Think about where you are right now. How well would you and your family fare if today, right now, you were suddenly faced with an enormous disaster—a massive earthquake, a sudden flood, a horrific hurricane, tornado, super storm, or other catastrophic event? If you and your family are not fully prepared to face the events after a disaster and you want to learn how to prepare for and survive when a disaster strikes, this book could save your life … and the lives of your family. This book details lifesaving information and illustrations for you and your family, to help ensure your survival in the event of a disaster.

Think about where you are right now. How well would you and your family fare if today, right now, you were suddenly faced with an enormous disaster—a massive earthquake, a sudden flood, a horrific hurricane, tornado, super storm, or other catastrophic event? If you and your family are not fully prepared to face the events after a disaster and you want to learn how to prepare for and survive when a disaster strikes, this book could save your life … and the lives of your family. This book details lifesaving information and illustrations for you and your family, to help ensure your survival in the event of a disaster.

Soaring Beyond self is about the fourth state of consciousness. It permeates all the states and remains after the other three die. There is a path to experiencing this Ultimate Reality during a lifetime. This is the wisdom of the ancient philosophical treatises known as the Upanishads. Joined to it are insights of modern psychology, death education and neuroscience, punctuated with timeless spiritual passages. Directives emerge for touching that transcendent, all-bliss consciousness here and now. Memorable and famous personages pop in to enthrall and teach. The Divine Sarah. The young author who teaches us to fall. “The most powerful woman in the British Empire,” whose bust needs dusting. Text from Barry’s first book, Otherwise Fine, has been incorporated, particularly in the chapters addressing the fears of incompleteness and of not having mattered, as well as in the chapter on letting go of the physical frame. Praise for Otherwise Fine “Susan Barry performs a great service for us in this guide through the depths, reefs, shoals and safe channels of our death-related anxieties. She draws effectively from research findings and insightful observations that have too often remained out of sight in specialist libraries.” —Robert J. Kastenbaum, PhD, professor emeritus, Arizona State University. Author of Death, Society and Human Experience (Eleventh Edition), The Psychology of Death (Third Edition), and On Our Way: The Final Passage Through Life and Death. “This is a rare book that compiles strong scholarship with fascinating, honest, and even humorous, personal self-discovery. The vanity temptation of every writer or artist—preening or personal therapy—is overcome, which empathically benefits us all. The result is an original and important work.” —Michael Gregoric, PhD, professor emeritus, University of Connecticut. Author of Principles in Modern Dramatic Criticism. Contributor to Videotherapy in Mental Health.

Soaring Beyond self is about the fourth state of consciousness. It permeates all the states and remains after the other three die. There is a path to experiencing this Ultimate Reality during a lifetime. This is the wisdom of the ancient philosophical treatises known as the Upanishads. Joined to it are insights of modern psychology, death education and neuroscience, punctuated with timeless spiritual passages. Directives emerge for touching that transcendent, all-bliss consciousness here and now. Memorable and famous personages pop in to enthrall and teach. The Divine Sarah. The young author who teaches us to fall. “The most powerful woman in the British Empire,” whose bust needs dusting. Text from Barry’s first book, Otherwise Fine, has been incorporated, particularly in the chapters addressing the fears of incompleteness and of not having mattered, as well as in the chapter on letting go of the physical frame. Praise for Otherwise Fine “Susan Barry performs a great service for us in this guide through the depths, reefs, shoals and safe channels of our death-related anxieties. She draws effectively from research findings and insightful observations that have too often remained out of sight in specialist libraries.” —Robert J. Kastenbaum, PhD, professor emeritus, Arizona State University. Author of Death, Society and Human Experience (Eleventh Edition), The Psychology of Death (Third Edition), and On Our Way: The Final Passage Through Life and Death. “This is a rare book that compiles strong scholarship with fascinating, honest, and even humorous, personal self-discovery. The vanity temptation of every writer or artist—preening or personal therapy—is overcome, which empathically benefits us all. The result is an original and important work.” —Michael Gregoric, PhD, professor emeritus, University of Connecticut. Author of Principles in Modern Dramatic Criticism. Contributor to Videotherapy in Mental Health.

Soaring Beyond self is about the fourth state of consciousness. It permeates all the states and remains after the other three die. There is a path to experiencing this Ultimate Reality during a lifetime. This is the wisdom of the ancient philosophical treatises known as the Upanishads. Joined to it are insights of modern psychology, death education and neuroscience, punctuated with timeless spiritual passages. Directives emerge for touching that transcendent, all-bliss consciousness here and now. Memorable and famous personages pop in to enthrall and teach. The Divine Sarah. The young author who teaches us to fall. “The most powerful woman in the British Empire,” whose bust needs dusting. Text from Barry’s first book, Otherwise Fine, has been incorporated, particularly in the chapters addressing the fears of incompleteness and of not having mattered, as well as in the chapter on letting go of the physical frame. Praise for Otherwise Fine “Susan Barry performs a great service for us in this guide through the depths, reefs, shoals and safe channels of our death-related anxieties. She draws effectively from research findings and insightful observations that have too often remained out of sight in specialist libraries.” —Robert J. Kastenbaum, PhD, professor emeritus, Arizona State University. Author of Death, Society and Human Experience (Eleventh Edition), The Psychology of Death (Third Edition), and On Our Way: The Final Passage Through Life and Death. “This is a rare book that compiles strong scholarship with fascinating, honest, and even humorous, personal self-discovery. The vanity temptation of every writer or artist—preening or personal therapy—is overcome, which empathically benefits us all. The result is an original and important work.” —Michael Gregoric, PhD, professor emeritus, University of Connecticut. Author of Principles in Modern Dramatic Criticism. Contributor to Videotherapy in Mental Health.

