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Showing posts with label soul. Show all posts
Showing posts with label soul. Show all posts
Friday, May 30, 2014
"How to Regain Your Soul" / "Heaven" Poems
Monday, January 6, 2014
Joyce's Epiphany "The Dead" from Dubliners WOW!!. Beautiful
From The Writer's Almanac with Garrison Keillor, for Monday Jan. 6, 2014:
Joyce's Dubliners ends with a story set at a party for the Feast of the Epiphany, "The Dead," and that story ends: "His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead."
Joyce's Dubliners ends with a story set at a party for the Feast of the Epiphany, "The Dead," and that story ends: "His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead."
Wednesday, November 27, 2013
First Phone Call From Heaven by Mitch Albom; What If The End Is Not The End?
What if the end is not the end?
The First Phone Call from Heaven
by Mitch Albom (Goodreads Author)
The First Phone Call from Heaven tells the story of a small town on Lake Michigan that gets worldwide attention when its citizens start receiving phone calls from the afterlife. Is it the greatest miracle ever or a massive hoax? Sully Harding, a grief-stricken single father, is determined to find out. An allegory about the power of belief--and a page-turner that will touch your soul--Albom's masterful storytelling has never been so moving and unexpected.
Readers of The Five People You Meet in Heaven will recognize the warmth and emotion so redolent of Albom's writing, and those who haven't yet enjoyed the power of his storytelling, will thrill at the discovery of one of the best-loved writers of our time.(less)
Readers of The Five People You Meet in Heaven will recognize the warmth and emotion so redolent of Albom's writing, and those who haven't yet enjoyed the power of his storytelling, will thrill at the discovery of one of the best-loved writers of our time.(less)
Hardcover, 323 pages
Published November 12th 2013 by Harper
mitchalbom.com
Grace Prosniewski
Daily Arts WriterNovember 22nd, 2013
Printed from www.michigandaily.com on Wed, 27 Nov 2013 15:31:13 -0500
'First Phone Call from Heaven' balances science, belief with finesse
Grace Prosniewski
Daily Arts WriterNovember 22nd, 2013
Mitch Albom made the jump from sports columnist to best-selling author through works like “Tuesdays with Morrie,” “The Five People You Meet in Heaven” and “The Time Keeper.” His newest novel, “The First Phone Call from Heaven,” continues in the same vein of its predecessors, examining the complex issues of grief, belief and hope with the warmth and heart we’ve come to expect from Albom.
The novel revolves around the various residents of the small northern Michigan town of Coldwater (not to be confused with the real town of Coldwater, located in Branch County). It’s a typical, quiet small town.
That is, until residents begin receiving phone calls from what sounds like deceased loved ones. No one’s quite sure whether to think these calls are a miracle or a hoax. Before long, the outside world finds out about the phenomenon, and masses of people — believers and skeptics alike — flock to Coldwater.
Much of the story is told from the perspective of disgraced ex-pilot Sully Harding. At the beginning of the story, Sully has just been released from prison, serving a 10-month sentence related to the plane crash he was in the night his wife ended up in a coma and eventually died. Returning to his hometown of Coldwater, a grieving Sully finds himself surrounded by messages of heaven and the afterlife. When Sully finds out his young son is carrying around a toy phone in hopes that his mother will call him from heaven, he devotes himself entirely to disproving the calls.
The skeptical Sully serves as a nice foil to the enthusiasm of the rest of the town and keeps the story from straying too far from reality. This is Albom’s first work that plays out as a real “whodunit” mystery, using Sully as lead investigator and representative of the reader. In general, Albom succeeds in this foray.
Interspersed throughout the narrative are bits and pieces of information about the life of Alexander Graham Bell and the 1876 invention of the telephone. You might think these interludes would disrupt the flow of the story, but Albom smoothly handles the transitions, working them to his advantage in furthering the plot. Plus, you learn a lot of really interesting facts about Bell. For instance, his wife Mabel Hubbard was completely deaf due to a near fatal bout of scarlet fever. Crazy!
