Event organizer: Temple of the Feminine Divine

Event Date & Time: December 21, 2019 3:00 pm until December 21, 2019 7:00 pm

Temple of the Feminine Divine | Contributed

BANGOR Join the Temple of the Feminine Divine for a Winter Solstice Pop-Up mini-craft fair! This 4-hour event will be jam-packed with local makers (no direct sales vendors) and magical items certain to delight even the most unique and crafty people on your holiday shopping list. We have lots of fun surprises and activities in store!

Vendors include: Sacred Products of Light,Wildly Inspired Soul Enlightenment, Jess Wade Arts, Made by Mudgi, Naissance Farm, Enby Embroideries, Switzers Jewelry and Sew Crafty Maine, Adventure Awaits, Oh My Goddess by Louise Shorette, and delicious chocolate goods by Hazel Littlefield.

This event will take place at theUnitarian Universalist Society of Bangor at 120 Park St. The public Yule Ritual will follow the Craft Bazaar, starting at 7:15 p.m.

Read more from the original source:
Temple of the Feminine Divine's annual Yule Craft Bazaar - Bangor Daily News

Blades swirl around their bodies, coming perilously close to piercing flesh. Swords flashing in the morning sun, the young women twirl, cartwheel and then kick in unison, finishing their graceful movements in a centuries old kung fu fighting stance.

Dressed alike with matching shaved heads, the women and girls finish their daily exercise and move on to their other duties as part of the Kung Fu Nuns of the Himalayas, a name they have proudly adopted.

Jigme Yanching Kamu has lived at the Druk Amitabha Mountain Nunnery perched high in the mountains outside Kathmandu since she was 10 years old.

We are the only nunnery in all of the Himalayas doing deadly martial arts, Kamu told CNNs Great Big Story in June. This is a lifelong vow that I made to the Drukpa Order, and I am very proud of my practice.

The Drukpa Order is a branch of Himalayan Buddhism, a faith which traditionally considers women second-class citizens. According to Buddhist narratives, a woman cannot achieve spiritual enlightenment unless she is reborn as a man.

The idea was that as long as the nuns cook and clean for the monks, they can come back as a monk in their next lifetime and then become enlightened, said Carrie Lee, the former president of Live to Love, a non-governmental organization that works closely with the nunnery to supply aid to the region.

According to Lee, discrimination toward women is a way of life in Nepal and surrounding nations. Girls are considered a burden and are frequently aborted; if they live, they have limited access to healthcare or education. They are often sold off to traffickers or marry young; wife beating and other types of spousal violence is common.

His Holiness Gyalwang Drukpa, the spiritual leader of the Drukpa lineage, says as a child he believed the Buddhist beliefs about women to be misguided. In the early 2000s he began to promote the nuns to leadership positions.

It wasnt always well received. Local traditionalists called the action blasphemous, Lee said, and then they started harassing the nuns and assaulting them.

To teach the nuns self-defense, Drukpa hired a kung fu teacher in 2008. But His Holiness also hoped the training would improve the nuns confidence and self-esteem.

I consider the kung fu art, martial art, an education, he told actress Susan Sarandon in a 2014 interview. Im very proud of the nuns.

I have been breaking through all these barriers, he added. Whatever the Buddhist people say I dont mind and I dont care.

We wake up at 3 a.m., we meditate, we bicycle and we train for three hours, Kamu said. The Drukpa Order is not for lazy people.

In addition to kung fu practice with swords, sticks and flags, the women jog and run up and down stairs to boost their fitness. They even learn to break bricks with their hands.

All of the physical work has a spiritual purpose, Kamu said. Kung fu trains us to focus our minds for meditation.

Martial arts are known for their health benefits. A 2018 studyfound hard martial arts like kung fu can improve balance and cognitive functions that decline with age, while a 2016 study found kung fu and karate helped with blood sugar control.

Another ancient martial art, Tai Chi, has been more thoroughly studied. Research shows Tai Chi can improve bone mineral density, reduce blood pressure, lower cholesterol, and reduce harmful inflammation.

