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Touching the Dragon: And Other Techniques for Surviving Life's Wars
by James Hatch Christian D'AndreaFrom former special ops Navy SEAL senior chief; master naval parachutist (four Bronze Stars with Valor, Navy and Marine Corps Medal recipient, etc.); fighter in 150 missions (Iraq, Afghanistan, Bosnia, Africa); expert military dog trainer and handler whose SEAL dogs were partners and medal winners--a fierce, moving tale of a return from hell, being badly wounded on a special ops mission that ended his two-decades-long military career, his searing recovery, and the struggle to live life off the speeding train of war.In Touching the Dragon, James Hatch, Naval Special Warfare Operator, expert commando, tactical master in deadly operations, twenty-four years in service to his country (he enlisted in the Army National Guard at age seventeen), writes of his years of military service, from joining the Navy at eighteen, becoming a SEAL, to his joining the Naval Special Warfare Development group ("If I died in a gunfight, it would be doing something I loved"). He writes of the harrowing secret missions (Iraq, Bosnia, Africa); and of the fateful final mission (Afghanistan), that left him badly shot (a bullet exploding through his femur and out the back of his leg) as Hatch and his SEAL team crew were attempting to rescue a rogue soldier--Pvt. Bowe Bergdahl, who deserted his post, was captured by Al Qaida and Taliban militants, and was set to be smuggled to a part of the world where Americans could never reach him. Hatch writes of the horrific wound to his leg; of having no choice but to end his military career; of coming home to the country he'd spent his life defending; of the ordeal of getting well physically (eighteen surgeries; twelve months of recovery; learning to walk again); of having to find out who he was as a man apart from the chaotic world of special operations missions; of days and months of despair, alcoholism, the pull toward suicide; and of finally, through love of family, friends, soldiers, and his specially trained military dogs, touching the dragon, of going through the fear of feeling unfit for society, of finding a purpose and a way back to life.
Touching the City: Thoughts on Urban Scale (Architectural Design Primer)
by Timothy MakowerScale in cities is relative and absolute. It has the ability to make us feel at home in the world or alien from it; connected or disconnected. Both large and small scale in cities can be beautiful; both are right, neither is wrong. Whilst accepting that prescription is no answer, 'getting the scale right' – at an intuitive and sensual level – is a fundamental part of the magic of architecture and urban design. Touching the City explores how scale is manifested in cities, exploring scale in buildings, in the space between them and in their details. It asks how scale makes a difference. Travelling from Detroit to Chandigarh, via New York, London, Paris, Rome and Doha, Tim Makower explores cities with the analytical eye of a designer and with the experiential eye of the urban dweller. Looking at historic cities, he asks what is good about them: what can we learn from the old to inform the new? The book zooms in from the macro scale of surfing Google Earth to micro moments such as finding fossils in a weathered wall. It examines the dynamics and movement patterns of cities, the making of streets and skylines, the formation of thresholds and facades, and it also touches on the process of design and the importance of drawing. As the book's title, Touching the City, suggests, it also emphasises the tactile – that the city is indeed something physical, something we can touch and be touched by, alive and ever changing.
Touching the Breath of Gaia
by Marko PogacnikArguing that what the earth chiefly needs is conscious human cooperation beyond the material realm, this unique, interactive, spiritual perspective on how to save the planet describes ways to communicate with Gaia herself and become her hands, allowing her to use her vast resources to save all the creatures on her surface, including humans. Because people have forgotten how to listen and converse with the goddess, this book purports that she uses natural catastrophes as her "hands," to get humankind's attention. By using the exercises for personal growth, readers can learn to use their emotions, intuition, and feelings rather than intellect and these traumas will be avoided and replaced with joy and companionship.
