Saturday, December 10, 2016

Rev. Edward's New Book


Rev. Edward has a new book coming out next month.


LIVING AN EXTRAORDINARY LIFE
IS A MATTER OF MINDSET!

Discover how garden-variety acts of kindness, faith, and compassion have the power to create beautiful lives. Using stories, personal examples, tips, and exercises, Ordinary Goodness will guide readers to realize that they can create meaning and beauty in their life and the world.

Rev. Dr. Edward Viljoen is the Senior Minister at Center for Spiritual Living in Santa Rosa, California. He is the author of The Power of Meditation and co-author of Spirit is CallingPractice the Presence, and Seeing Good at Work.

Ordinary Goodness is also the book chosen to accompany the Center for Spiritual Living, Santa Rosa theme for August 2017.

Ordinary Goodness will be available at Stepping Stones Books and Gifts on January 3, 2017 for $16.

Friday, November 25, 2016

Book Review: Living Presence

A Sufi Way to Mindfulness and the Essential Self

by Kabir Edmund Helminski

“Each moment contains 
a hundred messages from God:
To every cry of ‘Oh Lord,’
He answers a hundred times, ‘I am here.’"

This sweet verse by Rumi is the teaching presented again and again in Living Presence, A Sufi Way to Mindfulness and the Essential Self by Kabir Edmund Helminski. As a translator and interpreter of Sufi literature, Helminski clearly embodies the understanding of the Divine that lives in each of us. He echoes all the great teachings, including ours of Religious Science, in the spiritual practice of turning to the invisible, transcendent source of life. But he does not suggest that we separate from our physical experience. Instead, he invites us to so practice that we may discover this sweet presence that expresses as our very bodies and around us as our world. He describes the work of growing and deepening our vibration as the light and love of life. Reading Living Presence, I felt like his very words were imbued with this light and love. It brought me  inspiration, openness and aliveness drinking in the ‘living waters’ of the Essential Self.

Review by Rev. Ruth Barnhart, a staff minister at Center for Spiritual Living, Santa Rosa.

Living Presence is available from Stepping Stones Books and Gifts.

Friday, November 11, 2016

Book Review: Through the Flames


by Allan Lokos


Reading partly like a novel, and partly like a Buddhist text, Allan Lokos’ latest book, Through the Flames, takes us on his personal journey, starting with a plane crash in Myanmar, in which he was severely burned, and through his ongoing process of healing. His describes his struggles and victories as he puts his spiritual practices to the test. His willingness to share honestly about his moment to moment challenges brings a very practical clarity to our spiritual work. Because he does not try to cover over his own difficulties, he opens the door to us having self compassion for our own stumblings. In other words, he 'keeps it real’.

As someone who has read many books and articles on Buddhism and spirituality, several by Lokos himself, I appreciated his personal demonstration of how our teachings can assist us in dealing with our own lives, in both small struggles and in the major challenges we can face. I was completely engaged throughout the book, even as I read material I thought I knew well. Lokos brought me a greater appreciation of the work in front of me, and the courage to face it compassionately.

Review by Rev. Ruth Barnhart, a staff minister at Center for Spiritual Living, Santa Rosa.

Through the Flames is available from Stepping Stones Books and Gifts.

Book Review: Through the Flames


by Allan Lokos


Reading partly like a novel, and partly like a Buddhist text, Allan Lokos’ latest book, Through the Flames, takes us on his personal journey, starting with a plane crash in Myanmar, in which he was severely burned, and through his ongoing process of healing. His describes his struggles and victories as he puts his spiritual practices to the test. His willingness to share honestly about his moment to moment challenges brings a very practical clarity to our spiritual work. Because he does not try to cover over his own difficulties, he opens the door to us having self compassion for our own stumblings. In other words, he 'keeps it real’.