And the mental health benefits are just as strong. The calming, meditative trance needed to do a Tai Chi series has been shown to greatly reduce anxiety and stress, even lowering levels of cortisol, the stress hormone, in the blood of participants.

When a devastating 7.9 earthquake took the lives of 9,000 people in Nepal in 2015, the nuns from Druk Amitabha Mountain Nunnery were some of the first relief workers on the scene.

Supported by the Live to Love organization, the nuns walked to villages that government and traditional relief organizations considered too dangerous to visit.

When the earthquake hit, our kung fu training helped us to be brave and strong, Kamu said. We survived the landslides, avalanches and earthquakes.

Later the nuns were able to do a medical helicopter rescue, truck rescues, food and medicine distribution, provide solar power, and more, they wrote on their website, even building 201 new homes after clearing the rubble.

During the cleanup, Lee said, the nuns saw young girls being given away or sold off to potential human traffickers and decided to take action. They organized bi-yearly bicycle trips, taking months to cover thousands of treacherous miles between Kathmandu and Ladakh, India. They stop at tiny villages along the way to spread a message about the value of girls and the dangers of human trafficking.

We talk about equality and safety, Kamu said. We wanted to show everyone that if nuns can ride bicycles, then girls can do anything.

By showing that girls could survive the mountainous terrain, they were sending the message that girls were strong enough to farm and thus worth keeping, Lee explained. They started raising awareness about what actually happens to girls when you give them away.

Many of the mothers had encouraged their girls to leave, hoping they would have a better life, Lee said. And now when the nuns go back, these families come up to them and say, We had no idea where our girls are going. Were much more protective of them now.

His Holiness Gyalwang Drukpa, their spiritual leader, joins the nuns on most of their bicycle trips. His presence adds weight to their fight for womens rights, especially in the most traditional villages.

Because of his religious authority, equality becomes a religious mandate, Lee said. Respecting women becomes a religious imperative wherever he goes.

The effort appears to be paying off.

In the past 15 years, Ive noticed a huge shift in some of these villages, Lee said. Before, if I sat down with meetings, it was predominantly men. Now women are so much more vocal in these meetings. Now you see female police officers, you see female politicians and leaders.

The nuns have added a green theme to their good works. Each year they do a Eco-Pad Yatras, a 400 plus mile hike picking up plastic litter and educating locals on ways to protect their local environments.

Many of the nuns are trained solar technicians, others assist doctors in the Live to Love eye camps, where cataracts surgeries are free of charge. Other activities include music, dance, theater, and animal rescue and care.

When Lee first began volunteering 20 years ago, the nunnery was home to about 30 nuns. Today there are more than 800, ranging in age from eight to 80. There is a waiting list for young girls who want to join the Kung Fu Nun revolution.

All of the nuns bear the first name of Jigme, which means fearless one in Tibetan.

I learned I can do anything a man can do, Kamu said. Kung fu has trained me to be confident, strong and happy. The teachings help me put my compassion into action.

View original post here:
Kung Fu Nuns in Nepal boost their health in the fight for women's rights - KKOH

The Drowning Liberty installation at Flatiron Plaza in New York, U.S., Photographer: Michael ... [+] Nagle/Bloomberg

In a New York Times magazine article, published on 13th September 1970 and headed 'The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase its Profits', the economist, Milton Friedman, argued that the sole purpose of business is to generate profit for its shareholders.

He went on to say that, "Acorporate executive is an employee of the owners of the business. He has direct responsibility to his employers. That responsibility is to conduct the business in accordance with their desires, which generally will be to make as much money as possible".

And for decades to follow, that was the accepted wisdom of the function of business, to generate profit for its owners and shareholders. It shaped corporate goals and objectives, and made many people very wealthy.

It spawned the 1980's frenzy of spending, it fed the thinking of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher andled to the 1987 film 'Wall Street' where we faced the unsavoury face of capitalism,as portrayed by Michael Douglas as Gordon Gekko:

"Greed is good. Greed works.Greed, in all of its forms; greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge has marked the upward surge of mankind".

The world today, however, is a very different place. Because today we have climate change, we have oceans filled with plastic,we have fast fashion, we have a returns epidemic, and we have sustainability issues.

