing As A Spiritual Practice (An Explorefaith.Org Book) Review

A Pen And A Path: Writing As A Spiritual Practice (An Explorefaith.Org Book)
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A Pen And A Path: Writing As A Spiritual Practice (An Explorefaith.Org Book) ReviewSarah Stockton's A Pen and a Path: Writing as a Spiritual Practice provides a wealth of material for individual journal writers and for groups. The author's five-step exercises gently invite readers to explore their personal spirituality at deeper levels than other personal writing books that I've read do. This significant book will become a well-loved writing classic.
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The Cultural Creatives: How 50 Million People Are Changing the World Review

The Cultural Creatives: How 50 Million People Are Changing the World
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The Cultural Creatives: How 50 Million People Are Changing the World ReviewEdit of 11 Sep 08 to add links.
This book should be read together with Imagine: What America Could be in the 21st century, edited by Marianne Williamson. Taken together, the two books are inspirational while still being practical.
Cultural Creatives as a book, and some of the other reviews, tend to over-sell the success of the emergence of an alternative lifestyle to Traditionalists (stereotyped as somewhat red neckish and religious rightists) and Moderns (stereotyped as ravish the earth anything-goes corporate carpetbaggers). The reality is that there are as many "cultural creatives" as there are people with disabilities in the United States--50 million. Not one quarter of the population, as one reviewer claims.
Having said that, by way of somber stage-setting, I cannot say enough good things about this book. It should be required reading for every citizen, every student, and every public official. In a very real sense, this book strikes me as a truly seminal work that could help millions of individuals reframe their personal connection to one another, to their Republic, and to the earth.
This is neither a tree-hugger book nor a mantras R us book. This book provides a thoughtful review of how different movements--first the environmental movement, then the human rights movement, and finally the consciousness movement--have come together to define an alternative lifestyle and alternative paradigm for political and economic and social relationships in the larger context of a sustainable "whole" earth.
I found this book motivational and meaningful at both a personal level and a larger national level. At the personal level, its detailed and well-organized description of fifteen very distinct aspects of a "cultural creative" lifestyle helped me understand--as it has helped many others--that there is actually a category of people who have come to grips with and found solutions that enrich their lives--and this explains my great disappointment that the book does not offer a "resources" section at the end. I would have been very glad to discover, for example, a "Cultural Creative" journal or magazine that combined a strong book review section, art and culture, a consumer reports section tailored to the higher standards of the "CCs", new innovations in home restoration and remodeling, vacation options known to be attractive to CCs, etcetera.
At the higher political level, I found the book constructive and just this side of a tipping point. An increasing number of people, all of them generally outside of Washington and not associated with Wall Street, clearly have some strong positive values and a real commitment to achieving reform through "many small actions". What this group has lacked is a means of communicating and orchestrating itself on a scale sufficient to demand respect from politicians and corporation. The Internet now provides such a vehicle--and as the Internet explodes from 3.5M people worldwide to 3.5B people worldwide, in the next ten years, I am convinced that Cultural Creatives may finally come into their own as a new form of global political party. Cultural Creatives would sign the Kyoto Treaty (and know what it is); Cultural Creatives would demand a 100% increase--from a half-penny a dollar to a full penny a dollar--in America's foreign diplomatic and humanitarian assistance budget--and Cultural Creatives could conceivably give the Republican Party a real beating in the next Congressional elections if President Bush persists in breaking his campaign vow on reducing carbon emissions. A peaceful revolution in our national agenda may truly be a near-term reality.
This is not a book where a summary can do it justice. It needs to be experienced at an individual level and ideally also at a community level, where it could be understood and accepted as a common point of reference for individual choosing to live "in relation" to one another and to the world, at a level much higher and more satisfying than our current arrangements. When this book makes it to the best-seller list, America will have matured and there will be hope for our children's future quality of life.
Other books along these lines:
The leadership of civilization building: Administrative and civilization theory, symbolic dialogue, and citizen skills for the 21st century
How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas, Updated Edition
The Tao of Democracy: Using Co-Intelligence to Create a World That Works for All
Society's Breakthrough!: Releasing Essential Wisdom and Virtue in All the People
Leadership and the New Science: Discovering Order in a Chaotic World
One from Many: VISA and the Rise of Chaordic Organization
Group Genius: The Creative Power of Collaboration
Collective Intelligence: Mankind's Emerging World in Cyberspace (Helix Books)
Collective Intelligence: Creating a Prosperous World at Peace
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Transitions: Prayers and Declarations for a Changing Life Review

Transitions: Prayers and Declarations for a Changing Life
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Transitions: Prayers and Declarations for a Changing Life ReviewJulia Cameron's books of prayers, declarations, affirmations (whatever one chooses to call them, depending on one's spiritual point of view) are very good ... but 'Transitions' is the best & I believe that's because of the format & the subject matter. The format differs from the other two books (they are 'Heart Steps,' which is focused on creativity, & 'Blessings,' focused on heartfulness) in that it has an affirmation followed by a simple suggested action (the others only have affirmations). The suggested actions aren't difficult--they require just a little mental effort or resolution. The subject matter was a great choice. It is, as the title implies, change. The book is ideal for anyone facing a major event such as a death, wedding, move, career change. ... All three of these books, even in paperback, are very nicely presented, with sturdier covers & higher quality paper & printing than is typical & this is a good thing because they're the sort of thing you'll want to keep around & savor repeatedly. ... If this is the first Cameron effort you're considering, you're in for a treat: with almost no exceptions (but avoid the over-priced, poorly conceived 'Artist's Way Creativity Kit') Cameron's stuff is outstanding & a great asset to anyone in recovery, expanding or trying to change, especially in creative directions such as writing. You'll get the most out of the affirmations if you also buy, ideally, 'The Artist's Way' & perhaps a Tim Wheater album ... & start Cameron's suggested practices of 'morning pages' & a weekly 'artist date.'Transitions: Prayers and Declarations for a Changing Life Overview