As someone who has read many books and articles on Buddhism and spirituality, several by Lokos himself, I appreciated his personal demonstration of how our teachings can assist us in dealing with our own lives, in both small struggles and in the major challenges we can face. I was completely engaged throughout the book, even as I read material I thought I knew well. Lokos brought me a greater appreciation of the work in front of me, and the courage to face it compassionately.

Review by Rev. Ruth Barnhart, a staff minister at Center for Spiritual Living, Santa Rosa.

Through the Flames is available from Stepping Stones Books and Gifts.

Thursday, October 13, 2016

Book Review: Vital Signs


by Gregg Levoy


In his book, Vital Signs, The Nature and Nurture of Passion, Greg Levoy explores this most basic quality of human nature. He is not only investigating the passion of desires, but the elemental aliveness that yearns to be felt and expressed. "Passion isn’t necessarily about happiness, nor is it always a peak experience." Levoy shows how our vitality shows up in all our emotions, through the painful as well as the pleasurable times. He says it is more than exuberance, it is also aligned with our endurance, our willingness to trust, and stay with the inner callings in our hearts. 

He approaches vitality and passion from many schools of thought, and many perspectives, shared by his own and others' personal stories. This brings his book alive, the very reading of  which can stir our human  emotions. He invites us to look within to uncover our true desires and in the process to bring to light the beliefs and ways of being that may have dampened those desires. At the same time that he takes us on a journey within, he also  invites us to step more fully into our world. He provides exercises for releasing the hold of  the programs that have kept us from feeling our spirit and than presents ways to reacquaint us with our passions and rekindle our natural vitality. The book can look dauntingly long, but it is jammed packed with inspiration for life.

Review by Rev. Ruth Barnhart, a staff minister at Center for Spiritual Living, Santa Rosa.

Vital Signs is available from Stepping Stones Books and Gifts.

Saturday, September 24, 2016

Book Review: The Hope

by Andrew Harvey


In his book, The Hope, A Guide To Sacred Activism, Andrew Harvey brings his usual passion and compassion to address the many crises that face us in our world. His approach is not from how to fix our problems, but from a perspective of a spiritual call to transform, personally and as a human race. In this lies his sense of hope, a belief that we are being brought to a point of rebirth into a higher order.  He invites us to be spiritual warriors, to wake up to what is before us, not to stay or go to sleep, or to offer a spiritual bypass, believing it’s all in ‘god’s hands’. He believes it is ours to take responsibility for our world and to not only engage a higher consciousness but to find what is ours to do and contribute. He shares his own personal awakenings and that of his friend/teacher, Father Bede Griffiths, in becoming aware of the oneness/the unity of all life. The second half of his book, he walks us through practices that can support us on our own journeys of becoming more conscious and living from our greater selves. This is my second time through this book, and it is well worth the read.

Review by Rev. Ruth Barnhart, a staff minister at Center for Spiritual Living, Santa Rosa.

The Hope is available from Stepping Stones Books and Gifts.

Book Review: The Hope

by Andrew Harvey


In his book, The Hope, A Guide To Sacred Activism, Andrew Harvey brings his usual passion and compassion to address the many crises that face us in our world. His approach is not from how to fix our problems, but from a perspective of a spiritual call to transform, personally and as a human race. In this lies his sense of hope, a belief that we are being brought to a point of rebirth into a higher order.  He invites us to be spiritual warriors, to wake up to what is before us, not to stay or go to sleep, or to offer a spiritual bypass, believing it’s all in ‘god’s hands’. He believes it is ours to take responsibility for our world and to not only engage a higher consciousness but to find what is ours to do and contribute. He shares his own personal awakenings and that of his friend/teacher, Father Bede Griffiths, in becoming aware of the oneness/the unity of all life. The second half of his book, he walks us through practices that can support us on our own journeys of becoming more conscious and living from our greater selves.

Review by Rev. Ruth Barnhart, a staff minister at Center for Spiritual Living, Santa Rosa.

The Hope is available from Stepping Stones Books and Gifts.