Touching the Art
by Mattilda Bernstein SycamoreA daringly observant memoir about intergenerational trauma, fine art, and compartmentalization from a returning Soft Skull author and Lambda Literary Award winnerA mixture of memoir, biography, criticism, and social history, Touching the Art is queer icon and activist Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore&’s interrogation of the possibilities of artistic striving, the limits of the middle-class mindset, the legacy of familial abandonment, and what art can and cannot do.Taking the form of a self-directed research project, Sycamore recounts the legacy of her fraught relationship with her late grandmother, an abstract artist from Baltimore who encouraged Mattilda as a young artist, then disparaged Mattilda&’s work as &“vulgar&” and a &“waste of talent&” once it became unapologetically queer.As she sorts through her grandmother Gladys&’s paintings and handmade paperworks, Sycamore examines the creative impulse itself. In fragments evoking the movements of memory, she searches for Gladys&’s place within the trajectories of midcentury modernism and Abstract Expressionism, Jewish assimilation and white flight, intergenerational trauma and class striving.Sycamore writes, &“Art is never just art, it is a history of feeling, a gap between sensations, a safety valve, an escape hatch, a sudden shift in the body, a clipboard full of flowers, a welcome mat flipped over and back, over and back, welcome.&”Refusing easy answers in search of an embodied truth, Sycamore upends propriety to touch the art and feel everything that comes through.
Touching a Nerve: Our Brains, Our Selves
by Patricia S. ChurchlandA trailblazing philosopher's exploration of the latest brain science--and its ethical and practical implications. What happens when we accept that everything we feel and think stems not from an immaterial spirit but from electrical and chemical activity in our brains? In this thought-provoking narrative--drawn from professional expertise as well as personal life experiences--trailblazing neurophilosopher Patricia S. Churchland grounds the philosophy of mind in the essential ingredients of biology. She reflects with humor on how she came to harmonize science and philosophy, the mind and the brain, abstract ideals and daily life. Offering lucid explanations of the neural workings that underlie identity, she reveals how the latest research into consciousness, memory, and free will can help us reexamine enduring philosophical, ethical, and spiritual questions: What shapes our personalities? How do we account for near-death experiences? How do we make decisions? And why do we feel empathy for others? Recent scientific discoveries also provide insights into a fascinating range of real-world dilemmas--for example, whether an adolescent can be held responsible for his actions and whether a patient in a coma can be considered a self. Churchland appreciates that the brain-based understanding of the mind can unnerve even our greatest thinkers. At a conference she attended, a prominent philosopher cried out, "I hate the brain; I hate the brain!" But as Churchland shows, he need not feel this way. Accepting that our brains are the basis of who we are liberates us from the shackles of superstition. It allows us to take ourselves seriously as a product of evolved mechanisms, past experiences, and social influences. And it gives us hope that we can fix some grievous conditions, and when we cannot, we can at least understand them with compassion.
Touching Wonder
by John BlaseThis bold retelling of Luke 1-2, based on Eugene Peterson's Message translation, reads like a novel and invites readers to experience the Nativity with fresh wonder.To Eugene Peterson's The Message Bible translation, John Blase adds his own storytelling voice, exploring the familiar events from multiple first-person viewpoints. What emerges is the intimate story of unlikely people--a frightened teenaged girl, a worried carpenter, a collection of senior citizens, a disillusioned young shepherd--meeting up with the divine as they bumble and stumble toward the realization that the little one just born is the One.This retold story of Word made flesh invites readers to react appropriately--with eyes opened wide in wonder, jaws dropped in amazement, and hearts rejoicing. The beautiful design and Amanda Jolman's lively line drawings make this book a fitting gift as well as a Christmas tradition that families will treasure for years to come.
Touching Tomorrow
by Mary LoverdeWhat does your mother remember about her first kiss? What's the first thing your father tells himself every morning? By the time we are adults, it is all too easy to look at our parents and grandparents as though their lives have been miles removed from our own, causing a communication and generation gap seemingly impossible to bridge. But the older we get, the more we understand the importance of connecting with our elders before they're gone. There is no better way to do this than to talk to them like you never have before and create a record of their lives to share with the next generation. Showcasing over 200 questions that are sure to help you know your loved ones better than you ever dreamed, Touching Tomorrow contains everything you need to record your family's most valuable asset: their wisdom, humor, and love. With tips on preparing both yourself and your elders for the technical and emotional process, helpful hints on coaxing shy or reluctant family members to participate, and heartwarming real life stories from people who have already preserved their elders' memories on tape, this is an invaluable guide to creating a precious family heirloom -- one that will truly touch tomorrow.
