In this gorgeous and inspiring book, the beloved artist behind Spoonful of Faith shows you how to overcome your fears and harness your own creative gifts as an act of worship. With thoughtful stories, powerful reflections, hand lettering, and beautiful original artwork, Jena Holliday invites you to discover how you uniquely reflect the heart of a creative God. Using the lessons she’s learned along the way and creative prompts throughout, Jena encourages readers to overcome the pressure to perform, face the fears of failure and imposter syndrome, believe in the gifts that God has given, step forward in creativity, and delight in the fruit that comes from freely creating as an act of worship. Each section provides space to digest what you’ve read with thoughtful questions to respond to in words or drawings, an affirmation to encourage you, and a prayer to guide you. With suggested songs to listen to as well, Sacred Creativity is the ultimate invitation to offer your God-given gifts back to the Creator in joyful worship. To yield to the One who Created all, and allow your art, creativity, and life to be a love offering.

Reveals how our survival depends on embracing complexity consciousness and relating to nature and all life as sacred • Rejects the “survival of the fittest” narrative in favor of sacred symbiosis, creative cooperation, interdependence and complex thinking • Provides examples from complexity studies, cultural history, philosophy, indigenous spirituality, biomimicry, and ecology to show how nature’s intelligence and creativity abound everywhere • Documents how indigenous cultures lived in relative harmony with nature because they perceived themselves as part of the “ordered whole” of all life In Future Sacred, Julie J. Morley offers a new perspective on the human connection to the cosmos by unveiling the connected creativity and sacred intelligence of nature. She rejects the “survival of the fittest” narrative--the idea that survival requires strife--and offers symbiosis and cooperation as nature’s path forward. She shows how an increasingly complex world demands increasingly complex consciousness. Our survival depends upon embracing “complexity consciousness,” understanding ourselves as part of nature, as well as relating to nature as sacred. Morley begins by documenting how indigenous cultures lived in relative harmony with nature because they perceived themselves as part of the “ordered whole” of all life--until modernity introduced dualistic thinking, thus separating mind from matter, and humans from nature. The author deconstructs the fallacy behind social and neo-Darwinism and the materialist theories of “dead matter” versus those that offer a connection with the sentient mind of nature. She presents evidence from complexity studies, cultural history, philosophy, indigenous spirituality, biomimicry, and ecology, highlighting the idea that nature’s intelligence and creativity abound everywhere--from cells to cetaceans, from hydrogen to humans, from sunflowers to solar panels--and that all sentient beings contribute to the evolution of life as a whole, working together in sacred symbiosis. Morley concludes that our sacred future depends on compassionately understanding and integrating multiple intelligences, seeing relationships and interdependence as fundamental and sacred, as well as honoring the experiences of all sentient beings. Instead of “mastery over nature,” we must shift toward synergy with nature--and with each other as diverse expressions of nature’s creativity.

A collection of essays concerning religion and art, including contributions by Barbara Novak, Leo Steinberg, Paul Tillich, Wassily Kandinsky, John Dixon Jr., David Tracy, Joshua Taylor, and Langdon B. Gilkey.

A friendly, funny, practical guide for creatives and entrepreneurs, written by a four-time Emmy award-winning and two-time Grammy-nominated composer-guitarist-producer who has worked with Paul Simon, Stevie Wonder, Jerry Garcia, Lana Del Rey, and Krishna Das, among many others. Also a beloved and highly regarded Buddhist teacher, David teaches readers how to integrate their creative process with their spiritual practice and livelihood. “How do I make a living doing what I love?” “Am I a sellout as an artist if I want to be successful?” “How do I integrate my spiritual principles with the art of running a business? And actually, um, how do I run a business?” Wondering how to reconcile your calling with your need to make a living wage, or what to do once your art starts selling, or how to achieve success in your field, or what it even means to be successful? David Nichtern offers his lived, learned experience as an entrepreneur, musician, and Buddhist teacher to first help you figure out what “success” means to you and then show you how to get there. He offers advice on the creative process and principles of business and ethics—everything from “listen to the muse!” to “protect your intellectual property!”—and provides mindfulness exercises to help you integrate inspiration and aspiration, vocation and avocation—to go from surviving to thriving. Whether you’re a baker trying to grow from the farmer’s market to a brick-and-mortar or a CEO exploring how taking care of your employees can be the same as taking care of your business—if you’re trying to align your spiritual, creative, and financial pursuits and discover what it means to truly live well, this book is for you.

Unlock the transformative power of movement as a life-changing spiritual practice. If youre thinking But Im not a dancer or I feel awkward, I hope to reassure you. You dont need a special talent to move. You dont need to be graceful or especially coordinated. You dont need a body thats in shape. Dancing helps us embrace all this humanity. Dance connects us to the holy of life. from the Introduction Seize the joy and healing power of dance! Drawing from her years of experience as a dance and movement teacher, and as cofounder of the international dance organization InterPlay, Cynthia Winton-Henry helps you overcome your embarrassment or anxiety and discover in dance a place of solace and restoration, as well as an energizing spiritual force. She taps into the spirit of dancing throughout history and in many world cultures to provide detailed exercises that will help you learn to trust your body and interpret its physical and spiritual intentions. For both newcomers and seasoned movers alike, she encourages you to embrace dance as a spiritual tool to: Celebrate your unique spirituality and get in touch with your emotions Unify your body and mind, and push your personal boundaries Work through trauma or crisis and restore spiritual well-being Deepen your relationships and strengthen your community Find spiritual direction ... and much more!

An original account of the tortuous and revealing relationship between two seminal figures of modern painting, Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauguin.

Deepen Your Capacity to Live Free from Addiction—and from Self and Selfishness "Twelve Step recovery is much more than a way to escape the clutches of addictive behaviors. Twelve Step recovery is about freeing yourself from playing God, and since almost everyone is addicted to this game, Twelve Step recovery is something from which everyone can benefit." —from the Introduction In this hope-filled approach to spiritual and personal growth, the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous are uniquely interpreted to speak to everyone seeking a freer and more God-centered life. This special rendering makes them relevant to those suffering from specific addictions—alcohol, drugs, gambling, food, sex, shopping—as well as the general addictions we wrestle with daily, such as anger, greed, and selfishness. Rami Shapiro describes his personal experience working the Twelve Steps as adapted by Overeaters Anonymous and shares anecdotes from many people working the Steps in a variety of settings. Drawing on the insights and practices of Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Taoism, Hinduism, and Islam, he offers supplementary practices from different religious traditions to help you move more deeply into the universal spirituality of the Twelve Step system.