And this got me thinking. What are the implications for retail and just where is all this heading?

When Retail Goes Wrong

Let's be in no doubt, retail is not only the most exciting sector, it is also the one which is closest to all of us. We build relationships with retail businesses, from the corner store to the largest department store, in ways that we would never do in other sectors.

Have a favorite utility provider? Thought not. No, retail has a place in our society, in our communities if you will, like no other. But in this new, enlightened age, this is both a blessing and a curse.

We've witnessed the impact of when retail goes wrong on many occasions - horsemeat, accounting scandals, faux fur versus real fur and the collapse of BHS spring to mind - and when it does, it does so, often in spectacular ways.

There's no keeping it under the radar, it's front-line and in our faces, and while the supply chain can often be complex and difficult to monitor, we don't concern ourselves with that, it's always the retailer's fault.

New Decade, New Retail Model

This all means that retail is in a unique position. Because, just like greed is now perceived to be a bad thing (was it ever anything but?), as we move into a new decade, does rampant consumerism now conjure up similar sentiments?

The plastic straws we drink from, that T-shirt we only wore a handful of times, that single use plastic bottle we threw away, that steak we had for dinner. What was once acceptable is now more likely to raise an eyebrow, or more.

Because, the transition from raising an eyebrow to out and out resentment is not a huge step to take. And that's where we've arrived at as we welcome in the New Year.

And just like the teachings of Friedman, retail has largely existed to make a profit. To encourage us to buy more stuff. More clothes, more food, more electricals, more and more stuff which ultimately finds its way to landfill.

Enlightenment

However, will the twenties be the decade of enlightenment? The decade when we finally conclude that businesses, retailers especially, exist not to generate profit but to do good. Do good for communities, for society and for the planet.

The decade when wealth won't be measured by the size of the bank balance but by the impact left on the planet. The decade of not just credit scores but carbon scores. The decade when the very purpose of business will be challenged.

Idealistic? Maybe. But one thing is clear. We can't continue in the current direction of travel, it's simply unsustainable. Something has to give. And retail needs to be proactive in its response to growing public sentiment.

It needs to re-evaluate its place in society because we now know that neither greed nor rampant consumerism is good. The wind of change is blowing down our high streets, but just how many retail businesses will embrace it? Because for those who don't, the future looks very bleak indeed.

Originally posted here:
The Business Of Business, Why It Is Changing And Why Retail Must Take The Lead - Forbes

Nanushka and La Bouche Rouge have created a lipstick for the femme fatale

The two eco-conscious brands have launched their first beauty collaboration

What happens when two of our favourite sustainable brands come together? Something quite magical. Named after the Hindu god of enlightenment, Shiva is a new beauty collaboration from Nanushka and La Bouche Rouge that embodies the progressive outlook and elegance of both labels in one effortlessly glamorous lipstick.

Launched back in 2017, La Bouche Rouge has quickly established a name for itself with its carefully crafted refillable lipsticks in sumptuous shades, made without plastic, polyoxymethylene or polyethylene. Conceiving of its lipsticks as a collectible, long-lasting possession, its thoroughly modern ethos is one that has a natural synergy with the fashion house, Nanushka.

Under the direction of creative director and designer Sandra Sandor, the Budapest based brands sustainably produced vegan leather pieces have achieved cult status for their East-meets-West aesthetic and gender fluid silhouettes. For both brands, the opportunity to create something together made perfect sense.

The concept and formula behind La Bouche Rouge is amazing and its very much aligned with everything we believe in at Nanushka says Sandor.

The aim was to create a luxury item that is completely sustainable and to show that its possible without compromises.

A distinctive brown/burnt orange hue, the Shiva lipstick is inspired by the passionate and powerful energy of the femme fatale. The process of development was an easy one for Sandor, who worked closely with La Bouche Rouge founder Nicolas Gerlier I knew from the beginning the colour I wanted to create and Nicolas and his team instantly understand so we only had to do a few colour tries before we found the right hue.

Encased in a reusable and refillable lipstick Shiva comes dressed in Nanushkas signature vegan leather. A limited edition satin lipstick pouch has been created from deadstock materials, and as with each element of the product, it has been designed to be reused and repurposed.