Touching Stars (The Shenandoah Album Novels #4)
by Emilie RichardsA war correspondent’s return to his ex-wife and their children tests what it means to be family in this emotional saga by a USA Today–bestselling author.Gayle Fortman has built a good life for herself and her three sons as an innkeeper in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley. She has even maintained a cordial relationship with her ex, charismatic broadcast journalist Eric Fortman, covering with the boys for his absences and broken promises. Luckily Travis Allen, her closest neighbor, has been a loving surrogate father to the boys and her own best friend.Then, on the eve of oldest son Jared’s graduation, Eric returns, having nearly lost his life in Afghanistan. Worse, he has lost his way and his courage, and needs a place to recover. Gayle realizes this might be the last chance for her sons to establish a real bond with their father, and offers him a summer at the inn and a chance to put things right. Gayle and Eric are all too aware that their onetime love and attraction are still there. But can the pieces of their broken lives be mended, or are they better laid to rest?Praise for Touching Stars“Magically interpreting the emotional resonance of love and loss, betrayal and redemption through luminously drawn characters, Richards’ latest installment in her irresistible, quilt-inspired Shenandoah Album series glows with transcendent warmth, wisdom, grace, and compassion.” —Booklist“Romance Writers of America award–winner Richards gets the emotions right and writes credible dialogue when the adults speak to children.” —Publishers Weekly
Touching Spirit Bear: The Novel Study (Spirit Bear #1)
by Ben MikaelsenWithin Cole Matthews lie anger, rage and hate. Cole has been stealing and fighting for years. This time he caught Alex Driscal in the, parking lot and smashed his head against the sidewalk. Now, Alex may have permanent brain damage'and Cole is in the Biggest trouble of his life.Cole is offered Circle Justice: a system based on Native American traditions that attempts to provide healing for the criminal offender, the victim and the, community. With prison as his only alternative, Cole plays along. He says he wants to repent, but in his heart Cole blames his alcoholic mom his, abusive dad, wimpy Alex -- everyone but himself -- for his situation.Cole receives a one-year banishment to a remote Alaskan island. There, he is mauled by Mysterious white bear of Native American legend. Hideously injured, Cole waits for his death His thoughts shift from from Anger to humility. To survive, he must stop blaming others and take responsibility for his life. Rescuers arrive to save Cole's but it is the attack of the Spirit Bear that may save his soul. Ben Mikaelsen paints a vivid picture of a juvenile offender, examining the roots without absolving solving him of responsibility for his actions, and questioning a society in which angry people make victims of their peers and communities. Touching Spirit Bear is a poignant testimonial to the power of a pain that can destroy, or lead to healing
Touching Space, Placing Touch
by Martin Dodge Mark PatersonGiven that touch and touching is so central to everyday embodied existence, why has it been largely ignored by social scientists for so long? What is the place of touch in our mixed spaces of sociality, work, domesticity, recreation, creativity or care? What conceptual resources and academic languages can we reach towards when approaching tactile activities and somatic experiences through the body? How is this tactile landscape gendered? How is touch becoming revisited and revalidated in late capitalism through animal encounters, tourism, massage, beauty treatments, professional medicine, everyday spiritualities or the aseptic touch-free spaces of automated toilets? How is touch placed and valued within scholarly fieldwork and research itself, integral as it is to the production of embodied epistemologies? How is touch involved in such aesthetic experiences as shaping objects in sand, or encountering fleshly bodies within a painting? The goal of this edited collection, Touching Space, Placing Touch is twofold: 1. To further advance theoretical and empirical understanding of touch in social science scholarship by focussing on the differential social and cultural meanings of touching and the places of touch.2. To develop a multi-faceted and interdisciplinary explanations of touch in terms of individual and social life, personal experiences and tasks, and their related cultural contexts. The twelve essays in this volume provide a rich combination of theoretical resources, methodological approaches and empirical investigation. Each chapter takes a distinct aspect of touch within a particular spatial context, exploring this through a mixture of sustained empirical work, critical theories of embodiment, philosophical and psychoanalytic approaches to gendered touch and touching, or the relationship between visual and non-visual culture, to articulate something of the variety and variability of touching experiences. The contributors are a mixture of established and emerging researchers within a growing interdisciplinary field of scholarship, yet the volume has a strong thematic identity and therefore represents the formative collection concerning the multiple senses of touch within social science scholarship at this time.
