In Extraordinary Encounters in an Ordinary Life, Mark Miller writes of everyday experiences (growing up in a Jewish household, raising children) and unique experiences (interviewing the Dalai Lama, running for public office. Miller tells of colorful characters he has met as newspaper reporter, copywriter, and marketing manager, and describes the difficulty of raising children after divorce. Reflecting on a career in hospitals, nursing homes and hospices, he recounts personal experiences with the dying, including members of his own family, providing insight into how health care systems often fails the poor and elderly. He asks questions about health care issues that become increasingly critical as Baby Boomers head into their final years. Finally, he gives personal accounts of celebrities he has met and interviewed, including Jimmy Carter and George Bush, which paint fresh portraits of the people behind the photos. Mark Miller's experiences and life lessons can serve as reminders for us to pay closer attention to the people and the blessings in our lives and to live every day with open minds and open hearts.

A collection of essays shares the author's insights, reflections, and observations on birds and the natural world, as he describes his childhood ramblings in the Tennessee wilderness and his feelings of spiritual meaning, as well as the meaning of the rediscovery of the supposedly extinct ivory-billed woodpecker in terms of the nature of the sacred.

Are you looking for freedom and fulfillment in the life you are already living, or do you feel trapped because your everyday reality doesn’t match your dreams? No Such Thing as Ordinary will help you discover the passion and adventure in your life while empowering you to see how God uses daily, here-and-now moments to draw you to him in an extraordinary way. Drawing from Jesus’s conversation with the woman at the well in the Gospel of John, Rachel Balducci—Catholic writer and cohost of CatholicTV’s The Gist—shares how a deep unrest in her life launched her on a journey to discover the secret that true joy is found in a deeper relationship with Jesus. Through scripture, her passionate faith, and personal stories, Balducci shows you how to discover freedom, adventure, and deep, abiding peace; stop being distracted by the worldly voices telling you to forget your responsibilities and pursue your own fulfillment; find your true self in the midst of losing everything you thought defined you; and recognize and believe that where you are now is where God has placed you and where he intends to meet you.

When the town pariah left her home during the hottest part of the day to draw water from the local well, she hoped to avoid the scrutiny of neighbors. Instead she met a stranger who knew all her indiscretions and instead of judgment offered redemption. The Samaritan woman at the well was just going about her everyday life. She had her foibles and disappointments, just like everyone else. She couldn't have imagined that her life would radically change after one encounter with a stranger, or that the Maker of the universe would sit down beside her and strike up a conversation. She is one of many people who met Jesus during his lifetime. Shepherds busy tending sheep were interrupted by visits from celestial beings proclaiming his birth. Servants hoisting platters witnessed water miraculously turned into wine. Highly educated religious scholars were stymied by his understanding of the Scriptures. His brothers knew him intimately and yet struggled to understand his true nature. Fishermen left their livelihood to follow him. Lepers and invalids were healed by his touch. Tax collectors and sinners invited him into their homes. Jesus met kings and paupers, rulers and executioners, and each had a story to tell. Everyday Jesus offers the opportunity to meet Jesus anew through the eyes of the people who walked and talked with him. And found his words, actions, and love-life changing. Forty-eight daily readings.

Given the anthropological focus on ethnography as a kind of deep immersion, the interview poses theoretical and methodological challenges for the discipline. This volume explores those challenges and argues that the interview should be seen as a special, productive site of ethnographic encounter, a site of a very particular and important kind of knowing. In a range of social contexts and cultural settings, contributors show how the interview is experienced and imagined as a kind of space within which personal, biographic and social cues and norms can be explored and interrogated. The interview possesses its own authenticity, therefore—true to the persons involved and true to their moment of interaction—whilst at the same time providing information on human capacities and proclivities that is generalizable beyond particular social and cultural contexts.

Donna Gaines teaches readers how to interact with God in that secret place of true intimacy that leads to worship. Your ordinary daily practice of prayer can become an extraordinary encounter with the living Lord.