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Dreamgates: Exploring the Worlds of Soul, Imagination, and Life Beyond Death Review

Dreamgates: Exploring the Worlds of Soul, Imagination, and Life Beyond Death
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Dreamgates: Exploring the Worlds of Soul, Imagination, and Life Beyond Death ReviewFirst I read Robert Moss's Conscious Dreaming and from there graduated to Dreamgates. This book is full of insights into worlds we can access beyond our daily waking reality, both in night dreams and by consciously entering into these realms anytime we want. By practicing Robert's Active Dreaming techniques and by exploring the journeys presented in this book, we can become familiar with our own dream locales, which are personal sources of healing, inspiration and adventure. We can travel with others on group dreams to heal ourselves and our planet. We can reenter the dreams we puzzle over and learn more. The fun begins with awareness and intent. Life can be so much more than the old limitations we are used to. Life is exciting and always new, and by remembering to explore dreams with a sense of adventure we expand everything, and that makes all the difference. All we have to do is decide to go there.
This book goes way beyond anything you've read about dreams before.Dreamgates: Exploring the Worlds of Soul, Imagination, and Life Beyond Death Overview

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Women, Writing, and Soul-Making: Creativity and the Sacred Feminine Review

Women, Writing, and Soul-Making: Creativity and the Sacred Feminine
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Women, Writing, and Soul-Making: Creativity and the Sacred Feminine ReviewNot your ordinary how-to manual, Peggy Tabor Millin's Women, Writing and Soul-Making: Creativity and the Sacred Feminine is a unique and inspiring blend of the poetic, spiritual and practical in which the author seeks a balance between "feminine being and masculine doing." Intentionally written in what she perceives is a more feminine form, each chapter spirals back to what has gone before, delving deeper and deeper into each concept. As she explains, "The feminine writes in circles, makes leaps, tells the truth with dream, imagery, and metaphor, and relies on inner knowing. The masculine approach makes outlines, develops linearly from premise to conclusion, and relies on outside authority." Struggling for a structure which honors both, Tabor Millin achieves a synthesis of the intuitive and the cognitive which is the foundation of any creative endeavor.
Unlike many purely intuitive books, Women, Writing and Soul-Making also provides important guidelines that organize and inspire our task of writing more, writing deeper and finding our own voice. She begins with "The Three Steps" of focusing on the sensations of the body to keep ourselves centered, the often recommended free-writing to random prompts, and developing a practice that includes regular writing in a supportive circle of women. She describes an inner being she calls "the observer" who helps us notice without judgment and silences the inner critic who gets in the way of our free expression. She then outlines three obstacles: believing there should be no obstacles, listening to the "I cant's" instead of the "I wills," and searching for an outside authority instead of relying on our own inner guides.
Her "Four Wisdoms" give us access to this inner guidance. "The wisdom of not knowing" tells us we must face our dark and unknown shadow in order to find the truth which will transform our writing and our lives. "The wisdom of the ecology of body and earth" leads us "out of our heads and into our bodies" so we can discover our own voice. "The wisdom of fierce compassion" encourages us to look at the ugly and painful without flinching and to use our anger as motivation for action. "The wisdom of diversity" allows us to tolerate other opinions and helps us make peace with the fact that our writing may not resonate with everyone.
"The Four Paradoxes" teach us to accept that writing is both "pleasure and pain," that we must accept both "praise and criticism," that we desire and simultaneous fear both "fame and disgrace," and that we must reconcile ourselves to both "gain and loss" since we will have to give up an old world view to bring something new into being. "No way exists to make this gain other than to accept that discomfort, anxiety, and insecurity are necessary" she writes. "We consent to uneasiness as motivation for the creative journey--which is no less than our spiritual journey toward self-realization."
As a writer, musician and composer I found Women, Writing and Soul-Making an excellent guide for any creative endeavor. In this wise and wonderful book there is much, much more to inspire not only writers but anyone seeking to heal her artistic self, to explore her inner feminine and find a path to her own voice, her own truth. An absolute must, it deserves an honored place on a nearby shelf beside the likes of Natalie Goldberg and Julia Cameron.
by Lisa Shirah-Hiers
for Story Circle Book Reviews
reviewing books by, for, and about womenWomen, Writing, and Soul-Making: Creativity and the Sacred Feminine Overview

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Water, Wind, Earth & Fire: The Christian Practice of Praying with the Elements Review

