Building the Bridge to a Better Life
586717
I just finished The Bridge to a Better Life and have to immediately thank Ava Miles for her insightful treatment of a sorrowful subject. Blake and Natalie Cunningham have experienced so much grief in a few years. The first trauma destroyed their marriage, even though they never stopped loving each other. Other losses serve to bring them close to reconciliation. The final ordeal tests the endurance of their renewed love. This book is a study of grief, its expression and resolution. It contains light and dark moments, laughter and tears, and love recovered. This is one of the two best books I have read this year!  "I received an eBook copy from the publisher for the purpose of an honest review. I was not compensated for this review: all conclusions are my own.
1625055
What could be more important than healing? In this day of overwhelming information overload and so much confusion regarding diet, lifestyle habits and sickness, it is more than ever, vital to go to straight to the source of wisdom. Anthony William provides this bridge for us to walk.
2530192
If you want to create a great life you need to read this book. An eye opener!
3377234
Book Review: If I Knew Then, What I know Now: Our Quest For Quality Of Life
By: Doreen L. Guma

If you're looking to improve your quality of life, be happier, healthier, and think better.  This is the self-help book for you.  Be prepared to take notes.  There are also many memorable quotes you'll want to write down on your favorite quotes list.  The author Doreen has collaborated with colleagues to share personal hardship stories with the readers that have positively impacted their life.  All in the hopes to bring hope, faith, and encouragement to live better and enjoy life.  Each story is unique, informational, inspiring, and helpful.  These various personal stories are all similar to experiences we can all relate to.  Which lets the readers know they are not alone in their trials of life and can triumph.

 "If I Knew Then, What I Know Now" truly encourages a positive shift and new awareness for the readers.  Also encourges to believe in yourself and reminds the readers that anything is possible.  May also help the readers realize self destructive behaviors.  This book can help you discover the best path for your life; destination being happiness.

There are many points in the book which are really important to take under consideration.  To spread peace, people helping people.  How pain can lead to a positive break through.  That we are the cause of our own unhappiness.  At anytime we can choose to let go of the thoughts that weigh us down and replace them with uplifting thoughts.  That we are all connected.  That improving ourselves leads to improving others.  These points are just a few of the many important points to evaluate.

Written by: Jesenia Sanabia
2379460
A bold and beautiful, eye-opening book that should be required reading for every student, not to mention every politician and world leader. The author brings together and illuminates that there is a common ground in all religions and that there are universal principles in play. He had an interesting upbringing that gave him a cornucopia of religious and spiritual influences in his formative years. It may or may not be this that gives him a really unique way of turning everything around, seeing all sides to things, such as science, and the media, as a whole piece and their place with everyone and everything. It is refreshing and inspirational that we are in a new era, and how interconnected we are as a world. The most inspiring things with this book is that, with everything unfolding globally The Rainbow Bridge guides you with a clear roadmap to inner peace, complete with stepping stones and a plan of action that is positive and attainable for everyone. What an amazing experience for anyone on this grand quest for world peace.
967310
This is an excellent quick read (90 minutes) which emphasizes the importance of building relationships for personal and professional success.  The ideas presented are clear and concise and nicely presented in a story format. "Connector's Way" clearly points out that meeting the needs of others is the best way to achieve one's personal and professional goals.
4371052
This book is very informative as to the need for the bridge, how the idea was born and the politics and construction of the bridge
3515699
An easy and compelling read.  Mr. Capparucci offers us an engaging and transforming read that can be explored individually or in small groups. He uses true and pain filled personal stories to prompt the reader to explore their own stressful life experiences. The writer then suggests tools and Scriptures for overcoming these debilitating cycles of negativity and pain which can rob us of lifes joys.  He then reminds us how easy it is to become accustomed to the routine cycles of a pain filled life which eventually lead us to abandon our pursuit of peaceful and fulfilling lives.