Saturday, August 13, 2016

Book Review: Beauty and the Soul

by Piero Ferrucci


In his book, Beauty and the Soul, Piero Ferrucci addresses the issue of finding more beauty in our lives, not only for the pleasure it can bring us, but as a healing agent for ourselves and our world. He expounds on and expands our cultural idea of what beauty is and where it can be found. Through personal experience and the sharing of other’s experiences, he takes us on a journey of seeing our world through the eyes of beauty. He invites us to look for it, with the awareness that it is always available. Then he explores how this new way of seeing and living can transform us. Through this ever new awareness we can become ambassadors for beauty, for those around us and life itself.

Review by Rev. Ruth Barnhart, a staff minister at Center for Spiritual Living, Santa Rosa.

Beauty and the Soul is available from Stepping Stones Books and Gifts.

Sunday, August 7, 2016

Free Event: Seeking Jordan with Matthew McKay

A Stepping Stones Books and Gifts Free Event


SEEKING JORDAN
with author Matthew McKay, Ph.D.

Date:  Friday, September 9
Time:  7 pm
Center for Spiritual Living, Santa Rosa
2075 Occidental Road

In this inspiring evening, author Matthew McKay will explain how he gained access to knowledge he never thought it was possible to possess, after searching for, finding, and communicating with his murdered son through channeled writing sessions. He will also share the compelling wisdom his son shared with him about things like knowledge about death, the spirit world, life purpose, and the nature of the visible and invisible universe.

Please join us for this enlightening event.

This free event is sponsored by Stepping Stones Books and Gifts. No Reservations or Tickets are required.

Wednesday, July 20, 2016

August Store Hours Change

Beginning in August, Stepping Stones Books and Gifts store will no longer be open on Saturdays.  Sunday through Wednesday hours will be unchanged.

    Sunday                9:30am to 1:30pm
    Mon, Tue, Wed   11am to 6:30 pm
    Thu, Fri, Sat        Closed

Of course, our website  http://steppingstones-books-and-gifts.myshopify.com/  will continue to be available 24/7.



Friday, July 8, 2016

Book Review: Path of Compassion


by Thich Nhat Hanh



Thich Nhat Hanh brings his intelligence and gentleness to the telling of the story of Siddhartha awakening into the Buddha in his book, Path Of Compassion. He presents the Buddha’s life from the awareness that The Awakened One was a human who realized his true nature through his own exploration, a journey that was guided from within and without. While telling the Buddha’s life in the light of a man already endowed with an inner awareness that led and informed him,  Thich Nhat Hanh allows us to appreciate our own inner qualities and yearnings that lead us, and shows us how life presents to us that which moves us forward. From this very personal perspective of storytelling, The Path Of Compassion introduces the teachings and practices of Buddhism in a softer and more natural light, which gives them a more understandable and approachable place in our own lives. It opens the door wide for us to honor our own journey of discovery of who we are as the One Consciousness, not separate from, but interconnected to this story of awakening.

Review by Rev. Ruth Barnhart, a staff minister at Center for Spiritual Living, Santa Rosa.

Path of Compassion is available from Stepping Stones Books and Gifts.

Sunday, June 12, 2016

Book Review: Living Beautifully


by Pema Chödrön


Pema Chödrön does it again, opens the doorway to practice, rooted in the realness of our life experience, and yet very doable for all of us, no matter where we are in our spiritual journey. In her book, Living Beautifully with Uncertainty and Change, she introduces us to the Three Commitments, 3 vows taken in her spiritual tradition. She invites us to make these commitments for ourselves, with the awareness that we are not trying to be perfect in them, but to use them as an anchor, a returning point in our daily living.

In her usual style, she breaks the practices down into small, manageable steps and then shares both stories from her teachers and from her own life to help us understand them. Her humility in revealing her stumblings adds humor and compassion to our personal journeys. She is gentle and simple in her approach. Each time I read her, I feel easily connected to both my humanness and my inner sense of the Divine. Her writings never grow old for me and I do not hesitate to recommend her to everyone. Well done Pema.