Water, Wind, Earth and Fire: The Christian Practice of Praying with the Elements
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Water, Wind, Earth & Fire: The Christian Practice of Praying with the Elements ReviewIt doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that St. Francis of Assisi's "Canticle of the Creatures" (also known as the "Canticle of the Sun") is a powerful and poetic evocation of God's presence in the elements of nature. But few Christians, in my experience, seem to draw the connection that if the elements are indeed agents of God's blessings and means by which we can offer blessing and worship back to God, then it might make sense to think in terms of "air prayer," "water prayer," and so forth. This is the simple yet powerful premise of this lovely new book from Christine Valter Paintner, a Benedictine Oblate and the founder of the Abbey of the Arts website which explores the connection between spirituality and creativity.
Some readers may wonder if this is a crypto-Wiccan book, and indeed anyone interested in creative cross-fertilization between Neopaganism and Christian spirituality will find much to explore in this book. But let's be clear: the four elements (air, fire, water and earth) are universal energies, since they are grounded not only in the nature of the earth, but indeed in our very bodies (think of it: your skeleton and flesh are earth, your blood is water, your lungs and breath bring you air, and the very heat your body generates is the fire within you). Historically speaking, knowledge of the four elements and exploration of their spiritual meaning can be traced back to Greece, where Plato speaks of the elements, following the earlier Sicilian philosopher Empedocles. In other words, our earliest knowledge of the elements is not occult or magical, but rather philosophical and scientific, in scope. For Christians today, befriending the four elements is a way to honor the incarnational dimension of our faith, seeing God's presence in nature just as we believe the Holy Spirit and the Mind of Christ is present among those who are knit into the community of faith.
This book is essentially a workbook ("playbook"?) for prayer, divided into sections where Valters Paintner explores each element through poetry, stories, blessings, quotations, lectio divina, and suggestions for prayer and reflection. Most of the connections she highlights are obvious enough: water is linked to baptism, air to centering prayer, earth to feasting. This is not a book of secrets revealed so much as earthy common sense: water goes with the flow, fire brings passion and creativity, earth stabilizes and grounds us. Weave all four elements together and we find balance, perspective, and a sense of being at home in the good universe God has given us.
Obviously, this book should appeal to anyone with a love for Franciscan or Celtic expressions of Christian spirituality. But I think the author was wise not to limit her exploration of the elements to those particular strands of wisdom. This book feels universal in its tone and its application -- it is a book for all Christians, and indeed, for all people, anyone who might be interested in finding out what mystics like Hildegard of Bingen or John of the Cross or Thomas Merton might have to say to the question of bringing prayer and nature together.Water, Wind, Earth & Fire: The Christian Practice of Praying with the Elements Overview

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The Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs: Insanely Different Principles for Breakthrough Success Review

The Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs: Insanely Different Principles for Breakthrough Success
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The Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs: Insanely Different Principles for Breakthrough Success ReviewCross-Posted from my blog - Innovate on Purpose
I have the good fortune to read books on innovation subjects just before they are released. It is actually a lot more interesting than that might sound. On the whole, there is a lot of good stuff being written about innovation - the real question is, will anyone take the time to read all that's out there?Today I am reviewing a book called The Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs by Carmine Gallo. Gallo wrote a well-received book a few years ago entitled The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs, and felt a book on Jobs and Innovation was in order. Anyone who has paid any attention lately knows that Apple is held up as a leading innovator, and rightly so, and most people place the locus of that success squarely on Jobs' head, which I also agree with. If Jobs is driving a wave of innovation at Apple, it would make sense to understand what makes him tick, and what we could learn from that.First, let me get off my chest the annoyance with the focus on "secrets". As I've written before, there really aren't any secrets where innovation is concerned, and if you've paid any attention to the media you'll know much that Gallo is writing about. The sooner we end the mythos that pervades the innovation space the better.Now that that's off my chest we can proceed with the review. Gallo has done an excellent job rounding up a significant number of people who were present at the beginning of a number of Apple's innovations. He had to use this method to suss out Jobs' strategy, since Jobs doesn't like to talk about it directly to the media. Jobs prefers to announce grand strategies and use the media to reinforce Apple's image as an innovator and a leader, but he doesn't appear too ready to talk directly about the innovation programs or visions. Gallo has done a good job piecing together some of the strategies and insights by talking to a wide range of people who were with Apple during the resurgence.Gallo argues that there are seven principles that will help you innovate like Jobs:
1. Do what you love
2. Put a dent in the universe - have a big vision
3. Kick-start your brain - use creativity and have lots of different experiences
4. Sell dreams not products - understand what people want to accomplish
5. Say no to 1000 things
6. Create insanely great experiences
7. Master the message
In these points Gallo identifies what makes Jobs, and by extension Apple, a good innovator. Apple is focusing tightly on important and relevant products and experience that impact how we live, especially how we gain and interact with new media and social media. Apple under Jobs has always had an outsized vision of itself and its mission - remember the 1984 commercial? A big vision, tied to excellent strategic insight and the ability to accurately predict trends in the marketplace have put Apple in an excellent position.But Apple has also been fairly ruthless in its focus. Since Jobs rejoined Apple the number of products Apple offers has actually fallen rather dramatically. Apple places a lot of emphasis on one or two disruptive products a year, and people eagerly await Jobs' next announcement (master the message). Jobs understands probably better than most what it means to offer a "whole product" (the MP-3 player AND iTunes) and masters the messaging better than any of his competitors. Apple doesn't just create a new technology - in fact they are technology laggards - they create a product that works and provide an excellent experience that seems cool. Sony, Dell, Samsung and H-P must cringe everytime Apple steals a march on them, because Apple has a constancy of vision and the ability to deliver experience in a package that none of these other firms have yet been able to match.All the Jobs stories are here - how he dropped in at Reed College in calligraphy, his time in an ashram, the early glory days, the days in the Wilderness, his return to Apple. All of them seem to have had an effect on Jobs as a thinker and innovator, according to the book. Somehow I doubt that conclusion. While Jobs is the summation of his experiences, he was always an iconoclast, zigging where others zagged. His experiences may have shaped his thinking, but the kernal of what he is was there all along. You can't innovate like Jobs because he is Jobs and you aren't, but that's OK. We only need a few Jobs' to set a standard. You can learn a lot about Jobs and his different perspectives, and begin to apply these ideas in places that are far different from Apple. However, you can't simply change a culture of any firm to align it to Apple's thinking, or Google's structures, overnight, and it would be difficult and distracting. What you can do is identify the iconoclasts within your firm and begin to encourage them to think different. Therein lies the genesis of innovation success. Demonstrating that people with unique insights who want to create great change can work within a large, staid organization successfully, rather than having to create a completely new company.This is a good book, well organized and well written that reminds and reinforces our image and knowledge of Jobs. At the end I am left with the fact that some people are so unique and different that we can't hope to copy them, but even pale imitations may take us a long way. The real question is how many people have the courage to try.The Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs: Insanely Different Principles for Breakthrough Success Overview

