♦ Roll out the Red Carpet! Here are our choices of the 50 Best Spiritual Books and 10 Best Children's Spiritual Books of 2013 - chosen for being the best explorations of the quest for meaning and purpose, wholeness and healing, commitment and community, contemplation and social activism.

♦ Attention religious, spiritually independent, and secular people. Thomas Moore's new book A Religion of One's Own: A Guide to Creating A Personal Spirituality in a Secular World charts a fresh and adventuresome path for all of us. He sees it as his most important work since Care of the Soul, and we agree.

♦ Redefining and reimagining your religion. We invite you to engage in this process under the guidance of Thomas Moore in our new e-course "Crafting Your Own Religion" next month, February 3 - 28. Read more about this unusual e-course and sign up here. 

♦ A moving depiction of grief. In Tiger Eyes, now on DVD, a 17-year-old girl is hobbled by sadness and loss. We chose it as one of the Most Spiritually Literate Films of 2013. More DVDs. 

♦ Adventures in dreamlands. One of our choices for the Best Spiritual Children's Books of 2013 is Dream Animals: A Bedtime Journey. In this beautifully illustrated picture book, children are carried by wing, paw, or fin to various dreamlands.

♦ Poverty Awareness Month. Every day this month we're unveiling a new quotation, book excerpt, or film review that sheds light on the growing problem of poverty around the world. Watch for the links at the top of the "Updates" column on the homepage. See the whole collection here. 

♦ The scourge of income inequality. That's the subject of a searing and enlightening documentary, now on DVD, featuring Robert Reich's take on this deepening crisis.

♦ What makes for a happy city? Here are some examples of urban renewal projects that are designed for people and not cars. More books. 

♦ Haunted by the night. In an excerpt from Burning the Midnight Oil, Phil Cousineau introduces this new anthology of poems, prayers, and essays for nighthawks.

♦ There is One . . . Complete this sentence with the ten principal thoughts of Sufism. You'll find them in an excerpt from Caravan of Souls, a collection of essays by the Sufi  

seer Hazrat Inayat Khan edited by Pir Zia Inayat Khan.

♦ The instinct to act co-operatively. Moral Tribes by Joshua Greene uses psychology, philosophy, and neurology to explain our capacity to collaborate and work together.

♦ The beneficial quality of equanimity. In an excerpt from his S&P Award-winning book, Buddhist teacher Joseph Goldstein offers a few succinct teachings on how we can develop this capacity in the midst of our worldly activities.

♦ Sitting is the new smoking. In our Spiritual Literacy Blog, we report on the new wonder drug with all kinds of health benefits: walking. More blog posts. 

♦ Attention as a muscle. Focus by Daniel Goleman is a masterwork on exercising our attention, a valuable asset in our digital world.

♦ Activists for the poor. Paul Farmer and Gustavo Gutierrez share their ideas and ideals in the book In the Company of the Poor.

♦ Elders and memory. The Nostalgia Factory by Douwe Draaisma shows how old films, music, and photographs bring memories to life for older people.

♦ Miracles in the ghetto. In Beyond the Possible, Cecil Williams and Janice Mirikitani reminisce about their spiritual adventures at Glide Memorial Church in San Francisco.

♦ Turning polls, facts, trends, surveys, and studies into prayers. That's what we've been doing with our "Praying the News" blog. We invite you to join us. And if you discover some news you think should be in this blog, please email us. 

♦ Surveillance technology. Closed Circuit, now available on DVD, is a captivating thriller set in London that has some things to say about what we're allowing in the name of the war on terrorism.

♦ "Get a habit of entertaining yourself with God." That practice comes from Brother Lawrence, whose feast day was January 11. Naming the Days features this month celebrate George Fox, Albert Schweitzer, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Henri J.M. Nouwen, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Mohandas Gandhi, and Thomas Merton.