Review by Rev. Ruth Barnhart, a staff minister at Center for Spiritual Living, Santa Rosa.

Living Beautifully is available from Stepping Stones Books and Gifts.

Thursday, June 2, 2016

Top Ten Spiritual Books for 2016


Looking for a good book to read?  Here is a list of our Top Selling Spiritual Books for 2016 at Stepping Stones Books and Gifts.





— Martha Salazar

Thursday, May 26, 2016

The Gift of Grief


by Rev. Ruth Barnhart


As a minister, one of my greatest honors is to be able to sit with people in their times of grief. I know of no other time that opens individual’s and families’ hearts to healing and authentic connection than in times of grieving, before or after a transition, or from any other sense of deep loss. Grief can occur when we lose anything of value to us, even dreams and younger images of ourselves.

 “It is human to grieve…” says Ernest Holmes. He goes on to say that though we miss our loved ones, a true sense of the continuity of life will rob our grief of hopelessness. But for me, before I offer the consolation of hope in spiritual truths, I encourage people to linger, to really feel the tenderness and love of their hearts. Just as it is natural to grieve, it is natural that we have grief in our lives. Our times of grief seem to offer, in our vulnerability, an opportunity to come home to ourselves in a new and clearer way. And further still, our tender hearts allow for the possibility to experience the sweet embrace of Life or Spirit, closer than we may have known before. It is one thing to know the Divine lives with us in our happy times, but to experience this when our hearts and lives feel broken, is to find a strength and assuredness beyond compare. It is not so much that the Divine is closer to us in our pain, but more that our barriers and distractions are stripped away, and we become more available in our hearts. This, in turn, deepens our faith, that we may go forward into our ongoing lives with a greater certainty. To know that God’s goodness lives in all our experiences is to be set free to live more fully, in the recognition of the preciousness of life in each moment. Recently, in a session with a grieving widow, at the end of our time, the woman told me that she was aware that the time spent with her husband, while he was sick and moving toward his death, was the best and most intimate time they had. This speaks volumes about the gift that can be found in grief.


Tuesday, May 24, 2016

Book Review: Runaway Realization


by A. H. Almaas


"The entirety of all and everything is practicing as the individual is practicing.” So A. H. Almaas begins his deep exploration of the nature of being in his book, Runaway Realization, Living a Life of Ceaseless Discovery.

His approach takes the very essence of our teaching, there is only One, present in its infinite nature everywhere, and presses us to really investigate what this means. Who are we as human expressions in this oneness?

Almaas starts with exploring what practice is, opening up the understanding of realization/enlightenment as an ongoing, ever expanding experience, as opposed to a final destination. He then brings in the idea that it is the Realized Mind, the One Consciousness that is doing the work through us. This I think of as the “Good News” of our teaching.  I find his writing presses me to look deeper and deeper still into my understanding and experience of consciousness, and how to see beyond all that I may have ever known, and then to keep letting go into more.  He describes our walk of life as both a dual nature as individuals and as the undivided oneness of all, simultaneously unfolding. 

Not a quick or easy read, Runaway Realization takes us on an inner journey, not only of the head, but in our actual reaching to a greater experience of the wholeness of life. Almaas’ book has softened and melted some of the edges that seem to separate me from aspects of myself, others and life itself. Oneness and consciousness are not small concepts. Take the dive.

Review by Rev. Ruth Barnhart, a staff minister at Center for Spiritual Living, Santa Rosa.

Runaway Realization is available from Stepping Stones Books and Gifts.

