"It s hard to have a God complex when your kids expect you to play garbage truck every night. This is the game where I lie on the floor as the boys stuff trucks, action figures, and plastic dinosaurs into my shirt. When the garbage truck is full to the point of overflowing, I go to the town dump by standing up. This is repeated ad nauseum. On any given day, I might find myself absolving sins in the name of the Church one moment and serving the cause of waste management the next."

Do you believe God can be found in both the miraculous and the mundane? Through 40 insightful and engaging essays, Tim Schenck helps us encounter God through the chaos of everyday life. The divine presence weaves its way into a family room fish tank, a child s probing questions, the town pool, and the drive-thru window of the local fast food chain.

Barbara Cawthorne Crafton is among the first women ordained to the Episcopal priesthood, in which capacity she has ministered in both the richest and poorest sections of New York City. She is also a sensitive writer who addresses the human condition with plainspoken eloquence and bracing moral common sense. Cynthia Ozick writes, "The Reverend Crafton's purity of insight and pellucid voice suggest transparencies - one sees straight through them into the unshielded light of the plainest human truths. A shelf is dusted, a grandmother's sewing machine is recalled, mothers and fathers are praised and appraised, a lost child is mourned - and the weave of our lives is movingly unwound, ribbon by ribbon, until our hands are filled with rosiness and rue. Upon small moments large mercies are shed. Barbara Crafton's essays are everyone's heirlooms". These rich, moving essays will be read again and again.

365 days of meditations based on passages from the Psalms. "I hope that the ancient texts upon which these reflections are based will come alive for you in a new way," writes Barbara Crafton in Meditations on the Book of Psalms. The Psalms, written by ordinary people, are filled with all the same emotions and issues that challenge, comfort, and confound us today. Their complaints, joys, celebrations, envy, doubting, fear, and hope are ours as well. In this book of meditations for each day of the year, best-selling author Barbara Crafton combines reflection on these ancient texts with contemporary stories to help us explore the spiritual nature of our lives.

From the desire to start anew in January, to time management and remembering to lighten up in December, Crafton's meditations are the perfect daily companion for anyone who finds nourishment in biblically based devotional reading.

Memory loss should not be spiritual loss. "What do I do to help?" Alzheimer's is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States, almost everyone knows someone with some form of dementia, yet few know how to answer that question, and very little material exists on providing spiritual care to adults with dementia-related diseases. Even seminaries rarely provide training or clinical pastoral education in this field. This book is an answer. It provides a hands-on manual that will give clergy, spiritual care providers, and family members an understanding of the ongoing spiritual needs of individuals with dementia, as well as practical tools such as how to create a religious service in a memory care unit and how one might plan a nursing home visit. Accessibly written, with real life applications and sample services for a variety of settings. More than just useful, the book inspires with shared stories that are tender, sad, funny-and sometimes all three at once, encouraging readers to develop spiritual care ministries for people with memory loss in congregations, homes, nursing facilities, or other communities-a ministry that will only gain in importance in the coming decade, as Baby Boomers age and the number of people with Alzheimer's and dementia skyrockets.

Everybody figures it out sooner or later: Even in a Botox world that promises eternal youth, some things-from aches and pains to wrinkles, from menopause to the empty nest-you just have to live with. But despite the challenges, those who are reaching middle age-yesterday's Baby Boomers-might not want to turn back the clock. Instead, as their bodies change and their priorities shift, they're looking to cull wisdom from their experience and find spiritual meaning in their re-examined lives. In Some Things You Just Have to Live With, author Barbara Cawthorne Crafton explores the "spilled milk" of our lives, the physical changes our bodies endure, and the new and energizing purpose we can discover by plunging into the middle of life in a deeper-and sometimes mystifying-relationship with God. A wonderful storyteller, Crafton writes with humor and pathos rather than a heavy hand, allowing readers to see themselves and their own lives in the unfolding pages. Some Things You Just Have to Live With is a source of inspiration-and smiles-to those navigating the turbulent waters of the middle of life.

A best-selling Morehouse author for decades Addresses one of today s most pressing topics Here is Barbara Crafton at her best funny, warm, direct, honest, and vulnerable on aging. I think growing older is both funny and sad, but mostly it just makes me grateful to be alive and able to reflect. I have been an Episcopal priest for 33 years and have had extensive experience in ministering with the elderly. Now, I am growing old myself. I hate it when people are ashamed of being old. We should be proud she proclaims. Join her in this celebration of life "

Koheleth's powerful guidebook for living without certainty and security in a world of constant change can become a companion for your own spiritual journey. Twenty-three hundred years ago, an unnamed Hebrew sage known only as Koheleth, the Assembler of Wisdom, rocked the ancient Jewish world with a critique of society that shattered conventional notions of God, piety, politics and power. Koheleth lived in a world of change and challenge not unlike our own. His teachings, known as the Book of Ecclesiastes, sought to empower people not unlike ourselves, which is why this book of the Hebrew Bible still speaks to us—people of all faiths—today. In this contemporary and accurate translation, Rami Shapiro presents the Book of Ecclesiastes as neither revelation nor prophecy but as a rational and inspirational guide to living well in the midst of uncertainty. Beginning with its opening broadside, "Havel havalim!"—not "futility" or "vanity" as most translations would have it, but “breath,” “vapor” and “impermanence”—Shapiro opens up Koheleth's approach to living in a world where nothing lasts and justice is illusory; a world devoted to accumulating power, wealth, pleasure and even knowledge that leaves you drowning in anxiety and needless suffering. He shows how Koheleth's God demands neither sacrifice nor adherence to commandments, offering instead a practical lifestyle rooted in moderation, meaningful work and friendship. Now you can experience the Book of Ecclesiastes and understand Koheleth’s teachings with no previous knowledge of the Hebrew Bible. This SkyLight Illuminations edition presents insightful commentary that restores this ancient text to its timeless place as a guide to living sanely in an often insane world.