Touching Snow
by M. Sindy Felin"The best way to avoid being picked on by high school bullies is to kill someone." Karina has plenty to worry about on the last day of seventh grade: finding three Ds and a C on her report card again, getting laughed at by everyone again, being sent to the principal -- again. She'd like this to change, but with her and her sisters dodging their stepfather's fists every day after school, she doesn't have time to do much self-reflecting. Finally her stepfather is taken away on child abuse charges, and Karina thinks things might turn into something resembling normal. The problem is, he's not gone for good. And as Karina becomes closer with a girl at the community center where her stepfather is not showing up for his parenting classes, she starts to realize a couple things. First, for all the problems her family had tried to escape by immigrating from Haiti, they brought most of them along to upstate New York. And second, if anything is going to change for this family, it is going to be up to Karina and her sisters to make it happen. M. Sindy Felin's debut novel is the story of a young girl's coming-of-age amid the violent waters that run just beneath the surface of suburbia -- a story that has the courage to ask: How far will you go to protect the ones you love?
Touching Peace: Practicing the Art of Mindful Living
by Thich Nhat HanhIn Touching Peace, Thich Nhat Hanh expands the teachings on practicing the art of mindful living begun in the best selling Being Peace by giving specific, practical instructions on extending our meditation practice into our daily lives. The book reminds us to focus on what is refreshing and healing within and all around us, and how, paired with the practice of mindful breathing, it can be used as the basis for examining the roots of war and violence, alcoholism and drug abuse, and social alienation.Touching Peace offers Thich Nhat Hanh's vision for rebuilding society through strengthening our families and communities, and realizing the ultimate dimension of reality in each act of our daily lives. The book concludes with the author's profound vision and determination to make efforts to alleviate the suffering of all people.Included are such classic Thich Nhat Hanh practices as the conflict resolution tool of the Peace Treaty; his thoughts on a "diet for a mindful society" based on his interpretation of the 5 Mindfulness Trainings, and his early writings on the environment."When we touch peace everything becomes real." -Thich Nhat HanhWith 10 original illustrations by Mayumi Oda
Touching Parchment: How Medieval Users Rubbed, Handled, and Kissed Their Manuscripts (Social Encounters with the Book #Volume 2)
by UnknownIn the late middle ages (ca. 1200-1520), both religious and secular people used manuscripts, was regarded as a most precious item. The traces of their use through touching and handling during different rituals such as oath-taking, public reading, and memorializing the dead, is the subject of Kathryn Rudy’s research in Touching Parchment. This second volume, Social Encounters with the Book, delves into the physical interaction with books in various social settings, including education, courtly assemblies, and confraternal gatherings. Looking at acts such as pointing, scratching, and ‘wet-touching’, the author zooms in on smudges and abrasions on medieval manuscripts as testimonials of readers’ interaction with the book and its contents. In so doing, she dissects the function of books in oaths, confraternal groups, education, and courtly settings, illuminating how books were used as teaching aids and tools for conveying political messages. The narrative paints a vivid picture of medieval reading, emphasizing bodily engagement, from page-turning to the intimate act of kissing pages. Overall, this text offers a captivating exploration of the tactile and social dimensions of book use in late medieval Europe broadening our perspective on the role of objects in rituals during the middle ages. Social Encounters with the Book provides a fundamental resource to anybody interested in medieval history and book materiality more widely.
Touching Parchment
by Kathryn M. RudyThe Medieval book, both religious and secular, was regarded as a most precious item. The traces of its use through touching and handling during different rituals such as oath-taking, is the subject of Kathryn Rudy’s research in Touching Parchment.
Touching Midnight
by Fiona BrandEMBRACED BY TIMEDeep within her soul Lady Victoria Quinton Malloryknows she has a gift. Since childhood she has dreamedof a sacred, long-lost past, of ancient mysteries andburied passion that will reawaken with a vengeance.Growing up at the mission in Valle Del Sol, Peru, Quinhas never quite understood her powerful connection tothe place, a connection that now draws her to a badlywounded man left for dead by local rebels.SEALED WITH AN ETERNAL KISSBrought to the mission to recover, Jay Lomax isenchanted with Quin...a woman strangely familiar tohim. And when he’s hired to protect the ancient ruinsof a recently excavated temple city, the voices of thelost world lure him and Quin back into an unfinishedodyssey. Now the two lovers will discover the shatteringsecrets of a great legacy, and the danger and destiny thathave bound them together for eternity...