Tuesday, May 3, 2016

Global Village Imports


Stepping Stones Books and Gifts offers an assortment of gift items from many countries. We have about 250 vendors from which we purchase products for the store. One of the vendors, Global Village Imports, is located in Sebastopol, California. We like to support this company for a number of reasons. They are local, their products are exquisite, and they purchase items from small family businesses.
The sarongs are imported from Bali. Most of the designs are created by batik, applying wax to the fabric which resists the dye. The dye is then removed to reveal the beautiful designs and colors. The sarongs can be worn in a variety of ways. Wrap as a skirt, top, headpiece, scarf, or shawl. They are not only the perfect beach wrap but they can also be used as tablecloths, wall hangings, or altar cloths.

The passport and shoulder bags are imported from Guatemala. The fabric and colors brightly represent the Guatemalan culture.

The statues and wall hangings are imported from Bali. The statues are hand carved and sold in the market stalls and the proceeds support the family business. These are some of the most elegant statues I have seen.

Stop in and have a look, I think you will be glad you did.


Martha Salazar

Wednesday, April 27, 2016

Book Review: Becoming White Smoke, A Tale of Courage and Yearning


by A. B. Kreglow


I was looking for a good story to just escape into...to fall in love with the characters and their humanness. I also love novels written with a flavor of historical fact and in this case a true reflection of the struggles between Native American peoples and white settlers.  Becoming White Smoke fits all that criteria.

It has adventure with a dash of danger (think a much lighter version of The Revenant), unconditional love that overcomes time, deep inspiration and courage, needed lessons in cultural tolerance, and spiritual intuition with lots of valuable metaphors.

I applaud and admire the author, A.B. Kreglow.  If you are looking to take an adventure...this is the novel for you.

Review by Alicia Carroll

Becoming White Smoke, A Tale of Courage and Yearning is available from Stepping Stones Books and Gifts.

A. B. Kreglow will talk about her book, Becoming White Smoke, at a Free Event on April 29 at 7pm at Center for Spiritual Living, Santa Rosa.

Wednesday, April 20, 2016

Greeting Cards


When was the last time you sent a card to someone?


In the times of texting, Facebook, Facebook messenger, and email, you would think that greeting cards are often overlooked or forgotten as a form of communication. Not true. In our book and gift store we continue to sell large quantities of cards: birthday, sympathy, friendship, wedding, love, get well, and congratulations. There is something very special about receiving a card honoring, celebrating, or acknowledging an important event in the life of a friend or loved one.

I remember my grandmother and mother being absolutely consistent sending out cards for all the many and varied life events happening in our large family. When I say sending out, I mean mailing, with those little things called postage stamps.

I know how good it makes me feel when I receive a greeting card in my mailbox. It is always a special surprise and delight. For such a simple gift, it has great meaning that stays with me a very long time.

When was the last time you sent a card to someone? Isn’t it time?

Martha Salazar

Wednesday, April 13, 2016

Book Review: An Unknown World


by Jacob Needleman


What is the Earth and why are we on it? What is the purpose of life and of our consciousness of it?


Jacob Needleman explores these questions in his book, An Unknown World. As a philosophy professor and the director of the Center for the Study of New Religions in Berkeley, Needleman is equipped to look at these classic questions, interweaving the worlds' many schools of thought, with personal experiences, revelations and even dreams.  He contends that we are here on purpose and calls us to look at our role in the biosphere of life, of which we are an integral part. Through his investigations, he reminds us that ours is not an intelligence in any way separate from the one intelligence that created it all, and that we are thus required to listen to and act from that greater intelligence. Needleman encourages us not to try to dispel the mystery that is life, but to recognize ourselves as a player in it; to be globally and personally open to our role on earth and in creation itself. He proposes that we need to continually be aware of how we are living, to see if it contributes to and not detracts from this biosphere into which we are created.

Review by Rev. Ruth Barnhart, a staff minister at Center for Spiritual Living, Santa Rosa.

An Unknown World is available from Stepping Stones Books and Gifts.

