Augsburg Fortress

Inkwell: Simple Writing Practices to Restore Your Soul

Tired. Uninspired. Emotionally exhausted. Overwhelmed. Burned out. In a world where the pace seems to get faster and the problems seem intractable, more and more people feel they just can't go on as they have been doing. The truth is, we're much better at caring for our bodies than caring for our spirits. In Inkwell, writing instructor and professor Anne Whitney shows how writing can be a powerful tool for your spiritual self-care.

9781506464794

Messy Minimalism: Realistic Strategies for the Rest of Us

Drowning in clutter and a crazy schedule, Rachelle Crawford assumed you had to be naturally organized to be tidy. Then she found messy minimalism, which is less about perfection and more about purpose. With empathy and humor, Crawford lays out strategies for curbing consumption, decluttering, and finding lots more joy. Becoming a messy minimalist is not about pristine countertops. It's simply about carrying fewer things so that we find ourselves holding only what truly matters.

9781506466866

Be the Brave One: Living Your Spiritual Values Out Loud and Other Life Lessons

The Rev. Ann Kansfield left Wall Street and found her calling as the first female and openly gay chaplain at the New York Fire Department. Guiding her life are the values that anchor her. Weaving real-life stories with wit and practical faith, Kansfield challenges readers to discover and live out their own spiritual values.

9781506463735

Brave Talk: Building Resilient Relationships in the Face of Conflict

When we disagree about fundamental issues, it can be difficult to maintain close relationships. In Brave Talk, communications expert Melody Stanford Martin teaches us to treat every conflict as if it's an impasse. By learning to temporarily suspend our desire to resolve differences, we make space for deeper understanding and stronger ties. Brave Talk blends humor, creativity, and interactive learning to help everyday people develop better skills for navigating conflict.

9781506462448

Chronically Fabulous: Finding Wholeness and Hope Living with Chronic Illness

In Chronically Fabulous, Marisa Zeppieri, the founder of LupusChick, provides helpful principles, personal stories, and occasional recipes that support whole-life thriving with the depth, smarts, and helpful spiritual advice that her dedicated blog readers have come to expect. For anyone looking for hope and resources when your body's immune system is compromised, this is the perfect start to a chronically fabulous you.

9781506464114

All Who Are Weary: Easing the Burden on the Walk with Mental Illness

We live in an age uniquely attentive to the problem of mental illness. More than half of us will be diagnosed with a mental illness or disorder at some point in our lifetime. All Who Are Weary is not a map to a cure, nor a perfectly restorative prayer. Rather, Emmy Kegler joins the reader on the long walk of reflection, understanding, and compassion, trusting in the promise of a lighter load for us all.

9781506467801

Dear Doctor: What Doctors Don't Ask, What Patients Need to Say

In the form of an open letter from patients to their doctors, spiritual writer and professor of medical humanities Marilyn McEntyre brings to light the hidden fears, desperate needs, deepest hopes, and heartfelt truths that many feel doctors overlook in their approach to health care. Ultimately, Dear Doctor is an important first step to begin a dialogue between two communities that often have a very large disconnect.

9781506460475

The Great Belonging: How Loneliness Leads Us to Each Other

Loneliness has reached epidemic proportions, according to many sources. In an age of mobility and fraying civic life, we are all susceptible to its power. In The Great Belonging, writer and spiritual director Charlotte Donlon reframes loneliness and offers us a language for the disquiet within. Ultimately, Donlon claims, we can find connection that emerges from honesty, and she offers tools, resources, and practices for transforming loneliness into true belonging.

9781506461960

The Sacred Pulse: Holy Rhythms for Overwhelmed Souls

Contemporary life is leaving us frazzled, overwhelmed, and out of sorts.

In The Sacred Pulse, pastor and author April Fiet invites us to examine the frantic patterns of perfection and production and to reclaim the deeper, sacred pulses that pattern our days. Through stories, scripture, and practical guidance for daily living, she lays out twelve practices that are both sustainable and sustaining so we can tap into the joyful, holy rhythms of life.

9781506469089

Our Last Best Act: Planning for the End of Our Lives to Protect the People and Places We Love

How do we align our end-of-life choices with our values?

In a world experiencing a climate crisis and a culture that avoids discussions about death and dying, environmentalist and educator Mallory McDuff takes readers on a journey to discover new, sustainable practices around death and dying--and how it's possible to make end-of-life choices that honor our values, create a sustainable legacy, and help to heal the earth.