Almost every woman knows the press of busy days - days when we can't keep track of what we've done (or haven't done), much less find five minutes to rest. These daily meditations from best-selling author Barbara Crafton - wife, grandmother, priest, retreat leader, and spiritual director - will help women restore the balance and bring perspective into their daily lives. Crafton explores the things women know well: bags under the eyes, people who monopolize meetings, office politics, middle-age pride, kids leaving home, faith, love, destiny, the impossible images women's magazines perpetuate, friendship, and many more. Here she becomes the wise and funny friend every woman needs every day.

Join popular speaker and author Barbara Crafton as she explores forgiveness in the newest Embracing study. Like other programs, it features two components, purchased separately: (1) A DVD with five 10-15 minute presentations, followed by a video of the guest lecturer interacting with a small group as they discuss the issues, and (2) a participant workbook containing all the material needed by class participants as well as for the facilitator. 5- to 10-week study for adults and young adults Unique DVD-workbook format is like having Barbara Crafton sitting in with your small group, sharing insights and inviting you into discussion The newest installment in the successful Embracing Series. Barbara Cawthorne Crafton, begins the study Embracing Forgiveness, with clarity that eases the guilt often associated with the lack of forgiveness by saying what it isn't. It is not a job or task; it is not a conditional act to earn God's love. It is, Crafton believes, a spiritual gift given freely by a God who simply wants to connect with us. Over the course of the study, she shows how forgiveness can remove the tumor of anger from our hearts to become a means of grace that gives us back our humanity. Crafton's thoughtful insight allows participants to weigh the transforming power of forgiveness in their own lives. -Dorothy Linthicum, Instructor/Program Coordinator, Center for the Ministry of Teaching, Alexandria, VA With wisdom, wit, and theological depth Barbara Cawthorne Crafton explores the perennial topic of forgiveness from the perspective of gift rather than duty. Along the way, she exposes patterns of resistance and popular understandings that undermine our ability to receive and share the gift with others. Her informal and accessible style, together with the questions and responses of those taking part in the video recorded sessions, open the way for groups, aided by the accompanying workbook, to expand the exploration with their own insights and reflections. This study is both timely and urgently needed in a world in which judgment again and again trumps forgiveness, and Christ's work of reconciliation is held at bay. -Frank T Griswold, 25th Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church

* Popular author with devoted following * Non-threatening way to start conversations about Jesus The inimitable Barbara Crafton describes the birth of this book: "We have to learn about Jesus from somebody. Somebody has to tell us. Jesus has been told to people by other people for better than twenty centuries. There are things you only have to hear once and you've got it . . . Jesus is different. Him, we have to tell and re-tell. We mostly experience him in each other: in our ways of telling and, more importantly, in our ways of showing who he is. It is this that has prompted me to write a book about Jesus, something I never expected to do . . . But then this happened: You need to write a book about Jesus. This was not a voice I heard or anything spooky like that. It was just a thought that popped into my head one night when I woke up at about 3 A.M. . . . But this one had an air of urgency. And it refused to leave. You need to write a book about Jesus. Well, all right then."

Playing off the last chapter of her previous book, The Courage to Grow Old, well-beloved author Barbara Crafton looks at the world around us: what do we know about creation? What gift is there for us in the "also life" of stars and other organic and non-organic forms of existence? How might that shape the way we see our existence and the God who breathed that life into us? And what might life after death be like?

Based on beautiful seasonal hymns, Crafton's daily meditations on faith, prayer, forgiveness, and healing for Advent and Christmas make an excellent companion for the season. For centuries the words and poetry of our hymns have spoken deeply to us. Many people, in fact, find that what is heard in poetry and music sinks deeper into the soul than does ordinary prose. And so it is to the beautiful seasonal hymns that Barbara Cawthorne Crafton turns for inspiration for daily meditations during the great devotional seasons of the church year: Advent/Christmas, and Lent.

For centuries the words and poetry of our hymns have spoken to us of God. Many people, in fact, find that what is heard in poetry and music sinks more deeply into the soul than anything else. And so it is to the beautiful seasonal hymns that Barbara Cawthorne Crafton turns for inspiration for daily meditations during this great devotional season of the church year.

"I hope that you find yourself humming familiar tunes to yourself as you read, and that this condition persists for the rest of the day," writes Crafton. Those who have known the hymns forever as well as those who are new to these verses will find them, and Crafton s meditations on faith, prayer, forgiveness, healing and more, an excellent companion for these important seasons of the year.