Every good lipstick needs a powerful muse. For Shiva, Sandor and Gerlier looked to rebellious and modern screen sirens I love Lisa Bonet in Angel Heart, Brooke Shields in Blue Lagoon or I can mention Christy Turlington and Rooney Mara as well says Sandor. They are all strong women but very feminine and confident in their natural beauty which I find very beautiful and sexy.

You could paint us like one of your French girls, but what wed prefer is to be painted like a Shiva girl.

Read more here:
Nanushka and La Bouche Rouge have created a lipstick for the femme fatale - Wallpaper*

To sushi snobs, part of the allure is surely that no other food demands such austere discipline of its makers. At some sushi bars in Japan, prospective chefs begin making rice only after a long novitiate, then wait even longer before they are permitted to pick up a knife. Like the apprentices themselves, diners submit to the will of a master. The Japanese word omakase a menu of the chefs selection, often requiring weeks-ahead reservations carries overtones of entrusting yourself to anothers superior judgment. Even as some see cultural appropriation in cafeteria sushi, it is surely preferable to sushi meant for only investment bankers.

Everything about the sushi at middling pan-Asian restaurants and in cooler cases the underseasoned rice, the thick slabs of fish, the jagged piece of artificial turf on the tray is an affront to such connoisseurship. It demands little of anyone. But it manages to be delicious anyway. Its tender, yielding. A little fatty, a little sour, a little sweet. It soaks up your spicy-salty wasabi-and-soy-sauce mixture. It might even crunch. Were lucky to enjoy such delights, as I do every couple of weeks, downing pieces of a California roll like Cheez Doodles as I walk down the street, thinking about the preposterous confluence of historical and economic forces trade, technology, migration, transport, diplomacy that made such an experience not just possible, but possible for $6. Now fully democratized, this taste of sublimity can become a habit.

A few years ago, I came across a Zen koan about someone named Banzan, who overhears a conversation between a butcher and a customer:

Give me the best piece of meat you have, the customer said.

Everything in my shop is the best, the butcher replied. You cannot find here any piece of meat that is not the best.

At these words Banzan became enlightened.

A friend who is a scholar of Japanese Buddhism tells me the parable is about how enlightenment is not elsewhere; its always here. Connoisseurs complain that mediocre sushi is ubiquitous. Well, so is nirvana.

In a sense, connoisseurship is the enemy of enlightenment: It is craving for something that is not here, and as the Buddha taught, to crave is to suffer. When I made sushi, customers would sometimes ask me, Whats good tonight? These men (and they were all men) misunderstood where they were and what I did. The restaurant was in a ramshackle strip mall, a few doors down from a laundromat. I didnt sample the fish before dinner service or skulk around a market at dawn. As far as I was concerned, all our fish was sourced from the same place: the freezer. I would tell the customers it was all good. I wish Id told them the truth: That it was all the best, the best in town, the best in the world.

Read more here:
Letter of Recommendation: Cheap Sushi - The New York Times

Egypt is the capital of the world, in the words of the late Egyptian geographer Gamal Hamdan.

So, it is not strange for a country like Egypt to stage an enlightenment revolution. Going hand in hand with its efforts to erect a new capital city, Egypt is now in the process of rebuilding its peoples minds in a revolution of the mind it is carrying out with a reform of religious dialogue.

The first to call for such reform was President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi, and it includes the overall development of the countrys educational system to cope with non-stop technological progress.

Implementing this enlightenment revolution in Egypt will help us to overcome violence and terrorism, with the new generation acting as the revolutions leaders. By learning computer languages and how to deal with information, this generation will be confident in its dealings with the present age, including in the exploration of outer space. We are betting on this new generation to take part in making a better future, and thanks to its commitment to science, it will be able to carry out such a mission.

According to statistics, Egypts population in the middle of the 20th century stood at 30 million people. At the beginning of the 21st century, this number was estimated at 80 million. Today, it has exceeded 100 million. Such numbers constitute a power that should not be underestimated. In other words, if Egypt were to face any kind of political or economic instability, then thanks to these numbers the whole region would be negatively affected.