The book’s a bit longer than Albom’s other novels. It’s not an arduous read, though, as it relies heavily on dialogue and uses short, to-the-point descriptions.
There’s a reason Albom’s works stay on best-seller lists for weeks on end; he’s an engaging writer. There are no frills or long, flowery intervals (impressive since most of his works have a theological slant). There’s a spark in the simplicity of his writing that keeps his work dynamic. The longer length of “The First Phone Call from Heaven” allows for some nice character development, shown primarily through the evolving relationships of the townspeople. There’s also a good critique of extremism on both sides of the religion-versus-science debate, as the two camps consume the small town in conflict.
The only problematic aspect of the story is its supposedly ambiguous ending. A novel dealing with the concepts of heaven and belief almost needs to end in uncertainty; of course no one knows what happens after death. While Albom tries to play up this ambiguity, culminating in a singular event, I found the incident too easily explained away by previous events in the novel. It’s not quite the spinning top at the end of “Inception.”
If you’ve enjoyed his previous works, chances are you’re going to like “The First Phone Call from Heaven.” If, however, you don’t count yourself an Albom fan, this will not be the one to change your mind.
Printed from www.michigandaily.com on Wed, 27 Nov 2013 15:31:13 -0500
Saturday, November 23, 2013
"HYMN"-Beautiful Ode to Mary, Mother of God by Edgar Allan Poe
Hymn
At morn—at noon—at twilight dim—
Maria! thou hast heard my hymn! In joy and wo—in good and ill— Mother of God, be with me still! When the Hours flew brightly by, And not a cloud obscured the sky, My soul, lest it should truant be, Thy grace did guide to thine and thee; Now, when storms of Fate o'ercast Darkly my Present and my Past, Let my Future radiant shine "With sweet hopes of thee and thine! |
Monday, November 4, 2013
[i carry your heart with me(i carry it in] e.e. cummings poem-Beautiful!!
Poem of the Day: [i carry your heart with me(i carry it in]BY E. E. CUMMINGS
i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you
here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart
i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)
"[i carry your heart with me(i carry it in]" Copyright 1952, © 1980, 1991 by the Trustees for the E. E. Cummings Trust, from Complete Poems: 1904-1962 by E. E. Cummings, edited by George J. Firmage. Used by permission of Liveright Publishing Corporation.
Source: Complete Poems: 1904-1962 (Liveright Publishing Corporation, 1991) |
Sunday, November 3, 2013
"The Soul" & "Speak To Us" /Poems by Katie Ford
The Soul
It disappeared.
It reappeared
as chimney smoke
that burnt through carcasses
of swallows stilled,
and that it portrayed no will
was why I followed that smoke
with this pair of eyes.
It was that it didn’t need
or require my belief
that I leant upon it
as a tired worker
upon
a gate.
Source: Poetry (November 2012).
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11 / 2 / 2013 |
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Poem of the Day: Speak to UsBY KATIE FORD
For all of my years, I've read only living signs—
bodies in jealousy, bodies in battle,
bodies growing disease like mushroom coral.
It is tiresome, tiresome, describing
fir cones waiting for fires to catch their human ribs
into some slow, future forest.
My beloved, he tires of me, and he should—
my complaints the same, his recourse
the same, invoking the broad, cool sheet suffering drapes
over the living freeze of heart after heart,
and never by that heart's fault—the heart did not make itself,
the face did not fashion its jutting jawbone
to wail across the plains or beg the bare city.
I will no longer tally the broken, ospreyed oceans,
the figs that outlived summer
or the tedious mineral angles and
their suction of light.
Have you died? Then speak.
You must see the living
are too small as they are,
lonesome for more
and in varieties of pain
only you can bring into right view.
Source: Poetry (November 2012).
 KATIE FORD |
Thursday, October 31, 2013
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Where Do Our Loved Ones Go After Death? Would You Like To Connect With The Dead?