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The Vein of Gold: A Journey to Your Creative Heart Review

The Vein of Gold: A Journey to Your Creative Heart
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The Vein of Gold: A Journey to Your Creative Heart ReviewIf you've read the Artist's Way, and one or two years later you find that you're not making art consistently, you may find this quite helpful. It delves more deeply than the AW in enabling you to identify, clarify, nurture and fulfil your creative desires. It is very well-structured and comprehensive. Ignore, if they bother you, the `new agey' bits: there's much sensible material to be found here. I completed it in about four months without expense (I adapted, or omitted, the exercises if I didn't have the materials). I wrote my narrative time line in less than 2 weeks. It doesn't have to be anywhere near 100 pages: it can be any length you like. (Spending an hour or so a day, for a week or two, on the time line should suffice for most readers.) Unlike the AW, this book does not specify the time you should take for each section. I see that as a positive feature: it is for the reader to determine his/her pace. Yes, it's quite big, too wordy in places, and seems daunting, but it isn't necessary to do every exercise (or every chapter). The seminal sections for me were the ones on story, attitude and sight. Idid the book while learning to draw and would recommend doing it alongside your creative work if possible. If you've bought it and can't face doing all of it, try the sections on story and attitude: they're very good.The Vein of Gold: A Journey to Your Creative Heart Overview

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The Art of Curating Worship: Reshaping the Role of Worship Leader Review

The Art of Curating Worship: Reshaping the Role of Worship Leader
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The Art of Curating Worship: Reshaping the Role of Worship Leader Review2010 has been a Sparkhouse year. Sparkhouse is an imprint of Augsburg Fortress, and this past year they have published some stellar resources, including my personal favorite, re:form, a confirmation curriculum (they also published a great VBS we used this summer, re:new, and a book on Church in the Inventive Age by Doug Pagitt). I actually think the re:form confirmation curriculum is the best confirmation curriculum I've seen, ever!
When I learned they were also working on a new resource for worship planning (Clayfire), I was thrilled, and immediately ordered the book that I think is launching the series, Mark Pierson's The Art of Curating Worship.
All of this is by way of saying that I was predisposed to be sympathetic to the book, and open to the ideas in it. I'm honestly a fan of resources published by Augsburg Fortress, and a supporter of the innovative directions Sparkhouse is taking as a publishing arm of our church.
So then I actually started reading the book. Here's where I started hitting some major speed-bumps. I am still excited about Pierson's re-thinking worship leadership as worship curation, because it bring greater focus to the environment and space in which worship takes place than other traditional titles such as cantor, preacher, presider, or worship leader. Cantors focus more on the music, preachers on the word, presiders on space but focused on the meal, and worship leaders also typically focus on the content of prayers and music.
The term curator is preferable for a variety of reasons, itemized well in Pierson's book, but I especially like the term because it draws attention to the overall environment, and also has analogies with how curation is done in museums, etc, where the goal is to bring to life that which has gone before.
All of this being said, I realized that as soon as I read two things in the book that really caused me to struggle, I wouldn't be able to read the book with an open heart and mind. Pierson shares in the second chapter of his book that one worship event he curated included communion, but he chose to use water instead of wine for the communion. Is it too finicky of me, or too legalistic, to argue that you simply don't do this, period, anywhere. Communion is bread and wine. To depart from bread and wine is simply not acceptable.
This pointed me back to something he had said earlier that I initially thought was a bit of hyperbole, but now I think it wasn't. Page 25, he says, "Anything goes." Of course, he precedes this by arguing that once we get our definition of church and worship clear, then how we actually design worship, embedded in those answers, can be "anything goes," but it is simply not clear to me how that works.
Here's my concern. T'his book is the first book on worship from a new publishing arm of the Lutheran church, and one of the first if only comments in the book on the sacraments suggests that wine may be replaced with water in the meal.
Now I know that Pierson is a Baptist from New Zealand. We probably have very different approaches to the meal. I also see from what he is up to that he is very creative and experimental in his worship leadership. He creates events, art installations, etc. They seem amazing, and I'd like to see such a worship event in action.
That being said, I just don't see how the book will ultimately be helpful for our worship leaders. This is more than simply thinking outside the box. It's like having left the room and apartment building altogether.
I'm going to continue reading the book, and will post a second reflection upon finishing it, but it does occur to me that we need someone to write a book on worship curation who also reads and adheres to the Lutheran confessions and the Use of the Means of Grace document, among other guiding texts of our tradition.
They say all press is good press, so I hope you'll go out and buy the book and read it. Even if I strongly disagree with parts of it, and disagree even more strongly with the decision that Sparkhouse should be the one to publish it, I do intend to always be in dialogue perhaps especially with those with whom I disagree. The true way to stay immature is to live in an echo-chamber of your own creation.The Art of Curating Worship: Reshaping the Role of Worship Leader Overview