Saturday, March 26, 2016

Book Review: Whispers in the Stillness


by Martina Lehane Sheehan



Martina Lehane Sheehan, in her book Whispers in the Stillness, walks us through the practice of mindfulness. Interweaving references from Christian and Buddhist teachings, she gently leads us inward. Sheehan is a woman who understands the richness and the challenge of being present. Not only is she a psychotherapist and retreat leader but she is a woman who does her work. Woven throughout her writing, she humbly shares her own stumblings, the times when she gets caught wandering in the wilderness of her own mind. I appreciate her honesty and willingness to reveal her humanness. This helps make the practice more accessible, more user friendly one might say. We get to experience, through her vulnerability, just how it is to forget and then pull ourselves back to being aware. This also makes the book easy to read. It is enough to try to be present each moment without having to struggle with complicated doctrines. Thus Whispers in the Stillness reveals Sheehan’s easy spirit and the simplicity of the practice itself.

Review by Rev. Ruth Barnhart, a staff minister at Center for Spiritual Living, Santa Rosa.

Whispers in the Stillness is available from Stepping Stones Books and Gifts.

Wednesday, March 2, 2016

Book Review: The Wild Edge of Sorrow

by Francis Weller

“The heart that breaks open can contain the whole universe.” With this quote by Joanna Macy, Francis Weller introduces one of the chapters of his new book, The Wild Edge of Sorrow. He encourages us to embrace the losses and sorrows of our lives as a natural part of living.  He says we need to acknowledge and attend to these losses, so often covered over by the busyness of our lives. These are not only the griefs over loss of loved ones through death, but the letting go of dreams as the days and seasons of our lives come and go, the hidden aspects of heart and soul tucked away out of shame, and the acknowledgment of the suffering in our world, that affects us on a daily basis. If we turn away and live in denial of our hurting hearts, the feelings accumulate and impact our bodies and souls. He speaks of these four types of grief as gateways through which our consciousness can expand. A long time psychotherapist, who draws upon indigenous cultures, anthropology and other wisdom, gently invites us to open and look, to allow ourselves to be fully human. He shares stories that reveal our common humanity. Then he leads us through processes, practices and rituals that support the human heart into not only healing but being more fully present for all that we are and all that life is. The fifth gateway is that of our ancestral pain into which we were born. In this recognition and healing we can come to realize that we are passing on our own ancestries to those who shall follow us. From this perspective, this book and the understanding it presents is important, not only to each of us individually, but to the healing of our world. As he quotes Carl Jung, "Embrace your grief, for there your soul will grow."

Review by Rev. Ruth Barnhart, a staff minister at Center for Spiritual Living, Santa Rosa.

Francis Weller is giving a reading from The Wild Edge of Sorrow on Friday March 11 at Center for Spiritual Living, Santa Rosa.  Details are available here.

The Wild Edge of Sorrow is available from Stepping Stones Books and Gifts.

Monday, February 22, 2016

Book Review: Fullness of Joy

by John Stephenson


In his book, Fullness of Joy, A Spiritual Guide to the Paradise Within, John Stephenson brings us into the true essence of our teaching, that awareness of our connection with the One. He breaks down our seeming experience of living separate to invite us into that peace that passeth understanding, the experience of heaven within. Beyond all our words that tend to separate us, the ideas of God and Law and us as separate aspects, he invites of to let go of concepts; to stop using our minds/thoughts to change conditions and simply drop into the present moment. Without our stories, our opinions/perceptions/judgments we can actually know and experience that which holds us, unfolds around us as our world and is us, as all one expression of Life and goodness. This is a great read!

Review by Rev. Ruth Barnhart, a staff minister at Center for Spiritual Living, Santa Rosa.

Fullness of Joy is available from Stepping Stones Books and Gifts.