It’s all quiet now in cities like Birmingham, Chicago, Detroit, New York, and Newark, where blacks once protested and rioted against their segregated conditions in the 1960s and women burned their bras during the Women’s Liberation era in the 1970s. But for five years, O.M. Davis, a pioneer in equal employment opportunity, analyzed employment practices and wrote affirmative-action plans for public- and private-sector clients throughout the United States. This was concurrent with her CEO refusing to pay her comparable wages as whites and males, citing that although qualified, she had “two strikes against her of being black and a woman.” One CEO stated that she had delusions of grandeur, while the other stated that she was ahead of her time.

From 1968 to 1999, O.M. Davis used the court of law to redress her fight with CEOs across race and gender lines for pay equity and inclusion. Along the way, she weaves in her enslaved Native American Cherokee ancestry, a world conference of women, and anecdotes of spiritual inspiration.

Davis cites the family as the key to her success. In Branches of the Vine: The Price of Admission, she gives you an inside look at her story of inspiration, embedded in her stable, nuclear Christian family background, which she accessed to function in today’s society.

By looking deep within herself, she interweaves her enslaved bloodline where her re-imagination of past conditions empowers her with knowledge of unity and diversity. As a contemporary woman whose world pivots on individualized, systemic gender and race discrimination, it also becomes the stuff on which she renders decisions in the business world. There are certain basic truths that are so solid in the foundation of our being that it can become monumental for any era or new/nu world order.

It’s all quiet now in cities like Birmingham, Chicago, Detroit, New York, and Newark, where blacks once protested and rioted against their segregated conditions in the 1960s and women burned their bras during the Women’s Liberation era in the 1970s. But for five years, O.M. Davis, a pioneer in equal employment opportunity, analyzed employment practices and wrote affirmative-action plans for public- and private-sector clients throughout the United States. This was concurrent with her CEO refusing to pay her comparable wages as whites and males, citing that although qualified, she had “two strikes against her of being black and a woman.” One CEO stated that she had delusions of grandeur, while the other stated that she was ahead of her time.

From 1968 to 1999, O.M. Davis used the court of law to redress her fight with CEOs across race and gender lines for pay equity and inclusion. Along the way, she weaves in her enslaved Native American Cherokee ancestry, a world conference of women, and anecdotes of spiritual inspiration.

Davis cites the family as the key to her success. In Branches of the Vine: The Price of Admission, she gives you an inside look at her story of inspiration, embedded in her stable, nuclear Christian family background, which she accessed to function in today’s society.

By looking deep within herself, she interweaves her enslaved bloodline where her re-imagination of past conditions empowers her with knowledge of unity and diversity. As a contemporary woman whose world pivots on individualized, systemic gender and race discrimination, it also becomes the stuff on which she renders decisions in the business world. There are certain basic truths that are so solid in the foundation of our being that it can become monumental for any era or new/nu world order.

It’s all quiet now in cities like Birmingham, Chicago, Detroit, New York, and Newark, where blacks once protested and rioted against their segregated conditions in the 1960s and women burned their bras during the Women’s Liberation era in the 1970s. But for five years, O.M. Davis, a pioneer in equal employment opportunity, analyzed employment practices and wrote affirmative-action plans for public- and private-sector clients throughout the United States. This was concurrent with her CEO refusing to pay her comparable wages as whites and males, citing that although qualified, she had “two strikes against her of being black and a woman.” One CEO stated that she had delusions of grandeur, while the other stated that she was ahead of her time.

From 1968 to 1999, O.M. Davis used the court of law to redress her fight with CEOs across race and gender lines for pay equity and inclusion. Along the way, she weaves in her enslaved Native American Cherokee ancestry, a world conference of women, and anecdotes of spiritual inspiration.

Davis cites the family as the key to her success. In Branches of the Vine: The Price of Admission, she gives you an inside look at her story of inspiration, embedded in her stable, nuclear Christian family background, which she accessed to function in today’s society.

By looking deep within herself, she interweaves her enslaved bloodline where her re-imagination of past conditions empowers her with knowledge of unity and diversity. As a contemporary woman whose world pivots on individualized, systemic gender and race discrimination, it also becomes the stuff on which she renders decisions in the business world. There are certain basic truths that are so solid in the foundation of our being that it can become monumental for any era or new/nu world order.

