How do you lead an organization stuck between an ending and a new beginning—when the old way of doing things no longer works but a way forward is not yet clear? Beaumont calls such in-between times liminal seasons—threshold times when the continuity of tradition disintegrates and uncertainty about the future fuels doubt and chaos. In a liminal season it simply is not helpful to pretend we understand what needs to happen next. But leaders can still lead. How to Lead When You Don’t Know Where You’re Going is a practical book of hope for tired and weary leaders who risk defining this era of ministry in terms of failure or loss. It helps leaders stand firm in a disoriented state, learning from their mistakes and leading despite the confusion. Packed with rich stories and real-world examples, Beaumont guides the reader through practices that connect the soul of the leader with the soul of the institution.

'This book is my story. . .of Becoming Real.' Despite the distractions of life, from an early struggle to overcome crippling feelings of inadequacy to the responsibilities of being a young mother and then a midwife driven by a passion to change old attitudes in her profession, Robyn Sheldon always felt herself drawn to a search for soulfulness. It was a quest that lead to a loving relationship with two archetypal beings, Mother Mary and Melchizidek, who began to guide her through the Seven Gateways of Soul Integration--'seven subjects to illustrate life's purpose'--where she would be challenged to think anew about such ideas as personal power, truth, wisdom, and the Soul-self. The Liminal Lands tells a deeply personal story with a captivating mixture of honesty, self-irony, wit, and wisdom. Full of the ordinary vulnerabilities of sex, anger, longing, and boredom, it nevertheless shows how meditative practice can slowly change those vulnerabilities into joy, freedom, and greater compassion. For anyone on a similar spiritual path, the book also acts as a practical guide with a thorough explanation of various spiritual concepts and a guide to meditation techniques.

A consciousness and dream hacker explains how to use liminal dreaming—the dreams that come between sleep and waking—for self-actualization and consciousness expansion. At the edges of consciousness, between waking and sleeping, there’s a swirling, free associative state of mind that is the domain of liminal dreams. Working with liminal dreams can improve sleep, mitigate anxiety and depression, help to heal trauma, and aid creativity and problem-solving. As we sink into slumber, we pass through hypnagogia, the first of the two liminal dream states. In this transitional zone, memories, perceptions, and imaginings arise in a fast moving, hallucinatory, semi-conscious remix. On the other end of the night, as we wake, we experience hypnopompia—the hazy, pleasant, drift that is the other liminal dream state. Readers of Liminal Dreaming will learn step-by-step how to create a dream practice outside of REM-sleep states that they can incorporate into their lives in personally meaningful ways. Liminal dreaming practice is also far easier to learn than lucid dreaming practice, making it possible for the reader to begin working with these dreams this very night.

In this collection of curious but delightful short stories by S. K. Kruse, you never know who you're going to meet or where you're going to end up. You can be certain, however, that whether you follow Schrodinger's cat into the zeroth dimension or have drinks with a woman who's seen Gertrude Stein in the condensation on her window, you'll find yourself smack dab in the middle of some befuddling predicament of existence. Using humor and horror, satire and allegory, fabulism and realism, Tales from the Liminal takes you for an extraordinary ride, submerging you in spaces where anything is possible, especially transformation.

Despite the resurgence of scholarly interest in the Book of Tobit in recent years, an important aspect of this deuterocanonical book has been largely overlooked. Within it, there is an instruction manual for an effective way of being and living in exile, namely the wisdom instructions in Tobit 4. With glances at Tobit 12 and Tobit 14 where the wisdom instructions are repeated in shorter form, this monograph discusses the function of the wisdom discourse in the literary design of the narrative. Moreover, it examines how the wisdom instructions of Tobit demonstrate the vital role of the sapiential tradition in forming and maintaining Jewish identity in the Diaspora. Contextualizing the wisdom instructions not only within the narrative but also within the realities of Second Temple Judaism, it is argued that the author of Tobit saw the validity and employed the resources of the Jewish wisdom tradition in reinterpreting some of the traditional claims of covenant faith. Using the Sinaiticus as the textual basis of study, it shows that the lengthy wisdom lecture of Tobit displays an inner logic that structures the collection of seemingly unrelated sayings. The instructions reinterpret a major deuteronomic concern to remember the Lord always. For Tobit, the practice of righteousness, the practice of wise behavior, and the practice of prayer realize and concretize such remembrance. Addressed to those in the Dispersion, Tobit’s wisdom instructions are meant to foster and shape a distinct ethos of truth, righteousness and mercy.

This book is the first volume on the evolution of wisdom. Using a combination of ethnographic and ethological studies, it shows how key moral attributes of compassion, justice and wisdom are woven into relationships with animals.

Why Do We Act Like There Is An Age Restriction on Spiritual Growth? For the last several decades, Western churches have focused the bulk of their resources on the early stages of discipleship—children’s Sunday school, youth group, college ministry. While these are all important, we have neglected the spiritual growth of those in the second half of life. In fact, an outside observer might think that after the growth of the college years, the goal is simply to coast through the rest of your Christian life. Michelle Van Loon has a different idea. In Becoming Sage, she challenges those in midlife and beyond to continue pursuing radical spiritual growth, and she’ll help you get started. She explores what the unique challenges of midlife can teach us about Jesus and how to think about everything from church, friends, and family, to money, bodies, and meaning. Don’t settle for a life of coasting. Revitalize your spiritual growth today.