From the New York Times bestselling author of The Wednesday Letters and The Cross Gardener, a story of small kindnesses-and life-changing miracles. Seventeen seconds can change a life forever. This is what Rex Connor learned on a gorgeous summer afternoon in 1970 when, as a lifeguard, he diverted his gaze for seventeen seconds and tragedy occurred. Forty years later the waves of that day still ripple through the lives of countless people, including his son, Cole. Cole Connor has become a patient teacher, and now he has invited three struggling teenagers to visit him on his front porch to learn about Rex Connor—and the Seventeen Second Miracle. Together they will learn how Rex Connor could have allowed seventeen seconds to destroy him, but instead he chose to live every day believing the smallest of acts could change the world for good. And the students, each with their own secrets and private pains, will begin to understand that even tragedy brings lessons. Even pain brings comfort. Even death brings miracles. A seventeen second miracle can change a life—if you let it.
From the New York Times bestselling author, an inspiring story of life, love, and moving on. Married and the father of a young daughter, John Bevan had finally found the traditional family he lacked as an orphaned child. But all that disappears when a fatal car accident steals away his wife-and the unborn child she carried. Filled with sorrow, John withdraws from life and love. He erects a small cross at the scene of his wife's accident and visits daily, grieving. Then one morning he encounters a young man kneeling before the cross, touching it up with white paint. John's conversations and travels with this mysterious man-known to him only as the Cross Gardener-will forever change his world. From Jason F. Wright comes a timeless tale that explores the questions we ask when our lives are touched by loss: How do we carry on? And who will show us the way? The answers John Bevan finds illuminate the hope that even in our darkest hours we are not alone.
In this unique book, Jason Wright analyses William Blake’s Illustrations of the Book of Job and shows their relevance in clinical psychoanalysis and psychotherapy with groups and individuals, especially while working with patients who have experienced trauma and addiction. Drawing on decades of work in the field, this book sees Wright offer sensitive guidance to practitioners dealing with client experiences of change through the lens of addiction and offers useful insight to the lay reader. Throughout the chapters, Wright studies each illustration in depth and shows how they chart the breakdown of Job’s life into a state of despair. Twinning a clinical vignette with each plate, Wright shows how these depictions can be directly applied to issues faced in contemporary analysis, therapy and addiction recovery. From Job’s dissolution to his eventual salvation, Wright insightfully maps the process of change from a place of destitution to one of redemption and hope set in the context of the group. He expertly brings Blakean theory into the 21st century by looking at contemporary experience such as the impact of the 2005 London bombings, as well as looking at the importance of community, collective experience and self-identity when seeking recovery. Throughout, Wright draws inspiration from eminent analysts such as Bion, Winnicott and Hillman, while also looking to Jung, Bohm and Whitehead to support his theories on the new way of being he proposes: a collective dynamic shift from a consciousness of exploitation to a consciousness of resonance. This book will be of great interest to psychoanalysts, psychotherapists and mental health professionals working in addiction recovery, as well as those interested in the work of Blake and its continued importance in the present day.
#1 New York Times bestselling author and renowned radio and television host Glenn Beck delivers an instant holiday classic about boyhood memories, wrenching life lessons, and the true meaning of the gifts we give to one another in love. If you could change your life by reversing your biggest regrets, sorrows, and mistakes...would you? When Eddie was twelve years old, all he wanted for Christmas was a bike. He knew money had been tight since his father died, but Eddie dreamed that somehow his mother would find a way to afford that dream bike. What he got from her instead was a sweater. “A stupid, handmade, ugly sweater” that young Eddie left in a crumpled ball in the corner of his room. Scarred deeply by the fateful events that transpired that day, Eddie begins a dark and painful journey toward manhood. It will take wrestling with himself, his faith, and his family—and the guidance of a mysterious neighbor named Russell—to help Eddie find his life’s path and finally understand the significance of that simple gift his mother had crafted with love.