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The Complete Artist's Way: Creativity as a Spiritual Practice Review

The Complete Artist's Way: Creativity as a Spiritual Practice
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The Complete Artist's Way: Creativity as a Spiritual Practice ReviewThe exercises in the first part of this "trilogy" is more than worth the price of the book. If you choose to do the exercises, your creativity will be released/unblocked. What a positive response this book is for really anyone who wants to live more creatively. If you want to think of yourself as an artist, or if you never thought of yourself as an artist before, this book is for you. I have already given it as a gift and I'm not even half way through with the reading/journaling/pondering. It would be a tremendous book for your local library. Then, use it on a solo journey or work through it with a group. GigiThe Complete Artist's Way: Creativity as a Spiritual Practice Overview

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The Creative Family: How to Encourage Imagination and Nurture Family Connections Review

The Creative Family: How to Encourage Imagination and Nurture Family Connections
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The Creative Family: How to Encourage Imagination and Nurture Family Connections ReviewI thought this was a sweet book, and a pleasant read. Amanda Soule is a wonderful writer. I was a little disappointed that there were no new ideas presented here though. I felt like I was reading the same Waldorf family book I've read several times before. People say "everything has been done before", but I feel that authors can still incorporate new ideas or put their own twist on things. I did not see this here.
I was also disappointed with the craft projects. Aside from the fact that many were the same projects found all over the internet and in many other craft books, I found that most of them were projects geared towards adults with small touches added by children. I was expecting more projects actually for children, or where children played a much bigger role.
I think this would be a perfect book for someone who is new to Waldorf and Montessori philosophy and was looking for ways to incorporate these philosophies into their family life, or for someone who is looking for a simple, pleasant read paired with beautiful pictures. If you've been involved in simple family living for quite some time and are looking for something new, I would look elsewhere.The Creative Family: How to Encourage Imagination and Nurture Family Connections Overview

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The Back in Time Tarot Book: Picture the Past, Experience the Cards, Understand the Present Review

The Back in Time Tarot Book: Picture the Past, Experience the Cards, Understand the Present
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The Back in Time Tarot Book: Picture the Past, Experience the Cards, Understand the Present ReviewWhen there are so many good tarot books on the market it's a real treat to find one that says something totally and uniquely original. This isn't to belittle what's available but if like me and you've been dealing with the Tarot for almost thirty years, you begin to find that each new title, however excellent it may be, only embellishes what you already know with a choice selection of extra insights. Janet Boyer's new book is something quite different. It's one of those rare titles that manages to tread well-worn territory whilst turning all your maps on their heads. It is truly original.
How do most of us first encounter the Tarot? For me, it was through watching a James Bond film where a beautiful fortune teller shuffled the cards, selected at random and used the upturned cards to foretell the future. Of course, I soon realised it's not that simple. The Tarot is a powerful tool for shedding insight on past, present and future but fundamental to its application is the principle of randomness--or so I thought prior to reading Janet's book.
The Back in Time Tarot Book is the ultimate "card reversal" of the Tarot world. Rather than relying on random selection, Janet encourages you to take control of the Tarot deck and use it as a tool to illuminate your past through means of deliberate card selection. As such, she has given us a powerful tool for self-understanding.
Her Back in Time (BIT) Method involves selecting an incident from your past, summarising it into a "snapshot" by identifying the key points you wish to clarify and then selecting cards to represent these key points. Cards are selected either based on their traditional meanings or alternatively, because of your intuitive response to the images themselves.
One aspect that impressed me greatly was the author's emphasis on card combinations. I frequently work with Lenormand cards as well as with the Tarot and here, card combinations are paramount. An individual card such as the Coffin can mean something very different on its own to when it's paired with a card such as the Heart. So it is with Janet's BIT Method. If an aspect of your "snapshot" is too complex to be represented by a single card then you're encouraged to select two or more that connect together for you on an intuitive level.
The benefits of this method are far reaching. In creating a symbolic "photo album" of such key past events in your life, the tarot symbols you select will often uncover aspects of your past you hadn't realised or acknowledged. I've also found that in using this method I've begun to build up a whole new raft of personalised card meanings and associations that I've been able to bring back to my conventional readings.
The proof of the pudding is in the eating as they say. In this respect, Back in Time Tarot is almost self-endorsing. The first section is Janet herself, laying out the BIT Method whilst the second part is based around a stellar array of other Tarot writers and artists writing on their usage of Janet's methodology and providing their own BIT Snapshots. Names include Mary K. Greer, Monte Farber, Zach Wong, Lisa Hunt, Riccardo Minetti and Joan Bunning amongst others. What better seal of approval could you get than this? Each of their accounts is carefully framed by Janet's own commentary on their experiences.
Adding to the goody bag are further exercises, where the BIT Method is applied to a range of other events such as current affairs coverage or movie storylines. It's amazing what the cards can say in such situations!
This is a truly clever book, well written and presented in a way that showcases not only Janet's infectious enthusiasm, but also the respect and enthusiasm for her BIT Method shown by some of the world's best Tarot writers and artists. Add this to your bookshelf whenever you get the chance. If, like me, you had fallen into the trap of thinking there wasn't much more to learn, this book will soon prove you wrong. It's a winner in every way.The Back in Time Tarot Book by Janet Boyer is published by Hampton Roads Publishing Company Inc. ISBN 978-1-57174-587-3
Chris Butler discovered the Tarot nearly thirty years ago. He has created and illustrated four tarot decks of his own and is the illustrator of the Quantum Tarot, co-created with author Kay Stopforth.Quantum Tarot: A Tarot of New PhysicsThe Back in Time Tarot Book: Picture the Past, Experience the Cards, Understand the Present Overview