Thursday, February 11, 2016

A Reading with Francis Weller

A Stepping Stones Books and Gifts Free Event


a book reading with author Francis Weller, MA


Date:  Friday, March 11
Time:  7 pm
Center for Spiritual Living, Santa Rosa
2075 Occidental Road


Francis will give a reading from his new book The Wild Edge of Sorrow: Rituals of Renewal and the Sacred Work of Grief.
"'Survive love and loss,' the great French essayist Michel Eyquem de Montaigne advised. His maxim for life compresses the essence of the human dilemma into four words.
"Easier said than done, for loss is the other side of the coin of love. The greater the love, the greater the loss. And yet different people respond to loss very differently. When it comes to loss, there are hard-earned skills that can help you survive the unknown terrain in which you find yourself. There are survival skills, there are maps, and there are guides.
"Francis Weller is a well-travelled guide to the country of loss. He can teach you the survival skills. He can show your the maps. He carries his knowing of sorrow in his bones. He writes as someone who has been unmade in the way loss unmakes us.
"He is not afraid to tell us so."
—From the Foreword by Michael Lerner

Francis Weller, MA, has been working with the emotional, creative and spiritual life of men and women for over thirty years. Francis is a community builder, author, teacher and psychotherapist in Northern California. He draws from an extensive background in depth psychology, mythology, group work and indigenous traditions. He has taught at numerous colleges including New College of California, Sonoma State University and the Sophia Center in Oakland. He is the founder/director of WisdomBridge.
Francis Weller's book, The Wild Edge of Sorrow: Rituals of Renewal and the Sacred Work of Grief is available from Stepping StonesBooks and Gifts.
Please join us for this Free Event. No Reservations or Tickets are required.

Sunday, January 17, 2016

An Evening with Koorosh Ostowari

a Stepping Stones Books and Gifts Free Event


with author Koorosh Ostowari

Date:   Friday, February 5
Time:  7 pm
Center for Spiritual Living, Santa Rosa
2075 Occidental Road
Koorosh will discuss his new book designed to help individuals deal with their anxieties about money. The Money Anxiety Cure: A Path To Financial Wellbeing will not offer you advice on accounting, budgeting, spreadsheets, or numbers. Instead, it focuses on a deeper cure: how to create financial wellbeing by changing your attitude toward money and creating a realistic and balanced vision for your own personal prosperity. Using mindfulness, reflective journaling, and somatic tools, you’ll learn to better manage your anxiety around money—and your life.
So many of us were raised to believe that financial success and material prosperity are the most important things we can achieve in our lives. But where does that leave us when things don’t go well with our bank accounts, when we don’t achieve what we think we should have achieved when we expected to achieve it, or worse, when we make a lot of money and experience professional success only to realize we are still not happy? And when the entire world seems to be in an economic downturn, does that mean that we too are doomed to misery?
As a first generation Iranian, Koorosh Ostowari (ku-rosh ostaWAARi) saw his single mother overcome great financial and cultural obstacles to provide her family with the American Dream. Following in her footsteps, Koorosh retired early from a successful 25-year career in real estate, then successfully bridged the gap between spiritual and material worlds by becoming trained as a Spirit Rock Meditation Center Dharma Leader and certified somatic therapist.
Koorosh Ostowari's new book The Money Anxiety Cure is available at Stepping Stones Books and Gifts.
Please join us for an evening about the subject of money. No Reservations or Tickets are required.

Friday, January 1, 2016

Book Review: Creating A World That Works For All


by Sharif Abdullah


What does it really mean to hold a vision for a world that works for everyone? Sharif Abdullah thoroughly explored this in his book, Creating a World that Works for All.  He starts out laying the foundation of the understanding of our oneness and the importance of seeing and living from a new paradigm. Then he invites us to take a good look at the issues facing us. As is said, we can’t change what we refuse to admit. He lays out clear instructions on how to work with our consciousness to truly shift into an expression of oneness. This is the direction needed to take our understanding from just talking affirmatively to being the change we want to see in this world. Well done Sharif Abdullah.

Review by Rev. Ruth Barnhart, a staff minister at Center for Spiritual Living, Santa Rosa.

Creating a World that Works for All  is available from Stepping Stones Books and Gifts.

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