9781506464466

The Lightmaker's Manifesto: How to Work for Change without Losing Your Joy

Many of us want to advocate for causes we care about--but which ones? We want to work for change--but will the emotional toll lead to burn out? In The Lightmaker's Manifesto, activist Karen Walrond shares strategies to help you define the actions that bring you joy, identify the values and causes about which you are passionate, and put them together to create change. Includes conversations with changemakers Valarie Kaur, Brené Brown, Tarana Burke, and Zuri Adele.

9781506469942

Reclaiming Rest: The Promise of Sabbath, Solitude, and Stillness in a Restless World

What does pressing pause look like? In Reclaiming Rest, Kate H. Rademacher explores the gifts of solitude, stillness, and Sabbath rest in a world of motion and noise. Ultimately, Rademacher claims, pausing for sacred rest pierces our illusions of self-reliance and control--and that's good news. What if keeping the Sabbath is not only a command to obey but a gift to reclaim?

9781506465999

You Can Talk To God Like That: The Surprising Power of Lament to Save Your Faith

In You Can Talk to God Like That, pastor Abby Norman shows us that we can talk honestly to God, despite what we may have been told. You'll be encouraged to express your anger and pain to God and feel relief that you can be honest even when things are not okay. Learn to reclaim this ancient practice of lament and refresh your relationship with a God who has always wanted your whole self.

9781506469065

12 Tiny Things: Simple Ways to Live a More Intentional Life

In a culture that says bigger is better, it is subversive work to take tiny, lasting steps toward learning and growth. In 12 Tiny Things Ellie Roscher and Heidi Barr journey with us through twelve essential areas of life--space, work, spirituality, food, style, nature, communication, home, sensuality, creativity, learning, and community--inviting us to take one tiny action at a time to open up growth and renewal.

9781506465043

Sacred Balance: Aligning Body and Spirit through Yoga and the Benedictine Way

In Sacred Balance, certified yoga instructor and spirituality blogger Melinda Emily Thomas helps you align body and spirit through two timeless traditions: yoga and the Benedictine Way. Studded with illustrations of basic yoga poses and ideas for wellness, prayers, and meditations, Sacred Balance offers an abundance of wisdom for daily life that guides us toward peace and wholeness.

9781506463537

The Defiant Middle: How Women Claim Life's In-Betweens to Remake the World

Women who don't fit in amid cultural expectations, because of life transitions or changes in their body, mind, or gender identity, are carving out new ways of being in and remaking the world. Drawing on the wisdom of women mystics, this book explores how transitional eras can be both spiritually challenging and excitingly freeing. Ultimately, we see how these in-between times lead us to reinvented ways of seeing ourselves and changing the world.

9781506467689

You Should Leave Now: Going on Retreat to Find Your Way Back to Yourself

Sometimes you have to leave, in order to come back to yourself. It is time to go on retreat.

Written as if by a wise and cherished friend, You Should Leave Now is a gentle, practical guide to drawing rich benefits--mental, emotional, and spiritual--from a personal retreat. Brie Doyle helps us discover the ideal focus, setting, and approach to rest, restoration, and transformative retreating.

9781506466958

Dear Daughter of a Narcissistic Mother: 100 Letters for Your Healing and Thriving

Danu Morrigan, author of the bestselling You're Not Crazy--It's Your Mother, returns with a book of encouraging letters written for fellow daughters of narcissistic mothers to offer friendship and a steadfast path to healing.

9781506462134

To Daughters of Narcissistic Mothers: Notes for Self-Care and Self-Love

There's so much that many daughters have never heard from their mothers: advice, support, compliments, validation, encouragement. Simple but life-healing, each entry in To Daughters of Narcissistic Mothers offers daughters of those with this destructive personality disorder the loving, supportive words they have longed to hear.

9781506462141

Make a Move: How to Stop Wavering and Make Decisions in a Disorienting World

Facing big decisions can lead to frustration, anxiety, and confusion. "It would be so much easier if life just came with a road map!" But life doesn't work like that--it's full of twists and turns, the unexpected and the unforeseen.

In Make a Move, Stephanie Williams O'Brien offers practical steps for moving through the experiments of life, so that we can narrow down the choices and discern God's leadership.

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