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The Ten Faces of Innovation: IDEO's Strategies for Defeating the Devil's Advocate and Driving Creativity Throughout Your Organization Review

The Ten Faces of Innovation: IDEO's Strategies for Defeating the Devil's Advocate and Driving Creativity Throughout Your Organization
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The Ten Faces of Innovation: IDEO's Strategies for Defeating the Devil's Advocate and Driving Creativity Throughout Your Organization Review
With Jonathan Littman, Kelley provides in this volume a wealth of information and counsel which can help any decision-maker to "drive creativity" through her or his organization but only if initiatives are (a) a collaboration which receives the support and encouragement of senior management (especially of the CEO) and (b) sufficient time is allowed for those initiatives to have a measurable impact. There is a distressing tendency throughout most organizations to rip out "seedlings" to see how well they are "growing." Six Sigma programs offer a compelling example. Most are abandoned within a month or two. Why? Unrealistic expectations, cultural barriers (what Jim O'Toole characterizes as "the ideology of comfort and the tyranny of custom"), internal politics, and especially impatience are among the usual suspects. That said, I agree with countless others (notably Amabile, Christensen, Claxton, de Bono, Drucker, Kelley, Kim and Mauborgne, Michalko, Ray, and von Oech) that innovation is now the single most decisive competitive advantage. How to establish and then sustain that advantage?
In an earlier work, The Art of Innovation: Lessons in Creativity from IDEO, America's Leading Design Firm, Kelley shares IDEO's five-step methodology: Understand the market, the client, the technology, and the perceived constraints on the given problem; observe real people in real-life situations; literally visualize new-to-the-world concepts AND the customers who will use them; evaluate and refine the prototypes in a series of quick iterations; and finally, implement the new concept for commercialization. With regard to the last "step", as Bennis explains in Organizing Genius, Apple executives immediately recognized the commercial opportunities for PARC's technology. Larry Tesler (who later left PARC for Apple) noted that Jobs and colleagues (especially Wozniak) "wanted to get it out to the world." But first, obviously, the challenge was to create that "it" which they then did.
In this volume, as Kelley explains, his book is "about innovation with a human face. [Actually, at least ten...hence its title.] It's about the individuals and teams that fuel innovation inside great organizations. Because all great movements are human-powered." He goes on to suggest that all good working definitions of innovation pair ideas with action, "the spark with fire. Innovators don't just have their heads in the clouds. They also have their feet on the ground." Kelley cites and then examines several exemplary ("great") organizations which include Google, W.L. Gore & Associates, the Gillette Company, and German retailer Tchibo. I especially appreciate the fact that Kelley focuses on the almost unlimited potential for creativity of individuals and the roles which they can play, "the hats they can put on, the personas they can adopt...[albeit] unsung heroes who work on the front lines of entrepreneurship in action, the countless people and teams who make innovation happen day in and day out."
Because organizations need individuals who are savvy about the counterintuitive process of how to move ideas forward, Kelley recommends three "Organizing Personas": The Hurdler, The Collaborator, and The Director.
Because organizations also need individuals and teams who apply insights from the learning roles and channel the empowerment from the organizing roles to make innovation happen, Kelley recommends four "Building personas": The Experience Architect, The Set Designer, The Caregiver, and The Storyteller. Note both the sequence, interrelatedness and, indeed, the interdependence of these ten "personas."
I am reminded of comparable material in A Kick in the Seat of the Pants. Specifically, Roger von Oech's discussion of what he calls "The Four Roles of the Creative Process" (i.e. Explorer, Artist, Judge, and Warrior). Also Six Thinking Hats in which Edward de Bono explains the need for a creativity "wardrobe" comprised of several hats. Specifically, white (rational, logical, and objective), red (emotional), black (negative), yellow (positive, hopeful, optimistic), green (creative and innovative), and blue (ordered, controlled, structured).
What Kelley achieves in this volume is to develop in much greater depth than do von Oech and de Bono what are essentially ten different perspectives. He does so, brilliantly, by focussing the bulk of his attention of those who, for example, seek and explore new opportunities to reveal breakthrough insights...and while doing so wear (at least metaphorically) one of de Bono's hats (probably the green one). Kelley devotes a separate chapter to each of the ten "personas," including real-world examples of various "unsung heroes who work on the front lines of entrepreneurship in action, the countless people and teams who make innovation happen day in and day out."
Two final points. First, most of those who read this book can more easily identify with "unsung heroes" such as those whom Kelley discusses than with luminaries of innovation such as Thomas Edison or with celebrity CEOs such as Andrew Grove, Jeffrey Immelt, Steve Jobs, and Jack Welch, all of whom were staunch advocates of constant innovation in their respective organizations. Also, presumably Kelley agrees with me that those who read and then (hopefully) re-read his book should do so guided by a process which begins with the curiosity of an anthropologist and concludes with the empathy of a caregiver. This is emphatically not an anthology of innovation recipes. Rather, it offers a rigorous intellectual journey whose ultimate value will be determined, entirely, by the nature and extent of innovative thinking which each reader achieves...and who then uses the breakthrough insights to drive creativity throughout her or his own organization.The Ten Faces of Innovation: IDEO's Strategies for Defeating the Devil's Advocate and Driving Creativity Throughout Your Organization Overview

