BobGregoire

Megan Don is the author of Meditations with Teresa of Avila. She is a spiritual counselor and teacher of “The Pathway of the Mystic.” She leads pilgrimages to Avila, Spain and other sacred sites in Europe. Megan devotes herself to awakening the mystic within humanity and teaches an embodied spirituality that honors all traditions. Saint Teresa Avila had the unique ability to blend a rich mystical inner life with the practical skills required for everyday living and creating. Despite her status in the spiritual community, she often struggled with self-doubt, fear, and lack of validation by others. Through sheer perseverance, she became a living example of what it means to simultaneously be one with God, self, and the outer world. In Meditations with Teresa of Avila (New World Library, March 10, ,2011) Megan Don translates the writings of this beloved spiritual figure and makes the topic of her life and work readily accessible to a contemporary audience.An intellectual as well as a mystic, Saint Teresa of Avila was a woman ahead of her time. Born in 1515, she entered the Carmelite Monastery at age 20 and ultimately reformed the way the monastery and order operated. Her inspiring, direct connection to God combined with her practical work in the secular world has made her revered and loved by women and men of many religious backgrounds.Saint Teresa’s writings described the soul as a clear crystal castle with many rooms, or dwellings, to be entered as one seeks the inner mansion, the dwelling place of God. The seven dwellings are: Awakening; Return; Self-Knowledge; Interior Recollection; Surrender; Betrothal; and Sacred Marriage. Meditations with Teresa of Avila explores each of these seven dwellings and presents several lessons with guided meditations for each one. 

Matthew Fox is the author of 28 books including Original Blessing, The Reinvention of Work, The Hidden Spirituality of Men, and most recently Christian Mystics. He holds a doctorate in the history and theology of spirituality from the Institut Catholique de Paris. The founder of the University of Creation Spirituality in California, he conducts dozens of workshops each year and is a visiting scholar with the Academy for the Love of Learning (loveoflearning.org). He lives in Oakland, California. His website is www.matthewfox.org.

Jack Hawley, Ph.D., is a consultant and writer, as well as a student, teacher, and lecturer on the infusion of new energy, heart and spirit into everyday life. Jack and his wife, Louise, spend half of each year studying and lecturing in an ashram (spiritual learning community) in rural southern India and the other half helping organizational leaders in the rest of the world apply these principles.The Bhagavad Gita contains the inner essence of India, the moral and spiritual principles found in the very earliest scriptures of this ancient land. To read The Bhagavad Gita is to swing back and forth smoothly between the head and heart, between the worldly and the spiritual, arching between gaining knowledge and applying it in today's real world. In this swing from humanness to godliness lies the Gita's secret penetrating power, its ability to lift and move us.

Carl McColman opens up the symbolism of Narnia and this "Voyage" to new depths of insight in "The Lion, the Mouse and the Dawn Treader", showing how the entire Christian life-journey is revealed. He writes to inspire Christians - meeting in groups, or families at home in the living room--that God wants us to be fearless, honorable, and faithful as Reepicheep, and that this is a quest that has no ending.

Those who care for the ailing, whether helping someone recover, grapple with a long-term disability, or face a terminal illness, often feel alone, overwhelmed, exhausted. William and Nancy Martin have worked as counselors, hospice trainers, and Zen guides — and as caregivers to Nancy’s late mother. With empathy and insight, they offer readers solace drawn from the wisdom of the Tao Te Ching.Like the original Chinese text, this book contains eighty-one chapters. Each chapter includes a poem for caregivers, evocative of the verses of the Tao Te Ching, followed by a reflection that presents practical guidance for navigating the emotional and physical hardships of caregiving. The resulting resource gently awakens readers to the grace, growth, and even joy possible at each step along their path.

One month after her wedding day, thirty-three-year-old Cami Walker was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, and the life she knew changed forever. Each day brought new negative thoughts: I'm going to end up in a wheelchair. My life is over. Why did this have to happen to me?Then Cami received an uncommon prescription from a friend, an African medicine woman named Mbali Creazzo: Give 29 gifts in 29 days. "By giving," Mbali told her, "you are focusing on what you have to offer others, inviting more abundance into your life." Cami was amazed by what unfolded during her month-long journey.29 Gifts is a poignant and unforgettable story of embracing the natural process of giving and receiving-showing just how a simple, daily practice of altruism can dramatically alter your outlook on the world.

Marc Agronin, M.D., a graduate of Harvard University and Yale Medical School, is a board-certified geriatric psychiatrist and the Director of Mental Health and Clinical Research at the Miami Jewish Health Systems, home to Florida’s largest nursing home.A young doctor’s reflections on his experiences as a nursing-home psychiatrist—and the remarkable stories of vitality, connection, and growth that transformed his view of aging

How to Love: Choosing Well at Every Stage of LifeAll of us want to be loved. But despite the Web, speed-dating, and all of the other ways the process has changed in the last decade or so, finding love isn't easy. And keeping it alive is even harder.Reminding us that we're defined by those with whom we spend our time, Gordon Livingston's How to Love begins by summarizing how we should choose our partner and the types of hurtful personalities and behaviors to avoid. "Beware of those who are sure they are right," Livingston cautions. He also advises us not to put too much stock in appearances since "what is essential is invisible to the eye." And he warns against getting involved with anyone for whom communication is a one-way street, explaining that "the first duty of love is to listen."Livingston goes on to lay out the virtues we should seek in a significant other--Kindness, Optimism, Courage, Loyalty, Tolerance, Honesty, Beauty, Humor, Flexibility, and Intelligence--and shows how to improve these qualities in ourselves so that we can attract a good mate...and love them better.Gordon Livingston, M.D., is a psychiatrist and writer whose three previous books--Only Spring; Too soon Told, Too Late Smart, and And Never Stop Dancing--have been published in more than twenty-two countries. He lives and works in Columbia, Maryland. Please visit his website at www.gordonlivingston.com.

Jenniffer Weigel, the author of I'm Spiritual Dammit! and Stay Tuned: Conversations With Dad From the Other Side, is Bob Gregoire's guest on the 2/4/11 Gregoire Today Show on BlogTalkRadio

World Peace, Really! offers seven principles to help you see world peace as a practical possibility. To do this, you first have to realize that peace begins on the inside. You have to believe in peaceful coexistence in your mind, at the thought level, because you can help or hurt peace by the way you think. Gregg Cochlan is an author, speaker, consultant and leadership coach whose first book, Love Leadership, challenged traditional corporate conditioning by positioning love as a more effective, sustainable leadership style. Ron Medved is an athlete, artist and social entrepreneur who grew up during the height of the Cold War era and still remembers hiding under his desk during nuclear attack drills in grade school.