Family & Relationships

"Your partner can and should meet all of your emotional needs." "All disagreements can and should be resolved." “Great relationships require little maintenance.”

Old models of marriage such as these are crumbling. Divorce rates remain high. Many people are skeptical and mistrustful about having real love in their lives. It's clear people need new models to help them connect with each other in meaningful, lasting ways. It's time to break free from old patterns of commitment and to forge new pathways for healthy, thriving, deeply loving relationships.

This hope-filled resource for developing soulful, mature love is aimed at committed couples who are looking to build, maintain and glorify the sacred in their relationship. It creates a context for couples to honor the gradual movement from physical “flight-fight-freeze” body-based survival to more heart-filled, communication-oriented love, to spiritual awakening and soul-purpose fulfillment. It encourages couples—as individuals and as partners—to let go of dysfunctional, hurtful, restrictive behavior in favor of liberating self-concepts and belief systems. It provides solutions for communicating and problem-solving more effectively, allowing each partner in the relationship to experience more emotional intimacy, joy and sexual pleasure. The book provides relationship information, practical tools and inspirational, real-life stories. It also offers a banquet of spiritual practices for couples of all faiths—or none—to bring these new models into focused action.

"Your partner can and should meet all of your emotional needs." "All disagreements can and should be resolved." “Great relationships require little maintenance.”

Old models of marriage such as these are crumbling. Divorce rates remain high. Many people are skeptical and mistrustful about having real love in their lives. It's clear people need new models to help them connect with each other in meaningful, lasting ways. It's time to break free from old patterns of commitment and to forge new pathways for healthy, thriving, deeply loving relationships.

This hope-filled resource for developing soulful, mature love is aimed at committed couples who are looking to build, maintain and glorify the sacred in their relationship. It creates a context for couples to honor the gradual movement from physical “flight-fight-freeze” body-based survival to more heart-filled, communication-oriented love, to spiritual awakening and soul-purpose fulfillment. It encourages couples—as individuals and as partners—to let go of dysfunctional, hurtful, restrictive behavior in favor of liberating self-concepts and belief systems. It provides solutions for communicating and problem-solving more effectively, allowing each partner in the relationship to experience more emotional intimacy, joy and sexual pleasure. The book provides relationship information, practical tools and inspirational, real-life stories. It also offers a banquet of spiritual practices for couples of all faiths—or none—to bring these new models into focused action.

Chart a Course to Wholeness in the Aftermath of Divorce

"Divorce tends to rip away your façade and defenses, and call into question what you know or believe. That vulnerability is painful, but ultimately can bring you to a place where your spiritual life can gain strength and insight if you are open to it. In the midst of feeling lost, you can find a new path forward, which brings you to a better place."
—from the Introduction

Divorce is never easy and almost always includes profound experiences of pain, isolation, anger, despair, and confusion. Here is a spiritual map for regaining your bearings, helping you move through the twists and turns of divorce in a spiritually healthy way.

Drawing on her work as a pastor and counselor—and her personal experience with divorce—Carolyne Call proposes a three-prong approach to help you reset your compass on a new destination—wholeness. Supported by first-person accounts from men and women from a variety of faith traditions who have found their way through divorce, she helps you identify:

• Where you want to go—“I want to be true to who I am”
• Where you don't want to go—the “cul-de-sacs” of bitterness, resentment, victimization, and guilt
• What you can do to get there

Chart a Course to Wholeness in the Aftermath of Divorce

"Divorce tends to rip away your façade and defenses, and call into question what you know or believe. That vulnerability is painful, but ultimately can bring you to a place where your spiritual life can gain strength and insight if you are open to it. In the midst of feeling lost, you can find a new path forward, which brings you to a better place."
—from the Introduction

Divorce is never easy and almost always includes profound experiences of pain, isolation, anger, despair, and confusion. Here is a spiritual map for regaining your bearings, helping you move through the twists and turns of divorce in a spiritually healthy way.

Drawing on her work as a pastor and counselor—and her personal experience with divorce—Carolyne Call proposes a three-prong approach to help you reset your compass on a new destination—wholeness. Supported by first-person accounts from men and women from a variety of faith traditions who have found their way through divorce, she helps you identify:

• Where you want to go—“I want to be true to who I am”
• Where you don't want to go—the “cul-de-sacs” of bitterness, resentment, victimization, and guilt
• What you can do to get there

Rebalancing the Roles in Caregiving So All Involved Are Supported

"When you care for someone who is dealing with the complexities of aging, illness, or disability, you share intense emotions and form deep bonds. You each have the opportunity to recognize what is most deeply human—and most deeply Divine—in the other. This sense of reciprocal sharing—between the caregiver, care receiver, and with others around you—is the essence of the dance in caresharing."
—from the Prelude

The word caregiver typically suggests someone doing all the giving for a frail, physically or mentally challenged, or aging person who is doing all the receiving. Marty Richards proposes a rebalanced approach of "caresharing." From this perspective, the “cared for” and the “carer” share a deep sense of connection. Each has strengths and resources. Each can teach the other. Each can share in grief, hope, love and wisdom.

Richards shows you how to move from independent caregiving to interdependent caregiving by engaging the spiritual and emotional aspects of caring for a loved one. Whether you are a daughter or son, a husband or wife, a sibling, long-term partner or good friend, Caresharing offers a multilayered, reciprocal process that will help you keep your spirit—and your loved one's spirit—alive in challenging times.

• Sharing Wisdom: What the Frail Teach the Well
• Sharing Roles: Reinventing Family Roles in Sharing Care
• Sharing “Soul to Soul”: A Special Relationship with People with Dementia
• Sharing Grief: Dealing with the Little Losses and the Big Ones
• Sharing Forgiveness: A Key Spiritual Journey
• Sharing Hope and Heart: An Active Process One Step at a Time

Rebalancing the Roles in Caregiving So All Involved Are Supported

"When you care for someone who is dealing with the complexities of aging, illness, or disability, you share intense emotions and form deep bonds. You each have the opportunity to recognize what is most deeply human—and most deeply Divine—in the other. This sense of reciprocal sharing—between the caregiver, care receiver, and with others around you—is the essence of the dance in caresharing."
—from the Prelude

The word caregiver typically suggests someone doing all the giving for a frail, physically or mentally challenged, or aging person who is doing all the receiving. Marty Richards proposes a rebalanced approach of "caresharing." From this perspective, the “cared for” and the “carer” share a deep sense of connection. Each has strengths and resources. Each can teach the other. Each can share in grief, hope, love and wisdom.

Richards shows you how to move from independent caregiving to interdependent caregiving by engaging the spiritual and emotional aspects of caring for a loved one. Whether you are a daughter or son, a husband or wife, a sibling, long-term partner or good friend, Caresharing offers a multilayered, reciprocal process that will help you keep your spirit—and your loved one's spirit—alive in challenging times.

• Sharing Wisdom: What the Frail Teach the Well
• Sharing Roles: Reinventing Family Roles in Sharing Care
• Sharing “Soul to Soul”: A Special Relationship with People with Dementia
• Sharing Grief: Dealing with the Little Losses and the Big Ones
• Sharing Forgiveness: A Key Spiritual Journey
• Sharing Hope and Heart: An Active Process One Step at a Time