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The Artist's Rule: Nurturing Your Creative Soul with Monastic Wisdom Review

The Artist's Rule: Nurturing Your Creative Soul with Monastic Wisdom
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The Artist's Rule: Nurturing Your Creative Soul with Monastic Wisdom ReviewChristine Valters Paintner has "a deep love of Benedictine tradition as well as the gifts of Celtic and desert monasticism." She is a Benedictine oblate with training in the expressive arts. She says, "Creativity and contemplative spirituality nurture and support each other in their commitments to the slow way, to a close attention to the inner life and to the sacred being revealed in each moment." Her book offers support for a graceful journey through creativity and contemplation.
The author considers herself to be a monk who lives beyond the monastery walls and gently supports others to find their "inner monk" nourished through silence and "a commitment to see everything as sacred." She also offers many approaches to engage one's "inner artist" through the visual arts, poetry, movement and new ways of seeing the world. I so appreciate all Valters Paintner has to share in this book and realize, she too, is attending to her inner life in the midst of the busyness and speed of the world around us.
I have been drawn to aspects of the monastic life myself including the hours of a monastery day from Vigils, also known as matins, the first hour of the day, to Compline, night. The author describes the hours of the day in Week Four: "Sacred Rhythms for Creative Renewal." She offers "seasons of the breath" as a meditation to follow the breath through the directions, the seasons and the hours of the day. This is one of the many practices that doesn't have to be saved to the particular week of the twelve-week course. The breathing practice anchors one in an experience of the actual hour of the day whatever day it may be.
As part of that chapter, the visual art exploration task is to create a contemporary book of hours by using paint, images and handwriting. In this chapter and others, excerpts from the writing of the participants of Christine Valters Paintner's program help to form the "creative community" that is the theme of Week Eight.
The author offers a set of practices, meditations, and art exploration as invitations and doorways to explore the creative qualities of particular values and virtues. For the purposes of this review, I read some pages each morning and was nourished by Valters Paintner's soothing words and encouragement to integrate my spiritual path and creativity into my daily life.
Three practices are suggested as part of one's daily or weekly contemplative and creative journey: walking, lectio divina, and reflection. The four primary movements of lectio divina are: read, reflect, respond and rest. In each of the chapters, the lectio divina is applied to a Bible passage, a poem, or one of the Rules of St. Benedict.
Contemplative walking is a way to honor the season of the earth "and of my soul" the author says. Other reflection is done through journaling and each chapter has specific questions for this practice.
The author's words are enhanced by her careful selections of poetry and quotes from Christian, Sufi, Buddhist and other spiritual traditions.
By Week 13, readers are ready to create their artistic "rule of life" as an articulation of their ongoing commitment to their practice. There are many practices I will go back to: the poetry writing, the "to-be" list and the creation of wisdom cards. This is the book I will take with me as I travel so I will be reminded of the practices and choose a question or two for reflection each day.
by Mary Ann Moore
for Story Circle Book Reviews
reviewing books by, for, and about womenThe Artist's Rule: Nurturing Your Creative Soul with Monastic Wisdom Overview

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The Poet's Companion: A Guide to the Pleasures of Writing Poetry Review

The Poet's Companion: A Guide to the Pleasures of Writing Poetry
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The Poet's Companion: A Guide to the Pleasures of Writing Poetry ReviewI almost ruled out reading this book when I read the author's (to me) bold statement on page 225: "Can you write a poem in 20 minutes? We seriously doubt it."
Being, at times, a very fast poet, I *gasped* when I read that assertion! (Don't ask me how I got to page 225 before I read the rest of the book but nonetheless, it stuck out to me!)
I kept at it, though, and found my way through the original assessment and into many of the glorious exercises, the truth in words that I so resonate with such as "We don't believe in writer's block. We believe there are times when you are empty and times when you are full."
The section on Metrical poetry is truly magical - I enjoyed learning about how Free-Verse as a form blossomed as well.
There are also many, many valuable resources in the appendices such as Books on Poetry and Writing, Finding Markets for Your Poetry and More Resources for Writers.
Finally, this book is chock full of exercises so that you can continue picking it up and revisit, use, revisit, use some more, revisit over and over again. Definitely worth the investment AND I am so glad I didn't toss it all because of one difference in opinion.The Poet's Companion: A Guide to the Pleasures of Writing Poetry Overview

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Glad No Matter What: Transforming Loss and Change into Gift and Opportunity Review

Glad No Matter What: Transforming Loss and Change into Gift and Opportunity
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Glad No Matter What: Transforming Loss and Change into Gift and Opportunity ReviewBefore reading this book I have to admit that I didn't know SARK from shinola, despite the fact that she has sold millions of books. I am so impressed with this work because not only is she exceptionally creative, she's also refreshingly authentic in her writing. Unlike so many self-help/spiritual growth authors who tend to position themselves on some pulpit of superiority (i.e., I've got it all solved), SARK openly admits there are times when she herself backslides into less than optimal feelings and behaviors. The truth is I just loved her candor, and more importantly, after experiencing the death of my three closest friends this year I found great value in the many innovative and practical transformative tools that she shares in this book.
Now that I've finished reading it, I must admit I feel dumbfounded as to why I'd never come across SARK's work in the past, as it truly is fabulous in so many respects. Based on the quality of this book, I'll definitely be considering other titles she's written.
Here's one of many excellent passages in "Glad No Matter What":
"If we do not allow ourselves to feel or express our emotions, they will get larger or louder of may go into our bodies and present themselves as some kind of medical condition. Feelings are meant to be in motion. E-Motion. Feelings are made to be expressed. You've probably heard: "If you can feel it, you can heal it." And this is true - yet many try to stop feeling before the healing takes place, especially if it seems like a "bad" or difficult feeling."Glad No Matter What: Transforming Loss and Change into Gift and Opportunity Overview

