Freyja, the ancient Norse Goddess of love, fertility, and sorcery is one of the most popular deities of modern Norse religious traditions, and yet there is a dearth of devotional material dedicated to her. This collection of writings hopes to remedy that problem. Here you will find poems, prayers, rituals, songs, and more in praise of the goddess in her various aspects. To some, she is a goddess of love, others speak of her as sorceress and seidr-worker, some see her as the goddess who mourns for her absent husband, others as a mighty warrior, still others as her father's daughter shining upon the sea. She is all of these things, and more. She is the Goddess who wears Brisingamen, the Fire Jewel, the most beautiful necklace in the world - and knows that she is worthy of its gift.

Still naïve in many ways from her sheltered upbringing, Sarah wants to shed her goodie-two-shoes image. She wants to live life, not let it pass her by. That’s why she enjoys the company of her cousin Skye so much. Skye lives life to the absolute fullest and Sarah wants to be more like her. Even the fact that Skye is gay is fascinating, albeit frightening as well. Sarah has never found any man attractive. But she’s pretty sure that’s because her family is constantly attempting to fix her up with every eligible single man in the church in the hopes of making an honest woman of her. The family pressure is building and at the age of twenty-eight, it’s getting harder and harder to reject each new suitor. But what is she to do? There doesn’t seem to be anyone who can even remotely light a spark in her heart. That is until she meets Jewel Black, a fire dancer who goes by the stage name Enigma…

'Addy is a heroine any reader might aspire to be, a teenager who learns to trust her own voice and instincts, who realizes that fire can live within someone, too' - New York Times From award-winning and bestselling author Jewell Parker Rhodes comes a powerful coming-of-age survival tale set during a devastating wild fire. Addy is haunted by the tragic fire that killed her parents, leaving her to be raised by her grandmother. Now, years later, Addy's grandmother has enrolled her in a summer wilderness programme. There, Addy joins five other Black city kids - each with their own troubles - to spend a summer out west. Deep in the forest, the kids learn new (and to them) strange skills: camping, hiking, rock climbing and how to start and safely put out campfires. Most important, they learn to depend upon each other for companionship and survival. But then comes a furious forest fire ... From award-winning and bestselling author Jewell Parker Rhodes comes a powerful survival tale exploring issues of race, class, and climate change.

*NOW A NETFLIX LIMITED SERIES—from producer and director Shawn Levy (Stranger Things) starring Mark Ruffalo, Hugh Laurie, and newcomer Aria Mia Loberti* Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award finalist, the beloved instant New York Times bestseller and New York Times Book Review Top 10 Book about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II. Marie-Laure lives with her father in Paris near the Museum of Natural History where he works as the master of its thousands of locks. When she is six, Marie-Laure goes blind and her father builds a perfect miniature of their neighborhood so she can memorize it by touch and navigate her way home. When she is twelve, the Nazis occupy Paris, and father and daughter flee to the walled citadel of Saint-Malo, where Marie-Laure’s reclusive great uncle lives in a tall house by the sea. With them they carry what might be the museum’s most valuable and dangerous jewel. In a mining town in Germany, the orphan Werner grows up with his younger sister, enchanted by a crude radio they find. Werner becomes an expert at building and fixing these crucial new instruments, a talent that wins him a place at a brutal academy for Hitler Youth, then a special assignment to track the Resistance. More and more aware of the human cost of his intelligence, Werner travels through the heart of the war and, finally, into Saint-Malo, where his story and Marie-Laure’s converge. Doerr’s “stunning sense of physical detail and gorgeous metaphors” (San Francisco Chronicle) are dazzling. Deftly interweaving the lives of Marie-Laure and Werner, he illuminates the ways, against all odds, people try to be good to one another. Ten years in the writing, All the Light We Cannot See is a magnificent, deeply moving novel from a writer “whose sentences never fail to thrill” (Los Angeles Times).

One of the most respected artists in popular music today, Jewel is much more than a music industry success with her debut album selling more than 10 million copies. Before her gifted songwriting comes an even more individual art: Poetry. Now available in paperback, A Night without Armor highlights the poetry of Jewel taken from her journals which are both intimate and inspiring, to be embraced and enjoyed. Writing poems and keeping journals since childhood, Jewel has been searching for truth and meaning, turning to her words to record, to discover, and to reflect. In A Night Without Armor, her first collection of poetry, Jewel explores the fire of first love, the lessons of betrayal, and the healing of intimacy. She delves into matters of the home, the comfort of family, the beauty of Alaska, and the dislocation of divorce. Frank and honest, serious and suddenly playful, A Night Without Armor is a talented artist's intimate portrait of what makes us uniquely human.

