The Five Keys to Mindful Communication: Using Deep Listening and Mindful Speech to Strengthen Relationships, Heal Conflicts, and Accomplish Your Goals

Gospel For Muslims asserts that all theology - including Western theology - is influenced by the culture of those who write it. Help is therefore needed to move beyond the western understanding of the Bible in order to tell Muslims the good news about Jesus in more accessible ways and enable them to believe and follow him in culturally appropriate ways - even if it means doing so from outside institutionalized Christianity.

Your choices, charm, and chutzpah can revitalize your community.

In her first book, Bogorad reminds us that we are all social beings, who need to socially interact to thrive as individuals and to sustain strong communities. She shares with us the theory that social isolation leads to victimization and weakens our communities. And she warns us that social cannibalism may consume us if we continue to ignore our need and our obligation to socially interact with each other.

If you are a person whose community has been weakened by incivility, victimization, and/or addiction, the ideas within her book may help you strengthen your community. Or if you are a person, who has minimal contact with other people, her ideas may provide you with a reason to increase the quantity and quality of your interactions. Or if you are a person, who lives in a community without incivility, victimization, and addiction, the contents of her book may help you understand those of us whose social environment is not as perfect as yours. But no matter who you are, reading her book will cause you to wonder about the importance of civility and the costs of incivility.

Remember:                We all need a village.

And ponder:                What we do not say does hurt us, and our polite interaction with others strengthens us and our community. according to Bogorad.

It’s true, as they say, that we can only love others when we first love ourselves and we can only experience real joy when we stop running from pain. The key to understanding these truisms lies in remaining open to life in all circumstances, and here Pema Chödrön shows us how. Because when we embrace the happiness and suffering, intelligence and confusion that are a natural part of life, we can begin to discover a wellspring of courageous love within our hearts.