Rev. Dr. Tim A. Erskine
64338
Bill Thomas has contributed an immense gift of self in his life' work--improving the quality of life for elders residing in long-term care in skilled nursing centers.  Read his book: "What Are Old People For?" to gain awareness for the impact that B.Thomas' philosophy and methodology, expressed first in the Eden Alternative and then in the Green House Project, has had by changing skilled nursing homes into small community homes in which the elders receive loving care and where they're able to have freedom over their daily routine. In Second Wind B.Thomas shows how moving into elderhood can be accepted without fear. The new approach to providing specialized nursing care respects the elder's wishes in a way that brings joy and happiness for the end-times.
1907335
Ron Dotzler and his wife, Twany, got "out of their seats" to give up material blessings and security by moving from the suburbs to the inner city.  Their goal was to reach out to their neighbors where drugs, murder, shootings, and brokenness were rampant.  Many opportunities forced  their dependence on their faith and each other--with perseverance and survival becoming of utmost importance if they were to impact their neighbors relationally. This is a book that is heart rendering, relevant and full of many personal lessons that the Dotzlers learned by going "into the streets" to help make a difference in the lives of others. These personal lessons were so insightful for me as a reader to awaken my heart to the needs of those around me.
4778690
In a well-structured, concise and entertaining manner, Don Karp shows the reader what it takes remain connected to community and not be fettered or destroyed by the mental health machine. The Bumpy Road is true testament to leading a creative life off the grid and finding wellness within, on your own terms.

Mr. Karp handles what can cause many to become terrorized, oppressed and defeated with straightforward ease. He is off to his next adventure and experiencing the road that god puts before him with other people and without drama. In this way the book helps fight the stigma that is so often associated with a diagnosis.  Indeed, the reader does not sense that this is a diseased, pathological and burdened man. We see someone who remains engaged and resilient by being curious about other people and hanging in there building life skills in alternative communities.

A valuable journey that needs to be taken, the book can teach the reader how not to commit themselves to the white walls of the institution be it the mental hospital or the hypocrisy of distorted academia. I definitely walked away feeling there is more in life.

As a mental health counselor and psychiatric survivor, the book helped me realize there were more options out there than just the one that I took. Although when I was confined to the State Hospital for three months in a border state, alternative communities were available to me, I did not use Rainbow Gathering and other types of alternate communities that revealed themselves to me: Aryan gangs, IRA, Mexican Mafia etcetera. The book helped dignify that peace and healing can prevail from some of those options and demonstrate the healing that they can bring. It helped me recover from grieving for the people who took those alternate paths. Indeed most of us who seek find our wellness in ten years regardless of our path.  That is a fact that is not well enough known by illness focused, mainstream community; it is mantra that if I had believed would have eased the burden of what I went through.

The book additionally helped me understand generational issues in the survivor community. It gave me a bigger vision of what our elders went through and how they come to promote the things that they do.  It also helps me see the ways our society has changed and the way mental health is increasingly becoming a pill-popping secret that affects us all when in reality, true healing involves so much of the opposite. A reader can see how integrating alternate communities into our societies becomes so much more important, and how other societies like Mexico, contain different challenges but more integrated and healing opportunities.

In short, Mr. Karp achieves an enormous amount in just eighty-five pages, and I would highly recommend this to someone who is looking to learn something about mental health, resilience, and the direction that we need to take to heal our troubled society.
1837317
This is a very good read, introducing ideas of how we should approach life. Though he focuses on end of life and terminal illness issues, these principles can be applied to other parts of our lives. Being honest with ourselves, communicating that honesty, and acting on it can lead a more fulfilled life and death. There are good ideas for medical professionals, patients, and their families/friends. As a society, we need to act on the principles discussed. It will lead to better lives, better deaths. In reality, our current healthcare system in the USA is broken. By providing care patients actually want ( in order to improve their lives), we could save a significant amount of money and have better outcomes.
Thank you for such a thoughtful discussion.
3567667
The first thought that came to mind when I received Building a Bridge: How the Catholic Church and the LGBT Community Can Enter into a Relationship of Respect, Compassion, and Sensitivity was: OMG, the title is longer than the book! Well, not quite, but this is a very short book. As Fr. Martin acknowledges in his introduction, the first part is a slightly expanded version of a talk originally given at the time when he was asked to accept the New Ways Ministrys Bridge Building Award shortly after the shooting at the PULSE nightclub in Orlando, FL.

