Always within you is that day your spirit came to us. When rains came in from the Pacific to bless. Clouds peered over the mountains in response to the singing of medicine plants, who danced back and forth in shawls of mist.? Transformative moments in the cycle of life are a time for acknowledgment, a chance to guide a child's path in a positive and loving direction. Swirling images laden with both myth and personal meaning illustrate this unique, poetic tale of the joys and lessons of a girl's journey through birth, youth, and finally adulthood. Within these colorful pages, family and community come together in celebration of her arrival, offering praise, love, and advice to help carry her forward through the many milestones to come, and reminding her always of how deeply she is cherished. It is a reminder, too, of our abiding connections to the natural world, and the cyclical nature of life as a whole. With its rich, symbolic artwork and captivating language, For a Girl Becoming is the perfect gift to recognize a birth, graduation, or any other significant moment in a young woman's life. Not only for children, this lively and touching story speaks to that part in each of us who still stands at the door of becoming.

Cups & Scales is an inspirational picture book with text andillustration used by members of Overeaters Anonymous andothers with eating disorders, about weighing and measuring foodand emotions, plus information to contact people and groups whoweigh and measure food, including people in Compulsive OvereatersAnonymous-HOW; Cups & Scales Forum; Food Addicts Anonymous;Food Addicts: The Body Knows Online Discussion Group; Greysheeter'sAnonymous; Overeaters Anonymous HOW and 90-Day meetings; andRecovery from Food Addiction. Contacts are willing to be your phonebuddy or to sponsor you. You get access to phone meeting numbers, websites, and email addresses to contact people who weigh andmeasure.

This serious picture book with humor will delight. The artistMercedes McDonald works in true concert with the editorsto create a picture book that gently instructs. Like Aesop's Fables, the attitudes of the cups and scales strike lightning quick insights.They show the trickery we can play and the shifting thoughts thatcan lead toward or away from right action - with food and with life.Cups & Scales does for the problem eater what the popular Stools& Bottles does for the alcoholic. It looks at the attitudes. Thecups and scales are characters; the illustrations are in full color.Over the years a practice has grown up where many peopleweigh and measure their food as part of a personal plan ofrecovery from compulsive overeating, food addiction, anorexia, bulimia, emotional eating and other eating disorders. Thereare many women and men recovering who DO NOT weigh andmeasure their food. The authors take no position on weighing andmeasuring food. There are many strong feelings about it. Thisbook is neither endorsed by nor sponsored by any organization.Here you will learn about weighing and measuring food andemotions.

It is not the cups and scales or weighing and measuring thatmakes my recovery. It is my perspective toward the cups andscales and life that helps make life manageable and joyous.Cups & Scales have more to do with a spiritual program than atfirst look.

What do I bring to food and life with my attitudes -- towardquantity, big eyes, magical thinking, fear, ruts, startingsomething with hope, self-nourishment, moving forward. Myperception about an activity affects the act itself - fear, self-pity, wanting it to be more than it is, fighting it, getting tired of it, getting clarity about how it is helpful, trying a new experience.Often my actions affect my well-being for the day. When I amat peace with my food and my emotions, I can be at peace withothers. When can I be on a "dry drunk" even when using cups andscales to weigh and measure food?

What do cups and scales have to tell me?

Let's look.