Boris could not resist anymore. He said, Enough already, then reached out and pulled Cecile into his arms. She held on to him, and he could feel her heart beating erratically in her chest, as was his. God, she felt good in his arms. He smiled down at her, ignoring her coworkers, whose mouths were gaped open in surprise. Since the day she had told him about her tragedy, he realized how much he wanted to hold her in his arms and comfort her, how much she had come to mean to him. The last time they had ran into each other in the hallway and he had stood towering over her and she had listened to him so intently, she seemed oblivious to all the others as they passed. He had leaned down so closely to her and he wanted to kiss her so badly it ached. He knew she had felt it too. Cecile was shocked that he would be so bold! And she loved it. She felt bereft when the elevator opened and he released her. One of her male coworkers said, I believe that he just staked his clam, Cecile.

First-person accounts that show the expanding demographics of African-descended religions In this focused portrayal of global dispersal and spiritual sojourning, Martin Tsang draws together first-person accounts of the evolving Afro-Atlantic religious landscape. Spirited Diasporas offers a glimpse into the frequently misunderstood religions of Afro-Cuban Lucumí, Haitian Vodou, and Brazilian Candomblé, adding to the growing research on the transnational yet personal nature of African diasporic religions. In these accounts, practitioners from many origins illustrate the work and commitment they undertook to learn and become initiated in these traditions. They reveal in the process a variety of experiences that are not often documented. Their perspectives also show the expanding contemporary demographics of African-descended religions, many of whose members identify as LGBTQIA+ or are part of other minoritized populations, and they counter inaccurate and often racialized portrayals of these religions as being antimodern and geographically limited. Through the voices of the professionals, scholars, and activists gathered here, readers will appreciate the purpose and belonging to be found in the far-reaching communities of these Latin American and Caribbean spiritualities. As the seekers in these stories discover and come home to their new religious families, Spirited Diasporas displays the relevance and generative power of these traditions. Contributors: Morgan M. Page | Michael Atwood Mason | Eugenia Rainey | Alex Bettencourt | Solimar Otero | Yoshiaki Koshikawa | Belia Mayeno Saavedra | Sue Kucklick-Arencibia | Ivor Miller | Terri-Dawn González | Dr. Martin A. Tsang | Giovanna Capponi | Philippe Charlier

Demonstrates how to connect with spirit guides to achieve one's personal potential in health, finances, and relationships, outlining steps for promoting wisdom and psychic insight to further intuition and overcome psychological roadblocks.

How can we know if our departed loved ones are still with us? Can guidance from beyond help our daily lives run more smoothly and feel more purposeful? Spiritual medium and bestselling author Rebecca Rosen has answers. After serving as a spiritual medium for more than two decades, Rosen knows with absolute clarity that the spirit world is always trying to get our attention. Our departed loved ones and spirit guides intervene in our lives daily to let us know that our real-life struggles have a rhyme, a reason, and a purpose and that we're not alone to figure it all out. Rosen knows how easy it is to get caught up in the demands of life while juggling the responsibilities of family, friendships, work, health, and money. She strives to be the best working mother, partner, and friend she can be, and she has to actively work to find a healthy balance. What the Dead Have Taught Me about Living Well walks you through an equally ordinary and extraordinary day in Rosen's life and reveals how she tunes in to see, hear, and feel the presence of spirits to help support and guide her forward. Through personal insights and shared extraordinary stories from the Other Side, she answers the question she's asked most frequently: How can my departed loved ones help guide me to live my best life? In What the Dead Have Taught Me about Living Well, Rosen shares the daily practices and spiritual tools she relies on to recognize and interpret signs from beyond. Spend a day with her. You'll learn how to strengthen your own connection to something bigger. This new perspective will help you better understand and navigate your day-to-day world so that new opportunities and possibilities unfold in all aspects of your life.

Have you ever asked yourself what changed when you were "born again?" You look in the mirror and see the same reflection - your body hasn't changed. You find yourself acting the same and yielding to those same old temptations - that didn't seem to change either. So you wonder, Has anything really changed? The correct...

Ever since she was a child, Linda Joy Myers felt the power of the past. As the third daughter in her family to be abandoned or estranged by a mother, she observed the consequences of that heritage on the women she loved as well as herself. But thanks to the stories told to her by her great-grandmother, Myers received a gift that proved crucial in her life: the idea that everyone is a walking storybook, and that we all have within us the key to a deeper understanding of life—the secret stories that make themselves known even without words. Song of the Plains is a weaving of family history that starts in the Oklahoma plains and spans over forty years as Myers combs through dusty archives, family stories, and genealogy online. She discovers the secrets that help to explain the fractures in her family, and the ways in which her mother and grandmother found a way not only to survive the great challenges of their eras, but to thrive despite mental illness and abuse. She discovers how decisions made long ago broke her family apart—and she makes it her life's work to change her family story from one of abuse and loss to one of finding and creating a new story of hope, forgiveness, healing, and love.

The present volume covers 30 Pre-Revolutionary French women, providing a representative sampling of their manifold and varied contributions to intellectual and cultural history. This volume is unique in its grouping of essentially French writers from the Pre-Revolutionary period. The authors included here range from those prominent because of their social position or literary fame, to those slowly becoming part of a new canon of Old Regime women writers - authors whose works were known to their contemporaries but who have slipped into near invisibility in the following centuries until their recent rediscovery and reassessment.