At last, the authorized biography of Townes Van Zandt (1944-1997), who wrote such unforgettable songs as “Pancho & Lefty” and “If I Needed You.” Born to a wealthy oil family in Ft. Worth, Texas, hounded by alcoholism and depression, Van Zandt pursued a nomadic existence following his muse, whatever the cost to himself, friends, and relatives. Based on exclusive interviews with those close to Van Zandt, including his best friend Guy Clark and colleagues like Steve Earle and John Prine, To Live's to Fly captures all the humor, hijinks, poetry, and heartbreak of this revered, genuinely outlaw country artist.

Fruit flies are born, begin attending to their fruit-fly agendas almost immediately, then succumb to old age before witnessing a single change of season. Likewise, we live and die in the virtual blink of an eye. Unfortunately, we often ignore our own mortality and simply coast through our days without ever checking out the bowl of fruit on the other side of the kitchen. The life we hoped for can wait for another day, we think. But another day often slips through our grasp, and we learn that we can't wait another day . . . that if we are to live consciously, we must learn to live like a fruit fly, not tomorrow but at this very moment, the one we are experiencing now. We are responsible for creating our own destiny. Our gut, our instincts--the GPS we're all born with--will never lead us astray if we trust it. Silver linings--more fruit to feast on--will always be within reach if only we're willing to explore.

Women today are fading. In a female culture built on Photoshopped perfection and Pinterest fantasies, we’ve lost the ability to dream our own big dreams. So busy trying to do it all and have it all, we’ve missed the life we were really designed for. And we are paying the price. The rise of loneliness, depression, and anxiety among the female population in Western cultures is at an all-time high. Overall, women are two and a half times more likely to take antidepressants than men. What is it about our culture, the expectations, and our way of life that is breaking women down in unprecedented ways? In this vulnerable memoir of transformation, Rebekah Lyons shares her journey from Atlanta, Georgia, to the heart of Manhattan, where she found herself blindsided by crippling depression and anxiety. Overwhelmed by the pressure to be domestically efficient, professionally astute, and physically attractive, Rebekah finally realized that freedom can come only by facing our greatest fears and fully surrendering to God’s call on our lives. This book is an invitation for all women to take that first step toward freedom. For it is only when we free-fall that we can truly fly.

WITH A NEW EPILOGUE BY THE AUTHOR World-class free climber Steph Davis delivers a “thrilling and infectiously interesting” (San Francisco Book Review) memoir about rediscovering herself through love, loss, and the joy of letting go. The paperback includes a new epilogue in which Davis shares how her husband Mario’s tragic accident has affected her relationship to climbing and flying. Steph Davis is a superstar in the climbing community and has ascended some of the world’s most challenging and awe-inspiring peaks. But after her first husband makes a controversial climb in a national park, the media fallout escalates rapidly and in one fell swoop leaves her without a partner, a career, a source of income...or a purpose. In the company of only her beloved dog, Fletch, Davis sets off on a search for a new identity and discovers skydiving. Falling out of an airplane is completely antithetical to the climber’s control she’d practiced for so long, but she perseveres, turning each daring jump into an opportunity to fly, first as a skydiver, then as a base jumper. As she opens herself to falling, she also finds the strength to open herself to love again, even in the wake of heartbreak. And before too long, she meets someone who shares her passion for living life to the limit. With gorgeous black-and-white photos throughout, Learning to Fly is Davis’s fascinating account of her transformation. From her early tentative skydives, to zipping into her first wingsuit, to surviving devastating accidents against the background of breathtaking cliffs, to soaring beyond her past limits, she discovers new hope and joy in letting go.

Using his experiences learning the trapeze as a metaphor, best-selling author Sam Keen writes provocatively of overcoming his fears and self-perceived limitations. In learning to let go in life, Keen, a leader in the New Age spirituality community, takes readers on a journey of spiritual enlightenment and fulfilment much as the best-seller Zen and the Art of Archery did.

Reality, as Eileen Robertson Hamra perceived it, instantaneously altered the moment authorities confirmed that the plane her husband was piloting had crashed, and he had not survived. In the process of mourning her loss, with three young children in tow, where Eileen wandered and landed was nothing short of miraculous. Between the valleys of grief and the peaks of hope, she discovered that keeping promises to the dead is a lifelong act, and honoring one love does not mean foregoing the freedom and joy that is found in reopening your heart, trusting in new love, and expanding your definition of family. Three days before Christmas 2011 and just two miles from her parents’ home, Eileen Roberston Hamra’s husband, Brian, died alone, flying his own airplane. Overnight, Eileen lost the man she loved, and her three young children lost their father. Brian’s parents lost their son, his younger sister lost her big brother, and hundreds of people working across the globe in the tech and solar energy industries lost their mentor, their leader, their guide. Al Gore sent his condolences. After holding bicoastal celebrations of Brian’s life, for weeks, months, a year, Eileen and her children wrapped themselves in his clothing, and cocooned. Each night, under the balmy black-blue skies of Southern California, they cried, hugged, and pressed forward in ways they knew Brian would have wanted them to. Through the rollercoaster ride of loss and mourning, they were buoyed by friends, teachers, strangers, angels, and of course, family. Despite the dark sense of having been gutted, in fact because of the shadowy pangs of emptiness she experienced, Eileen learned new ways in which to shine a light and make her way toward feeling whole again. She transformed longing and loneliness into wisdom and wonder. She became more patient, compassionate, balanced, joyful, and loving than she had ever thought possible. Time to Fly is the story of how one woman chose to view the tragedy of her husband’s death as an opportunity to strengthen the bond with her children, and to wake up to her life’s purpose. It is one woman’s high-flying and turbulent journey to taking full possession of her potential by breaking beyond what she thought she would, should, and could do. Eileen Robertson Hamra moved through grief toward healing via a tough and magical spiritual awakening. Making a series of conscious choices and paying attention to a string of “coincidences” and otherworldly signs, she eventually met another wonderful man, Mike. They fell in love, got married, and set a well-respected IVF clinic record by giving birth to a miracle child when Eileen was forty-six years old. Time to Fly is a memoir not only for the bereaved and those who support them, but for anyone who believes in the power of finding the silver lining in the darkest of situations and holding on to that sliver of light, in order to turn things around. We do not have complete control over our limited time on this remarkable planet, and so in the time we do have, we must hold one another, build softness alongside resilience, and write our own flight plan.