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Sacred Necessities: Gifts for Living with Passion, Purpose, and Grace Review

Sacred Necessities: Gifts for Living with Passion, Purpose, and Grace
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Sacred Necessities: Gifts for Living with Passion, Purpose, and Grace ReviewIn a wonderful way "Sacred Necessities" reads like the side panel on a breakfast cereal box. Nutrition Facts tell us what is included in the packaged cereal. It is a reminder that our human physical bodies need a constant input of vitamins and minerals. Likewise, Terry Hershey reminds us that our spiritual well-being has come essential sacred necessities to keep our lives functioning efficiently. In the book Terry limits these essentials to seven, acknowledging that there are others that might equally belong in the required reading. In my own spiritual journey I find what he says in the introductory chapter, "Leaning the Big Leaf Dance" to be totally freeing. In my early years, like many of us old-timers, we were not permitted to dance. It has been a regret that is hard to overcome. In any event, now when I sing the hymn "We're marching to Zion" I change the words to "We're Dancing to Zion." Marching feels more like keeping in step with the dogmas and creeds of the church. It is like taking another course in Systematic Theology. It that is heretical, then so be it. Theology, as I read it in "Sacred Necessities", is unfolding in the moments of Amazement, Sanctuary, Stillness, Grace, Simplicity, Resilience, and Friendship more than it is in the requirements to toe the line in theological necessities. I don't want to say that Terry Hershey would agree with me, but it is my inner feeling in reading his book. And I believe that is Terry's precise objective in leading us into self-enrichment times. I am a note-taker when reading books. But I had to give that up in reading "Sacred Necessities". Each page had something that I wanted to become a part of my life journey. Sometimes we hear about a person's "near-death experience". In reading this book I often had a "near-life experience." We read this though page 179 when Terry reports that "the religion of my youth taught me about life after death. I never heard one sermon on life before death. So, it is a challenge to every reader of this book to go through the necessities and not feel that there is certainly life before death. In eating an ice cream cone I am a "licker" not a "biter". I want to savor the experience and the taste. "O taste and see. . ." is the invitation in the reading of this book. Do not sit down and read it non-stop. Every day of my life I find that there is something like a battle going on that tends to diminish what I am as a spiritual being. And, in addition, I find that this usually does not come in dramatic or heroic moments of memorable accounting. It most often happens in the little things. When I live the sacred necessities the little thing have the greater control in my spiritual journey. The Divine provides in these moments what is needed to not only endure, but to insure a victory over the forces that are trying to diminish my inner growth. Arthur CampbellSacred Necessities: Gifts for Living with Passion, Purpose, and Grace Overview

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The Hidden Gifts of Helping: How the Power of Giving, Compassion, and Hope Can Get Us Through Hard Times Review

The Hidden Gifts of Helping: How the Power of Giving, Compassion, and Hope Can Get Us Through Hard Times
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The Hidden Gifts of Helping: How the Power of Giving, Compassion, and Hope Can Get Us Through Hard Times ReviewIn The Hidden Gifts of Helping, Stephen Post is pioneering a new kind of book. It is dramatically compelling with its unifying thread: a revealing personal narrative of his surprisingly difficult move with his family from Cleveland to Long Island. It is frequently inspiring with stories and quotations sprinkled in every chapter. It is scientifically informative with brief and easy-to understand summaries of up-to-date research on love, healing, compassion, caring, and hope. And there are footnotes for those of us who wish to pursue the sources further.
It is hard to imagine a more effective, popular presentation of a message that should be more familiar: Helping others is good medicine for our own suffering. Post is a medical ethicist with a specialty on care for Alzheimer's patients, and his spirituality is both traditional and creative. He asks, "Why not start referring to God as Unlimited Love, being explicit about the divine nature? This would preclude people from ever thinking of God as Unlimited Hatred or Unlimited Anger."
Post writes of our society being caught up with television, computers, e-mail, text messages, and social media. "These virtual connections do not sustain themselves in the absence of real interactions." Having seen Stephen Post interact with audiences in the classroom, in church, and in an auditorium, I have seen in action his ability to minister with his very large supply of amazingly helpful knowledge. It is something he can call on in detail, without notes, whenever a human need expresses itself. This man is a treasure in our world, and this book offers the reader a chance for a virtual meeting that is remarkably faithful to the experience of the man himself.
The Hidden Gifts of Helping: How the Power of Giving, Compassion, and Hope Can Get Us Through Hard Times Overview

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Walk On: (Gift Edition) Review

Walk On: (Gift Edition)
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Walk On: (Gift Edition) ReviewI bought this book for my son's first birthday. It made me well up just reading it in the store! It's a simple story that captures the hopes parents have for their little one's future. I will be buying it for every baby shower I attend from now on!Walk On: (Gift Edition) Overview

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