Everyone experiences loss differently and grieves in their own way, but author Jason F. Wright, has learned from his own life, and from counseling others, that there are key principles to regaining your footing and finding tranquility after a devastating loss. This beautifully illustrated book is like an extended sympathy card, helping to remind those who are grieving that they are never alone in their pain and heartache. Long after funeral services, flowers, and cards, this book can be a more permanent and personal reminder that even in a difficult season of quiet, there are people who want to be supportive and are ready to comfort with just their presence and understanding in what the author calls the "new normal" as routines resumes: "Life lumbers forward. Your new normal has arrived. The one you didn't order. And we're still here for you. We're busy; it's true. But we still think of you. . . . Even if we don't call as often, or send that perfectly timed text, or knock on your door with hot cookies and warm hugs. We know your heart still aches. And we're still here. . . . If the quiet is unbearably loud, send a text. If the tears are knocking again, and it seems impossible to survive another day, please reach out. Any hour. Any time. Any place.
Newspaper reporter Hope Jensen uncovers the secret behind the -Christmas Jars,- glass jars filled with coins and bills anonymously given to people in need.
Book Excerpt, "The Organ Donor" !Move over Hannibal Lecter, the Organ Donor is here! The Organ Donor introduces readers to a remarkable first time author, who creates a one-of-a-kind serial killer and weaves a story so filled with unexpected twists and turns that readers are left a constant state of suspense. There are no clues, initially no bodies, and a frustrated police department with no experience dealing with a case like this one. The story begins in Scotland, as the police search for an elusive serial killer who begins sending human organs, with cryptic notes attached, to the Glasgow Metropolitan Police Department. It opens when an unidentified package lands on the desk of Detective Patrick Campbell. At first, he fears that the package might contain an IRA bomb and he calls in the bomb squad. However, he is shocked to find something even more horrific. Tucked inside a Ziploc bag, with a note hanging from it, is a set of human eyes, floating in a sea of formaldehyde. More organs begin arriving, and we feel their frustration as the detective and his task force continue to fail in their efforts to identify the victims or find the killer (now named the Organ Donor) who continues to escalate his reign of death by committing a series of murders with the bagged organs now being found near the victim's bodies. Even though the officers now know the identities of the most recent victims, they are stymied by an ingenious killer, who seems able to anticipate their every move, leaves no clues, and mocks and frustrates them. As each set of murders grows more grisly, and time goes on, they are unable to apprehend him. The suspect grows tired of searching the streets for victims and playing with the police, and decides it's time for him to go international. Next stop New York City. And he begins to wonder if he can find more excitement in New York City. At this point, the killer reveals his identity and readers join him as he commits another series of murders, following the exact same MO and producing the exact same results. As the Organ Donor reminisces about his early life we gain insight into how, over time, he began to evolve into a sadistic serial killer. With a genius IQ, he is able to play what he calls "games" with his victims, and later, with the investigators hunting him so diligently, no one is safe, even when the police, themselves, are targets. Only we know his identity, are witness to his crimes, and are aware of the machinations of his brilliant but evil mindset. The New York police are stymied, until, simply by accident and a nudge from the suspect; they discover that the Organ Donor is the same man that terrorized Scotland months before. When that connection is made, they invite the Scottish police to join them, and a task force is set up between the remaining detectives from Glasgow and the detectives in New York. Perhaps, by working together, they will be able to stop this madness. But, no, the killer continues to goad them, murder their citizens and outwit them at every turn (his twisted sense of humor intact throughout). As we move on in the story, readers find that even a sadistic genius killer can find lovethe last thing he expected to happen. In another of many plot twists, a woman, whom he had planned to torture and murder, is lured to the killer's house. She works as a high priced escort and believes that he is just another client. However, when a strange connection to one another brings them closer together, he begins to wonder if it is possible, even for him, to lead a more normal life. However, as the murders continue, a series of clues are left behind, with a nudge from the suspect, for the detectives to try and figure out. Might the information finally tell the investigators the one responsible for these horrendous acts of mayhem? However, even when the joint task is finally able to discover his ident
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