In a photographic exploration of the spiritual aspect of trees, Joan Klostermann-Ketels calls for us to simply open our minds to the possibilitythat the forests and trees around us hold secrets and messages for us all. Humani Trees: Exploring Human Nature through the Spirit of Trees (Findhorn Press, June 2011) asks the reader to take a fresh look at the natural world around them, in particular trees, and realize that there are aspects ofthe human spirit nestled there.

It was a chilly May morning in 2009 and I took several, very deep breaths and let them go—not the breaths—but several pieces of furniture birthed during my previous life of wife for 33 years. 

There I stood in the middle of the yard sale, wearing the artfully painted smile of a recovering Stepford Wife, dispassionately watching as uncaring strangers poked, prodded and pack away belongings left over from my painstakingly crafted, failed fantasy marriage. I waved goodbye and wished my old friends, Cuisinart (™), Capodimante (™) and carved rice bed, well as they waltzed away down the driveway with new partners. 

It's gonna upset some people reading this, but I AM done with the double-minded, denial doin's of humanity. Including my own! I refuse to sit back and silently watch myself and others make choices that support the self-destructive systems we use to perpetuate our Culture of Comfort and Convenience! That culture is one of seductive illusion and slavery to a system of technological oligarchy. If you don’t know what that means look it up, this is what our better K-12 teachers would have told us to do. 

Consciousness is like 

a jigsaw puzzle

seen through the compound

eyes of a bee.

It takes many flights

to see patterns,

and returning home,

to make honey.

I am the prosecution and the defense, the judge and the jury, the defendant and the trial. I am the truth and the lie. I am the ground of a drama that plays itself out each waking moment, and in my dreams while I sleep. Within me the universe dances its mysterious dance of consciousness and ignorance, awareness and illusion.

Seth David Chernoff

Publisher’s Description:  Connection , the second book in the Manual For Living series, is a thought-provoking, soulful inquiry. Author Seth David Chernoff guides us through a series of questions, asking why we think what we think and do what we do--in relationship to our own life, others in our immediate environment, and humanity at large.

Reviewer's Description from David Lintner:  This is the second in a planned series of three books that purport to be a manual for living.  The first book in the series--Reality--deals with time, illness, fear, reality, physicality, death, finance, accumulation, change, simplicity, balance, happiness, present moment, peace, and amazing life. A conclusion contains information about the author, an affirmation of purpose, and highlights.

The Simple Beauty of Everyday Life

Editor's Description: There is a hidden meaning, a hidden beauty, in life’s most ordinary moments. It is the beauty of the human heart revealed, where what we have in common is greater than what keeps us apart. If we can learn to see the beauty in these moments, whether they are in the light or in the shadow, we become witnesses to the spiritual, testimonies to the sacred. We become true artists of the ordinary, and our life becomes a masterpiece, painted in the colors of the heart.

A chance encounter with a boy on a bicycle, a young girl’s graduation from eighth grade — these and other small moments are the subjects of this beautifully written collection. In elegant prose, Kent Nerburn uncovers the wonder hidden just beneath the surface of everyday life, offering poignant glimpses into the grace of ordinary days.