Touching Heaven: A Cardiologist's Encounters with Death and Living Proof of an Afterlife
by Chauncey Crandall Kris BearssHow a doctor's glimpses of eternity confirmed everything he believed about God, suffering, life on earth, and what happens after death. Dr. Chauncey Crandall knows his patients well. When they are dying, he sits at the bedside with them and holds their hands. He prays with them. Sometimes he can feel what they feel and see what they see. At other times his patients have near-death experiences and "come back" with astonishing descriptions of the afterlife. In TOUCHING HEAVEN, Dr. Crandall reveals how what he has seen and heard has convinced him that God is real, that we are created for a divine purpose, that death is not the end, that we will see our departed loved ones again, and that we are closer to the next world than we think.
Touching Ground: Devotion and Demons Along the Path to Enlightenment
by Jaimal Yogis Tim Testu Emma Varvaloucas Jeanette TestuThe vivid story of a hippie, a carpenter, a Vietnam vet, an alcoholic, a marine engineer, and a great dad who battled his demons on the Buddhist path.From October 16, 1973, to August 17, 1974, Tim Testu walked all the way from San Francisco to Seattle, bowing his head to the ground every three steps. And that’s not even the best part of his story. Tim Testu was one of the very first Americans to take ordination in Chinese Zen Buddhism. His path—from getting kicked out of school to joyriding in stolen boats in the Navy to squatting in an anarchist commune to wholehearted spiritual engagment in a strict Buddhist monastery—is equal parts rollicking adventure and profound spiritual memoir. Touching Ground is simultaneously larger than life and entirely relatable; even as Tim finds his spiritual home with his teacher, the legendary Chan master Hsuan Hua, he nonetheless continues to struggle to overcome his addictions and his very human shortcomings. Tim never did anything halfway, including both drinking and striving for liberation. He died of leukemia in 1998 after packing ten lifetimes into fifty-two years.
Touching Greatness: Memorable Encounters with Golfing Legends
by Dermot GilleeceTales of golfing stars and memorable moments from Ireland's best-loved golf correspondent.In almost thirty years as Ireland's leading golf journalist, Dermot Gilleece has met and interviewed numerous heroes of the game.Join Dermot on the course as he looks back over many wonderful years of golf with the greats - from Jack Nicklaus' first game on Irish soil, to sympathetic accounts of the declining skills of iconic golfers such as Seve Ballesteros. Packed with stories and insights about legends from Gene Sarazen, Tom Watson and Tiger Woods to, of course, 'Himself', Christy O'Connor Snr, Touching Greatness offers highlights from Dermot's much-loved column in the Irish Times, as well as more recent observations on the game. There are unmissable insights into illustrious characters from the amateur game, women's golf, Irish involvement in major team competitions like the Ryder Cup, and the history of Irish golfers in the Open, including the double Open and PGA Champion, Padraig Harrington.At turns moving and funny, and always beautifully written, Dermot's tales bring you right onto the fairway as you soak up the very best stories from inside the world of competitive golf.
Touching Evil
by Kay HooperSometimes evil lingers so close, you can feel it....Seattle police sketch artist Maggie Barnes has an extraordinary gift. She listens as traumatized crime victims describe their ordeals -- and then uses those horrifying recollections to draw dead-on sketches of the assailants.Some cops think Maggie is telepathic, that she can actually enter the victims' minds. Only Maggie knows the truth behind her rare talent ... and she isn't telling.But her secret may be exposed when a madman seizes Seattle in his terrifying grip. He abducts women and blinds them, leaving them barely alive.The police have one hope: the lone victim who might recover her sight. But they don't know that Maggie has her own dark connection to the monster -- an eerie link that may stretch back to a string of unsolved murders.To stop the escalating terror, Maggie will have to push her abilities to the breaking point -- even if it means confronting a predator whose powers seem to have no bounds....From the Paperback edition.
