December 23, 2016

What's Happening This Week at SpiritualityandPractice.com

Editor's Pick   

By Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat    

Every year from the more than 300 books we have reviewed on SpiritualityandPractice.com, we choose the 50 adult titles and 10 children's books that have most impressed and inspired us. We congratulate the authors and publishers of these exceptional contributions to today's spiritual renaissance.


Practices   


"We light the Hanukkah candles to remember the miracle that even a small light can dominate a vast darkness." Personal explorations, a spiritual practice, cooking and dreidel-making ideas, books, and a video help you fill your heart with Hanukkah's light.
 

"The limitless resources of life are at the disposal of the creative impulse that fulfills itself most intimately and profoundly in the experience of the birth of a child." Quotes by African-American theologian and Christian mystic Howard Thurman draw you into the hospitality, generosity, and hope of Christmas.

More Practices: Birthday of Pablo Casals, John Main Day  
E-Courses   

A new e-course by Roger Housden  
January 1 - 31, 2017

"I choose to inhabit my days," writes poet Dawna Markova, "To allow my living to open me, to make me less afraid ..." Inhabit your days through encouraging poems, helped along by best-selling author Roger Housden's reflections, poetry readings, and Practice Circle guidance. Read more and sign up here:
www.SpiritualityandPractice.com/PoetrytoLiftYourSpirits 
A new e-course by Frank Rogers, Sally Taylor, Ted Falcon, Jamal Rahman, Philip Goldberg, and Thomas Moore        
January 16 - February 23, 2017

If you feel sorrow for the world or for those near to you; if you are in a caring profession like nursing, teaching, counseling, or ministry; if it's hard for you to be kind to yourself; or if your vision for a compassionate world exceeds the reality of what you see around you, then this e-course is for you. Read more and sign up:
www.SpiritualityandPractice.com/PracticeofCompassion 
Films  

Directed by Garth Davis   

From the opening scenes of this superbly cast true story about a young man seeking his birth family, we see how empathy creates miracles and transforms people's lives. 

More Films: I, Daniel Blake, La La Land
 
DVDs

Directed by Clint Eastwood

Veteran pilot Chesley Sullenberger saved the lives of 155 passengers and crew when he landed US Airways Flight 1549 on the Hudson river after a bird strike disabled its engines. Director Clint Eastwood turns this true story into a tense thriller that reveals our yearning for heroes.

More DVDs: Hitchcock/Truffaut  
Books   

The Way of Rest
By Jeff Foster

With humility, humor, and earnestness, Foster impresses us with this down-to-earth wisdom about giving all to the moment's embrace. 

More Books:
"All the Real Indians Died Off" and 20 Other Myths About Native Americans; The Attention Merchants; Becoming Wise; The Complete Encyclicals, Bulls, and Apostolic Exhortations of Pope Francis; The Genocide Contagion; Grace without God; Living and Dying with Confidence; Play Anything; The Way Under the Way
 
Children's Books   

By Byron Katie and Hans Wilhelm  

Remember Henny Penny's "The sky is falling" pronouncement from the childhood tale? Byron Katie and Hans Wilhelm team up to retell the story through the lens of "The Work," Katie's life-changing questions.

More Children's Books:
Good Morning, City; The Boy & the Book 
Arts   

Compiled and designed by Darren Polito
 
"Winter seemed to partake of religion in a way that no other season did," writes Patricia Hampl, "hushed, solemn." Let your heart be cheered by these images and quotes carrying  messages of the season.
 
Blogs   

KidSpirit Youth Voices Blog
By Maria Christian

What prayer is more honest than a letter to Santa? No doctrine, no choir, no mythology -- just quiet love.  

 
From Our Wisdom Archive   

By Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat 
Generosity is ever new. These spiritual practices from our archives -- ranging from collecting fundraising letters to watching movies about giving -- remind us all how a little love and kindness make a real difference in the world.
 
A Thought to Carry with You  

Whether you celebrate Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, or Solstice -- or if you simply notice long nights making way as the sun resurges -- this time of year powerfully points to the dynamics of darkness and light. It's an ideal time to respond to an invitation from poet and activist Deena Metzger in Prayers for a Thousand Years (edited by Elizabeth Roberts and Elias Amidon):

"Let us learn the secret language of light again. Also the letters of the dark. Learn the flight patterns of birds, the syllables of wolf howl and bird song, the moving pantomime of branch and leaf, valleys and peaks of whale calls, the long sentences of ants moving in unison, the combinations and recombinations of clouds, the codices of stars. Let us, thus, reconstitute the world, sign by sign and melody by melody.

"Let us sing the world back into the very Heart of the Holy Name of God."

Thank you for offering your voices to this great work of singing the world back to what matters! Thank you for your company here at Spirituality & Practice, and thank you for all the ways that you support us throughout the year ... and the years. We wish you and yours the joy of returning light, the promise that renews itself over and over without fail.
 
Blessings, 
Your Spirituality & Practice Team 
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat 
Patricia Campbell Carlson 
Darren Polito