A terrifying past imprisoned Maxine Bartlett all her adult life, shackling her with fear anytime a man even touched her. In a spontaneous weekend, she unintentionally elopes with an unlikely groom. After a magical wedding night filled with love and passion, “Maxi” finally discards her dreadful chains. She doesn’t know that her new husband has turned his back on God. Worried over how the world might see the completely unexpected – and some would certainly say inappropriate – marriage, in his pride he promises Maxine a quiet annulment. Unwilling to let their marriage disappear as if it never happened, Maxine refuses to cooperate. Seeking God’s will, she moves in with him and informs him that when he decides to act like her husband again, he will find his loving wife waiting for him right there in their home. As the days stretch into weeks, the newlyweds slowly begin to trust and even love each other. Then, just as they begin to live the “happily ever after” love story that neither of them ever dreamed could come true, a sudden and nightmarish catastrophe strikes that could wreck everything. Will her husband realize that he must trust God once more? Can he find peace and strength enough to carry them through the flames? ********************** bridgeman, clean, christian, christian drama, christian family drama, christian fiction, christian love story, christian mystery, christian romance, christian romantic mystery, christian romantic suspense, christian romantic thriller, christian suspense, christian thriller, contemporary, contemporary christian, contemporary christian fiction, contemporary christian romance, contemporary christian suspense, contemporary drama, contemporary inspirational fiction, contemporary inspirational romance, contemporary inspirational suspense, contemporary love story, contemporary suspense, drama, dramatic christian, dramatic christian fiction, dramatic christian romance, dramatic christian suspense, dramatic inspirational fiction, dramatic inspirational romance, dramatic inspirational suspense, dramatic love story, dramatic suspense, edgy christian fiction, edgy christian romance, edgy inspirational fiction, edgy inspirational romance, fiction, God, hailey bridgeman, haley bridgeman, halle bridgeman, hallee bridgeman, Holy Spirit, inspirational, inspirational christian fiction, inspirational fiction, inspirational romance, inspirational suspense, Jesus, love, love story, olivia kimbrell press, romance, romantic christian, romantic christian fiction, romantic christian romance, romantic christian suspense, romantic drama, romantic inspirational fiction, romantic inspirational suspense, romantic inspirational thriller, romantic love story, romantic suspense, romantic themes, suspenseful drama, traditional love story, traditional romance, traditional suspense, Jewel Series, Sapphire Ice, Greater Than Rubies, Emerald Fire, Topaz Heat, Christmas Diamond, Christmas Star Sapphire, Religion and; Spirituality, Spirituality, Protestantism, Theology, Worship and; Devotion, Sacred Writings, Gifts, Personal Growth, Women, Music, Creationism, woman, Hebrew Bible (Old Testament), spiritual gift, Conduct of Life, Family, Health, Men's Inspirational, Miracles, Personal Testimonies, Women's Inspirational, Men's Personal Growth, Motivational, Philosophy, Spiritual Healing, Transformational, Women's Personal Growth, Evangelical, Life Application, inspire, inspires, inspiration, christian poetry, Hymns, christians, christianity, creation, spiritual gifts, man, men, personal testimony, relationship, Romantic Heroes, New Adult and; College, humor, Beaches, Second Chances, Wedding, Workplace, General, new adult, spirit, Sports, sport, football, Rich and; Wealthy, billionaire, millionaire, rich, wealthy, second chance, Mystery, Thriller and; Suspense Characters, Mystery, Thriller and; Suspense, Mystery, Thriller and; Suspense Moods, Mystery, Thriller and; Suspense Settings, Crime, Thriller and; Mystery , Female Protagonists, Mystery, Urban, Suspense, Murder, Literary Fiction Themes, Women's Fiction Themes, 21st Century, Childhood, Alcohol and; Drug Abuse, Family Life, Friendship, Love Stories, Marriage, Politics, Religion, School and; College, Career and; Workplace, Parenthood and; Children, Dating and; Relationships, Singlehood, Sisterhood, Weddings, alcohol abuse, drug abuse, religious, spiritual, career, working, parent and children, dating, relationships, single women, sister, Corporations, Romantic, visionary, sprititual, bestselling, best-selling, award winning, acclaimed, readers choice, five star, 5 star, favorite, rags to riches, cinderella story, clean best sellers, clean books for women, clean books for girls, clean books for teens, clean romance books, clean romance novels, clean romance stories, clean romance free, clean romance novella, clean suspense, Christian fiction books, Christian fiction romance, Christian fiction romance best sellers, Christian fiction romance books, Christian fiction mystery and suspense, Christian fiction for women, Christian fiction for girls, Christian fiction for teens,

In the early 400s, numerous Indian and Central Asian Buddhist “meditation masters” (chanshi) traveled to China, where they established the first enduring traditions of Buddhist meditation practice in East Asia. The forms of contemplative practice that these missionaries brought with them, and which their Chinese students further developed, remained for several centuries the basic understanding of “meditation” (chan) in China. Although modern scholars and readers have long been familiar with the approaches to meditation of the Chan (Zen) School that later became so popular throughout East Asia, these earlier and in some ways more pervasive forms of practice have long been overlooked or ignored. This volume presents a comprehensive study of the content and historical formation, as well as complete English translations, of two of the most influential manuals in which these approaches to Buddhist meditation are discussed: the Scripture on the Secret Essential Methods of Chan (Chan Essentials) and the Secret Methods for Curing Chan Sickness (Methods for Curing). Translated here into English for the first time, these documents reveal a distinctly visionary form of Buddhist meditation whose goal is the acquisition of concrete, symbolic visions attesting to the practitioner’s purity and progress toward liberation. Both texts are “apocryphal” scriptures: Taking the form of Indian Buddhist sutras translated into Chinese, they were in fact new compositions, written or at least assembled in China in the first half of the fifth century. Though written in China, their historical significance extends beyond the East Asian context as they are among the earliest written sources anywhere to record certain kinds of information about Buddhist meditation that hitherto had been the preserve of oral tradition and personal initiation. To this extent they indeed divulge, as their titles claim, the “secrets” of Buddhist meditation. Through them, we witness a culture of Buddhist meditation that has remained largely unknown but which for many centuries was widely shared across North India, Central Asia, and China.