National Parks - 'America's Best Idea' - were from the first seen as sacred sites embodying the God-given specialness of American people and American land, and from the first they were also marked as tourist attractions. The inherent tensions between these two realities ensured the parks would be stages where the country's conflicting values would be performed and contested. As pilgrimage sites embody the values and beliefs of those who are drawn to them, so Americans could travel to these sacred places to honor, experience, and be restored by the powers that had created the American land and the American enterprise. This book explores the importance of the discourse of nature in American culture, arguing that the attributes and symbolic power that had first been associated with the 'new world' and then the 'frontier' were embodied in the National Parks. Author Ross-Bryant focuses on National Parks as pilgrimage sites around which a discourse of nature developed and argues the centrality of religion in understanding the dynamics of both the language and the ritual manifestations related to National Parks. Beyond the specific contribution to a richer analysis of the National Parks and their role in understanding nature and religion in the U.S., this volume contributes to the emerging field of 'religion and the environment,' larger issues in the study of religion (e.g. cultural events and the spatial element in meaning-making), and the study of non-institutional religion.

From Arra Lynn Ross, a tender, generous, and generative extended poem centered on the experience of parenthood. "What is learned? I'll return for my son; / at school, at three thirty-eight, bells will ring & run / days over years." Using unpredictable syllabics, rhyme, and syntax, Day of the Child captures the sensation of altered time that accompanies a child's growth. Seasons come and go. A schoolboy becomes a dreaming infant becomes a five-year-old exploring metaphor for the first time becomes an ultrasound image, "a frieze on screen." A mother cycles through her own often dissonant identities: "soother, watcher, blame-taker." And both mother and child assume another, significant role: artistic collaborators. For Day of the Child is a poem co-created by child and mother, offering a space in which each's stories, thoughts, words-"unbound / by Time & time's delineations"-tangle together. In which apartness-"Oh indivisible divisible," the presence of another heart beating inside the mother's own body-is continually negotiated. And in which the mother considers her place as intermediary between the child and the world: her protection, her complicity, her joy. Its octave pairs ebb and flow, expand and contract, producing a portrait of raising another human as refracted as it is circular, just as a river "breaks into many suns, the sun." For, as the child asserts, "love is a circl[e] round / as a Ball." Challenging the notion that parenthood is not itself a poetic endeavor, Day of the Child makes of childrearing "a refrain I reframed each day with new words."

National Parks America s Best Idea were from the first seen as sacred sites embodying the God-given specialness of American people and American land, and from the first they were also marked as tourist attractions. The inherent tensions between these two realities ensured the parks would be stages where the country s conflicting values would be performed and contested. As pilgrimage sites embody the values and beliefs of those who are drawn to them, so Americans could travel to these sacred places to honor, experience, and be restored by the powers that had created the American land and the American enterprise.

This book explores the importance of the discourse of nature in American culture, arguing that the attributes and symbolic power that had first been associated with the new world and then the frontier were embodied in the National Parks. Author Ross-Bryant focuses on National Parks as pilgrimage sites around which a discourse of nature developed and argues the centrality of religion in understanding the dynamics of both the language and the ritual manifestations related to National Parks. Beyond the specific contribution to a richer analysis of the National Parks and their role in understanding nature and religion in the U.S., this volume contributes to the emerging field of religion and the environment, larger issues in the study of religion (e.g. cultural events and the spatial element in meaning-making), and the study of non-institutional religion.

Seamlessly bridging the material and spiritual worlds, Seedlip and Sweet Apple takes the reader into the mind of a true visionary: Mother Ann Lee, the founder of the Shaker religion in colonial America. With astonishingly original poems inspired by extensive historical research, Arra Lynn Ross creates a collection linked thematically through the voice and story of the woman who was believed by her followers to be Christ incarnate. Broadly and inclusively spiritual, this remarkable debut captures the ineffable experience of ecstatic vision, activating the progression from literal reality to heightened perception. Simultaneously, this journey delves into the manifold issues of gender and religion, public image, and charismatic leadership, as well as the line between cult and commune and the tenuous bond between faith and behavior. Written in an impressive cornucopia of forms -- including iambic quatrains, free verse, and prose poems -- Seedlip and Sweet Apple honors a complex figure startlingly relevant to contemporary life, pointing to a revolutionary way to work at living -- and to live in working -- that promises simplicity, peace, and joy.

Funny Mummy unplugs Jenny, a perfect wifey-mom as her twins take off for college, and her husband Ritchie runs off with a bimbo. Jenny dons a new identity, romps out of suburbia, masquerading as a security guard at her kid's campus. All hell breaks loose- she emancipates, regurgitates, as her bizarre new world collides with mid-life folly.

Peace Smarts curriculum answer to bullying. A transformational process 4 youth and teens, grades 5-12 - Inspires a peace culture internally (self) and in the classroom, at home, and community. Anti-bullying tools, conflict resolution skills, stress relief for peer pressure, co-operative learning skills, unity in community projects. 175 pages filled with 100 reproducible tools, for students, teachers, parents, counselors, to enhance across curriculum and after school programs. Quantum problem solving techniques and proactive solution finding for issues of concern...build character, self-acceptance, inclusion of difference - helping all students to thrive.

"The Bully Solution" is a Peace Smart technique creating a culture of peace in the classroom, at home, and in the community. Parents and teens learn communication and conflict resolution skills. Youth learn to be PeaceMakers... for the 21st Century.

Morph America curriculum - An award-winning transformational problem solving/solution finding process 4 grades 5-12. Honored by President Clinton. Bring critical thinking skills and creative projects into the classroom. Students deal with critical issues they are passionate about. From personal issues... peer pressure, bullying to global concerns, like ecological sustainability.

Review Hollywood Mag 5 stars -Must Read "A spiritual odyssey filled with intrigue, originality, and surprise. Sharing the outrageous pitfalls of two best friends, brings the imagination full circle. You'll laugh and cry out loud." Nartikki - Soul Dancer is a hilarious and heart warming romp as a "Baby Girl' quests to find life's meaning in a world of chaos. Following the misadventures of Merrie Lynn and her best friend Erica... from Hollywood's tinsel-town into the warring hills of a Thai Refugee camp, to a soul-searching trek in India. Steamy and sundry encounters in Bangkok's underworld stretch inner and outer psyche limits. Pulled apart, they're catapulted into spine-chilling, star-crossed destinies.

Merrie Lynn Ross, daytime's first comedienne on "General Hospital" giggled her way into 30 million viewers hearts. HAHA Healers Series first edition showcases 'Life As Improv'" a fun spirited, quantum energy method. Merrie Lynn's mastery of comedy and spiritual wisdom catapult readers to dissolve hurts and erroneous beliefs into optimum living. Filled with recipes, techniques, the heartfelt stories, we are entertained in the process of discovering life purpose and passion. Humor & Giggles Heal.

A transformative and enlightening roadmap for how to live a happy, harmonious life. Filled with practical techniques to handle grief, stress, financial woes to parenting. Merrie Lynn Ross comedy flair, informs how to live life as improv' from the inside out.