It is from here that comes the importance of education, which is the first step towards rebuilding the minds of the Middle East. But who are these new citizens, and how can we rebuild them? Time passes, ideas get developed and new inventions and innovations are unstoppable. Even the language itself has had to change in order to cope with the industrial age and now the space age.

The British philosopher and Nobel laureate Bertrand Russell wrote a lot on the future of humanity and how human intellects could be developed. For him, technical and cultural education should have special attention when preparing school curricula, as this would allow students to become good citizens, he said.

Russell believed that mixing cultural and technical education was like mixing knowledge with wisdom. It would act as a shield protecting societies from fanaticism, he thought, since this was based on short-sighted views. The main target of education was to prepare people to be good citizens, Russell held, which meant teaching them technology and culture together.

In Egypt, the government is applying a new strategy to educate 20 million pre-university students in the most up-to-date techniques by 2030. Education Minister Tarek Shawki has said that the new educational system will differ in its targets and techniques from the current one. He has stressed the need to modernise curricula to cope with the latest developments, adding that digital knowledge will have a key role to play in such a system.

In the new system, students in all Egyptian schools will be taught English as a compulsory subject until grade 12. Maths and science will also be taught in English.

The new education system has stirred wide debate among specialists, with these being divided into two conflicting groups, one backing the new ideas and the second opposing them. Teachers and parents have started to ask about the chances of success of the new system. How much will it cost? How will the teachers be trained? How will the schools be prepared, they have asked.

For writer Abbas Al-Tarabili, the minister should be given the chance to carry out his ideas. He should be allowed to remain in his post and should be given enough time to reap the benefits of his project, Al-Tarabili has said. I agree with him completely. For me, this project is the last opportunity we have to save our education system. It will enable Egyptian students to restore their academic status, making Egyptian students welcome in universities worldwide.

However, education expert Hossam Badrawi says that any such strategy is in need of certain complementary steps in order for it to be successfully carried out. Such steps include careful planning and a timetable for the implementation of the plans along with clearly defined bodies funding the project. Systems to assess performance, to define responsibilities and to respond to questions should also be included.

But rebuilding the Egyptian character through reforming education has become a necessity. Our role is to back such courageous experiments and at the same time to rectify anything wrong that may appear during their implementation. Funding the project should top the priorities of the government. The World Bank may be asked to participate in this funding, and any halting in the middle of the road may be enough to kill the idea.

Political activist and physician Mohamed Abul-Ghar hopes that the plans will be first applied in a limited number of schools before being generalised. We do not know if the Internet will be available at a suitable speed to download all the material required to all Egyptian schools, he says. We have to be sure that the teachers have enough training to use the tablets they are issued with effectively and that these are of good quality.

Education is a priority for all Egyptian families, regardless of their social and economic origins. To provide their children with a good education, many families are prepared to pay very large sums. For this reason and others, I believe that the issue of educational reform should be the subject of serious societal dialogue. Certain weak points marring the proposed new educational system may emerge. The minister may then have his attention drawn to these defects and be given the opportunity to amend them before starting the experiments.

Is the intelligence of Egyptian children in danger? The answer may be found in research conducted by psychologist Ahmed Okasha. Okasha said that there have been many attempts at a definition of intelligence. However, all agree that it is an ability people acquire at birth that lasts a lifetime.

Psychologists have tried to define intelligence in a few words. It is the ability of the individual to understand, innovate, self-criticise and direct behaviour onto the right track, they say. It is also the ability to think, learn and act properly. There are several kinds of intelligence, such as linguistic intelligence, which means the ability to write and speak. There is mathematical intelligence, or the ability to solve logical problems. Musical intelligence is the ability to understand aural patterns. Physical intelligence is the ability to control the bodys movements. Environmental intelligence enables people to balance duty and private affairs.

Egyptian students do not lack intelligence on any of these definitions. So, what do we really lack? My answer is an awakening of the conscience and a sense of real belonging to our country. If we had these two traits along with what we already have, we could achieve the impossible.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 19 December, 2019 edition ofAl-Ahram Weekly.