Kevin Riordan: Reaching into the spirit world for the holidays
A holiday spiritual event was held at the Gibson House Community Center in Marlton, NJ Medium Lisa Miliaresis relays messages she was receiving from deceased individuals for members of the audience. ( Charles Fox / Staff Photographer
A holiday spiritual event was held at the Gibson House Community Center in Marlton, NJ Medium Lisa Miliaresis relays messages she was receiving from deceased individuals for members of the audience. ( Charles Fox / Staff Photographer
Kevin Riordan, Inquirer Columnist
Lisa Miliaresis feels a special sort of holiday spirit.
After death, "our loved ones are still here," the Mount Laurel psychic, 53, declares. "I speak [their] language. I view myself as an interpreter."
I meet Miliaresis, a grandmother who works full-time as a benefits administrator, at an annual event called Spiritual Continuum for the Holidays. Her friends Janice Gilpin, a Reiki practitioner who lives in Medford, and Kimberly Friedman, a meditation instructor from Marlton, are the event's cohosts.
I'm not sure what to expect, but the women radiate a cheery calm I soon find myself sharing. I'm skeptical about transmissions from beyond the grave, but meditation certainly has changed my life. And the Christmas tree in the corner and the home-baked cookies on the table at Evesham Township's Gibson House Community Center make for a festive atmosphere.
"People are stressed out, and this is an opportunity to sit back and relax," Miliaresis says, explaining the rationale for a holiday gathering that involves candy canes, good cheer, and contact with the dead.
From the News Desk
"It's about remembering how connected we really are. We're soul-connected," Friedman says. "It's about setting an intention for the highest good, creating a sense of oneness . . . and sharing that during this time of year."
Sunday's session also raised more than $1,700 for a Goodwill Industries of Southern New Jersey and Philadelphia client and employee.
"This is the third year Lisa's group has done this for us," says Kathy Morris, human resources director at Goodwill's offices in Maple Shade. She's well aware that some people regard believing in psychics as akin to believing in Santa Claus, but notes that the Continuum for the Holidays offers more conventional feel-good activities.
Miliaresis and her colleagues "are a wonderful group," Morris says. "The first year they [raised money for] a single father with two children, last year a single mom with five, and this year a single mom from Burlington County."
At Gibson House, 70 women middle-aged and younger, and about a dozen mostly older men, share 90 minutes of guided meditation, Reiki ("vibrational energy work," in Gilpin's words). and "channeling," which is Miliaresis' speciality.
Admission is free, as are the refreshments, but a donation box quickly fills with bills. Many in the room are clients of one or more of the event's three organizers. Others are instructors, practitioners, therapists, trainers, coaches, or students of disciplines including yoga, fitness training, and weight loss, as well as more esoteric fields such as "body reactivation" and "past-life regression."
"We are all children of God," Miliaresis says, earnestly requesting that the dead deliver "messages of the highest good. May they come through love."
Then her manner of speaking changes abruptly. It becomes rushed, urgent.
"An initial 'F' comes through. It does sound like an Italian name. I get 'father figure.' Do you understand?" she asks the group, seeking someone who will identify with the vibrations she's receiving. It's patter familiar to anyone who has seen the popular cable TV show Long Island Medium, without the accent or the drama.
Miliaresis explains to those assembled that she is hearing the shouts of people who have "transitioned" to the other side, and describes the information "coming through."
"They want you to know they are fine, and in a good place and have healed."
The whole thing might have been easy to caricature - Christmas cards from heaven, or some such - were it not for the seriousness of the three leaders and the sadness among some in the audience.
Not for nothing did Friedman circulate among the rows of chairs with a box of tissues.
Several people tearfully seek messages from departed loved ones. One couple has lost a 25-year-old son to drugs, and a young woman in the front row says she hopes for a word from a friend who died just that morning.
To all, Miliaresis offers reassurance. And to those facing the holidays without a loved one they wish they could speak to again, comfort. Perhaps a bit of joy.
Kevin Riordan:
Raising money and holiday spirits in Marlton: www.philly.com/spirits
Contact Kevin Riordan at 856-779-3845 or kriordan@phillynews.com, or follow on Twitter @inqkriordan. Read the Metro columnists' blog, "Blinq," atwww.phillynews.com/blinq.
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