My second thought was, This is an admirable start; Fr. Martin is obviously a sincere and dedicated young man (since he joined the Jesuits in 1988, I have to calculate he is at least 20 years my junior), but there is still a long way for the Catholic Church to go. Indeed, I fear that the two-way bridge the author describes has gotten as far as the pilings of Respect, Compassion, and Sensitivity which he uses as the basis of his narrative, but the superstructure of sound theology and scriptural exegesis is still a bit behind schedule.

Since I believe that Ive been reflecting on some of the aspects Fr. Martin discusses since long before he even graduated from Seminary (anyone who cares about my thoughts can find them in my own memoir, Trust Truth: A Spiritual and Erotic Pilgrimage with My Gay Spouse, available from Amazon) the temptation is strong to go into a lengthy discussion of what I feel is lacking in this brief little book. To avoid that, I will simply give a couple of examples, based on the second section of the narrative, in which the author presents several Biblical Passages for Reflection and Meditation.  He states that he has selected these because they are helpful to LGBT individuals and their families or friends whom he has counseled. They are certainly well-chosen, and avoid completely the infamous "Clobber Passages".

One of these is the story of the healing of the Centurions servant, given in Matthew 8:5-13. Martin focuses on the fact that although the Centurion was a pagan (as well as being a member of the hated occupying army), Jesus did not reject his plea, and indeed praised his faith. What the author does NOT mention, however, although recent exegesis has made it very clear, is that this servant was almost certainly the gay lover of his master. This, far more than the paganism of the Roman, represents an extremely positive suggestion that God, via Jesus, does not reject same-sex relationships.

The second example, and of much more general interest than merely affirmation of the LGBT community, is the story of Jesus appearance first to Mary Magdalene on the morning of the Resurrection (John 20:1-18). In his introduction to this passage, Martin says:

By the way, notice it was not to one of the inner circle, that is the twelve men, to whom the resurrected Jesus appeared first, but to a woman. In the Gospel of John, it is Mary Magdalene, not Peter, who is first tasked with announcing the Good News. (p. 130).

As Kittredge Cherry has brilliantly elucidated in her Jesus in Love novels, The Twelve was probably not nearly so much a set group of specially ordained apostles as it was a symbolic number of the original disciples, since Numerology is in fact vital in Scripture. Unequivocally, despite the way in which the misogyny of the Official Church has displaced her over the millennia, Mary Magdalene WAS a member of the inner circle, and this specific act of Jesus making her the Apostle to the Apostles should be seen as negating the rejection of the ministry of women with which the entire Church is still burdened today.

Beyond these concerns, Fr. Martins Building a Bridge is a useful, readable book. To many who are just beginning to try to heal the vast gulf between the LGBT community and the Catholic Church, it is meaningful and laudable.
2681206
This book will lead the reader to live a better life. The author, James E. Talmage, has written a book to last for centuries.  Each article of faith is substantiated by many Bible references, and the whole book is a blueprint for living a higher law, and by so doing a person can avoid the many pitfalls of human nature.  It points the reader to a higher standard of life, and a happier life.  This writer has read the entire text twice, and has felt well repaid for the effort.
2881
This book will give you an opportunity to really see what your life path should be and how to achieve a better way of living. It is very rewarding.
4947464
I would recommend this book to all that are striving to make the world a better place and striving for personal, spiritual growth.
1704770
This inspiring and poignant book utilizes light, interesting, and very human stories to demonstrate how, with just a small bit of thought and effort, we can make the world a much, much better place.

Mr. Greenbaum's response to terror and to the tragic loss of his wife is an inspiration. As a former student of hers, I feel confident that the light that this book and the Kindness e-mails bring to the world bring her pride and joy.

--R. Lev