Touching Earth
by Rani ManickaTHE BALINESE TWINS - Beautiful and exotic, they exchange an island paradise for the shabby squalor of London, and innocence for corruption. THE SICILIAN - Ricky Delgado strikes a devil's bargain with a blood goddess: 'Build my temple and bring me the souls of damaged people, and you will see what rewards I give.' THE COURTESAN - Elizabeth makes her living from men's desire. With a flick of the switch in her head, she feels nothing: no pain, no hate, no sorrow, no joy. THE ARTIST - Anis takes to painting as an outlet for his rage. His artist's eye knows his subjects before they know themselves, and he paints them all, a gallery of broken people. Can they escape the deadly web of decadence and sin?
Touching Earth
by Rani ManickaTHE BALINESE TWINS - Beautiful and exotic, they exchange an island paradise for the shabby squalor of London, and innocence for corruption. THE SICILIAN - Ricky Delgado strikes a devil's bargain with a blood goddess: 'Build my temple and bring me the souls of damaged people, and you will see what rewards I give.' THE COURTESAN - Elizabeth makes her living from men's desire. With a flick of the switch in her head, she feels nothing: no pain, no hate, no sorrow, no joy. THE ARTIST - Anis takes to painting as an outlet for his rage. His artist's eye knows his subjects before they know themselves, and he paints them all, a gallery of broken people. Can they escape the deadly web of decadence and sin?
Touching Distance
by Beverley Turner James CracknellDouble Olympic gold-medal winner, James Cracknell. His story before and after his life-changing accident.In October 2011 James Cracknell, two-time Olympic gold-medal rower and one of the greatest endurance athletes the world has ever known, suffered a seizure at home as his young son looked on in horror. A man who had known no limits, a man who had practically achieved the impossible, was now struggling to master life's simple challenges.A year earlier, as James undertook yet another endurance challenge in Arizona, he was knocked off his bike by the wing mirror of a petrol tanker. It had smashed into the back of his head at high speed, causing severe frontal lobe damage. The doctors weren’t sure if he would recover and, if he did, whether he would ever be the same again.Touching Distance is an extraordinary, honest and powerful account as James and his wife Bev confront for the first time the lasting effects that the accident has had on their lives. It is the story of a marriage, of a family and of one man's fight back to be the best husband and father he can be.
Touching Distance
by Graham HurleyThree unrelated, random killings. Or something much, much worse? Graham Hurely’s new crime thriller unleashes a serial killer; combining Hurley’s talent for ultra-realistic, character driven police-procedurals with a plot powered by an explosive ticking clock and kicking his books into a new realm of tension and fear.
Touching Distance
by Graham Hurley'There is no one writing better police procedurals today.' Daily TelegraphA killing without mercy. A crime with no motive. Three random killings. Or something much, much worse? DS Jimmy Suttle is trying to get his life back on track. His marriage has fallen apart and he rarely sees his young daughter, Grace. But then a murder shuts the door on the chaos of his personal life...The victim was shot through the head at the wheel of his car on a lonely moorland road. The only witness? His two-year-old son, strapped into the rear child seat. Within days, two more killings, equally professional, equally without motive.Meanwhile, Suttle's estranged wife is embarking on an investigation of her own in the world of journalism. But the story brings her to the question at the very heart of Jimmy's case - what does it take to make a man kill?Why readers love Graham Hurley:'There is no one writing better police procedurals today.' Daily Telegraph'Well-written and plotted, utterly convincing and really exciting... Excellent' Daily Mail'One of the great talents of British police procedurals... every book he delivers is better than the last' Independent on SundayFans of Ian Rankin, Peter James and Peter Robinson will love Graham Hurley:Faraday and Winter1. Turnstone 2. The Take 3. Angels Passing 4. Deadlight 5. Cut to Black 6. Blood and Honey 7. One Under 8. The Price of Darkness 9. No Lovelier Death 10. Beyond Reach 11. Borrowed Light 12. Happy Days Jimmy Suttle1. Western Approaches 2. Touching Distance 3. Sins of the Father 4. The Order of Things * Each Graham Hurley novel can be read as a standalone or in series order *
Touching Darkness: Number 2 in series (Midnighters #2)
by Scott WesterfeldImagine falling for someone who can fly you through the air. Imagine loving someone who can see your darkest thoughts. Imagine having secrets that could destroy the things you cherish . . .Midnight in Bixby hides more than one secret, and uncovering them will put Jessica and her friends in more danger than they could have imagined. The Midnighters aren't the only ones seeking truth in the darkness. And if the group allow their own secrets to come between them they risk losing one of their own - forever.