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Egypt's revolution of the mind - Opinion - Ahram Online

Unlike the one-time NBA champion behind the sneaker, the Nike Kyrie 6 is not welcoming the last month of the decade on the sidelines, as it is dropping in yet another concept-driven colorway dubbed the Enlightenment edition. Outfitted in a dark-purple engineered mesh and suede upper, this latest iteration of Irvings sixth signature sneaker with the Swoosh presents the heel eye graphic in a gum-pink color, making the symbol more visible at different angles to toy with the idea of perspective. The hits of yellow, red, green, and blue found on the tongue logo, lace holders, and outsole are inspired by camera light filters used to change images and films, and thus alter perception. Check out a complete store list below to see where these are dropping, and expect them to release in full family sizes on Nike.com and at affiliated retailers on December 7 for $130 (adults), $80 (kids), and $55 (infants).

Nike Kyrie 6 Enlightenment Release Date: December 7th, 2019 $130 (Adults) $80 (Kids) $55 (Infants) Style Code: BQ4630-500

Make sure to follow @kicksfinder for live tweets during the release date.

Where to Buy

Originally posted here:
Where To Buy The Nike Kyrie 6 Enlightenment - Sneaker News

"The gift of sight can be blinding," Paris (Alfre Woodard) had ominously told Haniwa (Nesta Cooper) and Kofun (Archie Madekwe) in the previous episode of 'See', as they approached Jerlamarel's House Of Enlightenment.

And the children learn the meaning behind her words in this gripping episode, titled 'House Of Enlightenment'. Jerlamarel's House of Enlightenment is reminiscent of the witch's house in the age-old cautionary tale of 'Hansel and Gretel'.

While the witch's house was covered in chocolates, candies, cakes and other sweet things to entice two lost and hungry children, Jerlamarel's 'civilized' house possesses the same amount of fascination for Haniwa and Kofun.

Apart from finding a father who had never looked in their direction for 17 years, the twins are in awe of the facilities available to them.

Indeed, they seem to have entered a new era of knowledge, as they grasp the concept of a hot shower, different clothes that include shirts and trousers, as well as books.

Jerlamarel, like any good host, takes them around the house and introduces them to his children, who also possess the gift of sight, unlike the normal dystopian world Haniwa and Kofun have grown up in.

The house possesses practically everything from our modern world. The land of milk and honey, or is it?

While Haniwa is willing to give this new world a chance, Kofun still misses Baba Voss (Jason Momoa), the father who took care of him all these years, rather than their biological father.

The viewer knows that it can't be this easy, and the discomfort slowly seeps in, especially at Jerlamarel's overtly enthusiastic welcome and fondness. And sure enough, events begin to spiral radically out of control.

Betrayal becomes the order of the day. Kofun can also helplessly stare as he faces separation from Haniwa. Though Baba Voss comes in to save the day, even he is not able to salvage much apart from a gruesome Game Of Throne-esque murder.

However, hope is not lost, and the episode ends with Baba, Paris and Kofun finding a small chance of being reunited with Haniwa again.

While this drama is taking place, Tamacti Jun (Christian Camargo) entrusts Maghra (Hera Hilmar) with an uneasy task: Convince Kane (Sylvia Hoeks) to abdicate the throne.

A fool's fantasy, Kane reminds her. In her haze of delusional grandeur, Kane says that it is all god's will. Ironically Kane makes the revealing statement, "There is no succession, there is no majesty, no legitmacy, there's just a petty lie, agreed upon by petty people." What a hard-hitting statement.

If Maghra must defy god's will, then she must do the honorable thing of "picking up a knife" and taking what is hers. Maghra echoes what we've all been thinking, "God's law, god's words, god's choice, it's amazing how they all align with whatever you want at any given time."

And later in the episode, the tables are quickly turned, and Kane makes a decision that is in her favor again. There's a hint of a very uncomfortable union ahead, if Maghra allows it, that is.

Another point to note is Maghra has still not forgotten her family in the least and has something planned for them. That would be an interesting meeting, considering that they believe she is dead.

While the action scenes are always thrilling to watch, 'See' delivers the best performances, when it is surrounded by silence. With its facade of paradise, false cheer and seeming subservience, the episode could best be described as an uneasy itch that slowly devolves into a rash.

The performances by Kane and Maghra with its undertones of tension and resentment are the highlight of the episode.Episode 8 of 'See' released on Apple TV on December 6.

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'See' Episode 8 Review: Haniwa and Kofun bear the price of enlightenment in this dark episode - MEAWW

The Cheffe, by Marie NDiaye, translated from the French by Jordan Stump (Knopf). At the heart of this novel is a character study of a brilliant chef, filtered through the perception of her most obsessive disciple, a much younger man to whom she is fairy godmother, mother, and beloved. His attraction propels a spiralling family psychodrama, whose richness and suspense are surpassed by those of scenes depicting the chefs exquisite inventions, from a signature green-robed leg of lamb to sweet crabmeat poached in absinthe. NDiaye creates an arresting portrait of a self-effacing genius, as the chef yearns to leave only a vague, marveling recollection in the eaters minds... only a dish, or just its name, or its scent, or three bold, forthright colors on a milky white plate.

Mary Toft; or, The Rabbit Queen, by Dexter Palmer (Pantheon). In a small English village at the dawn of the Age of Enlightenment, a woman named Mary Toft gives birth to a dismembered rabbit every few days. Whether her plight is a medical miracle, an elaborate hoax, or a shared moment of collective delusion is the conundrum of this frolicsome period comedy. The young surgeon who cares for Toft becomes renowned as an expert in human-leporine midwifing, and, when word of Toft reaches King Georges court, she is summoned with the surgeon and his apprentice to London, where they become entwined in the bizarre and barbarous world of the upper classa visit that exposes the chasm between provincial innocence and metropolitan cunning.

Parisian Lives, by Deirdre Bair (Nan A. Talese). The author of this sparkling memoir achieved two of the greatest coups in literary biography: writing a semi-authorized life of Samuel Beckett, which the gnomic Irishman promised to neither help nor hinder, and a life of Simone de Beauvoir, which was based on interviews conducted immediately before the philosophers death. Bair spent seven years on Beckett and ten on Beauvoir, and her dedication to her subjects is apparent. Into her accounts of working with these eminent, often exasperating writers she weaves recollections of malfunctioning tape recorders, grandstanding sources, and her travails as a professional and a mother commuting across the Atlantic, working in a field dominated by men.

Medieval Bodies, by Jack Hartnell (Norton). Elegantly combining strands from the histories of medicine, art, and religion, this study explores how the medieval world understood and treated the human body. In the late Middle Ages, medicine sought natural as well as mystical causes for all manner of afflictions, making diagnosis a complex affair (stringy hair, for instance, might indicate an unscrupulous character, while baldness resulted from an excess of heat). Focussing on Byzantium, the Islamic world, and the patchwork of kingdoms constituting western and central Europe, Hartnell deftly shows how these societies visual cultures were, like their medical theories, profoundly influenced by a symbolic understanding of humanitys relationship to realms seen and unseen.

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Briefly Noted Book Reviews - The New Yorker

Byron Katie has said When someone loves what is, she makes use of anything life happens to bring her way, because she doesnt con herself anymore. Katies own life is a testament to this statement. In 1986, at the bottom of a ten-year spiral into depression, rage and self-loathing, she woke up one morning to a state of joy that has never left her. She realized that when she believed her stressful thoughts, she suffered, but that when she questioned them, she didnt suffer, and that this is true fo every human being. Her simple yet powerful process of inquiry is called The Work.

Katie has been bringing The Work to millions of people for more than thirty years. Her public events, workshops, intensives, School for The Work and Turnaround House have brought freedom to people all over the world. Her books include the bestselling Loving What Is and A Mind At Home With Itself. To discover all about The Work and so much more, enjoy the videos below.

Judge your neighbor, write it down, ask four questions, turn it around just one at a time:

Watch our full conversation here:

Link:
Are you enlightened to your own stressful thinking right now? That's the only enlightenment that matters Byron Katie - Thrive Global