I am Nina-Ann McCurley.

I was born in a small town, an average woman living my life day to day. Twelve years ago, as I watched my mother waste away and die of ovarian cancer, I felt the pain of losing someone so dear and loving to me.

What I didn’t know then was that I would have to face my own battle with cancer one day—not once, but twice. I love my life and my three sons, and I didn’t want to leave them as my mother had left me.

This is my story, my battle.

I was forty-three years old—a keen sailor and tennis player who ran my own marketing business from home—when I got my diagnosis. I am fortunate to be surrounded by family and friends who stand beside me when I need a helping hand. With their love and support, I took on the battle with a heart filled with the desire to live and watch my boys grow into men. I know my journey has made a difference to my family and friends. Now I want to reach out to others who are facing the same terrible journey. I want to tell my story and inspire those women who are standing on the brink of their own battle with cancer.

Life is too precious to let a disease win. You have to battle it as you battle any other event trying to overpower you: with love.

I am Nina-Ann McCurley.

I was born in a small town, an average woman living my life day to day. Twelve years ago, as I watched my mother waste away and die of ovarian cancer, I felt the pain of losing someone so dear and loving to me.

What I didn’t know then was that I would have to face my own battle with cancer one day—not once, but twice. I love my life and my three sons, and I didn’t want to leave them as my mother had left me.

This is my story, my battle.

I was forty-three years old—a keen sailor and tennis player who ran my own marketing business from home—when I got my diagnosis. I am fortunate to be surrounded by family and friends who stand beside me when I need a helping hand. With their love and support, I took on the battle with a heart filled with the desire to live and watch my boys grow into men. I know my journey has made a difference to my family and friends. Now I want to reach out to others who are facing the same terrible journey. I want to tell my story and inspire those women who are standing on the brink of their own battle with cancer.

Life is too precious to let a disease win. You have to battle it as you battle any other event trying to overpower you: with love.

In a fresh and compelling way, Why Did You Give Up The Koochie And Now You Mad will educate men and women in understanding God’s idea about woman, wife, and marriage.

God built woman as a spectacular and wondrous masterpiece. She is indeed astonishing, a fabulous gift to humanity. Nevertheless, many women do not understand God’s mind toward her. Many women are not acquainted with God’s idea about her care; treatment; due respect; or the measure of love God decreed she receive.

Society has taught women many disciplines. Many of which she ought to have never accepted. Understanding God’s idea will empower women to see God’s mind regarding His idea of her, and for her. In Why Did You Give Up The Koochie And Now You Mad women will discover God’s reason for her creation; God’s idea of her care and treatment; and God’s intentions of man’s expression of love that she deserves.

Why Did You Give Up The Koochie And Now You Mad will teach both men and women about what the words man and husband actually means. They will also find the Scriptural definition of wife, also known as a good thing. Both will grasp God’s idea of the Scriptural meaning of “submission.” Men and women, husbands and wives will come to know, and understand what each is to yield to the other, and what neither should be willing to submit.

In a fresh and compelling way, Why Did You Give Up The Koochie And Now You Mad will educate men and women in understanding God’s idea about woman, wife, and marriage.

God built woman as a spectacular and wondrous masterpiece. She is indeed astonishing, a fabulous gift to humanity. Nevertheless, many women do not understand God’s mind toward her. Many women are not acquainted with God’s idea about her care; treatment; due respect; or the measure of love God decreed she receive.

Society has taught women many disciplines. Many of which she ought to have never accepted. Understanding God’s idea will empower women to see God’s mind regarding His idea of her, and for her. In Why Did You Give Up The Koochie And Now You Mad women will discover God’s reason for her creation; God’s idea of her care and treatment; and God’s intentions of man’s expression of love that she deserves.

Why Did You Give Up The Koochie And Now You Mad will teach both men and women about what the words man and husband actually means. They will also find the Scriptural definition of wife, also known as a good thing. Both will grasp God’s idea of the Scriptural meaning of “submission.” Men and women, husbands and wives will come to know, and understand what each is to yield to the other, and what neither should be willing to submit.

In a fresh and compelling way, Why Did You Give Up The Koochie And Now You Mad will educate men and women in understanding God’s idea about woman, wife, and marriage.

God built woman as a spectacular and wondrous masterpiece. She is indeed astonishing, a fabulous gift to humanity. Nevertheless, many women do not understand God’s mind toward her. Many women are not acquainted with God’s idea about her care; treatment; due respect; or the measure of love God decreed she receive.

Society has taught women many disciplines. Many of which she ought to have never accepted. Understanding God’s idea will empower women to see God’s mind regarding His idea of her, and for her. In Why Did You Give Up The Koochie And Now You Mad women will discover God’s reason for her creation; God’s idea of her care and treatment; and God’s intentions of man’s expression of love that she deserves.

Why Did You Give Up The Koochie And Now You Mad will teach both men and women about what the words man and husband actually means. They will also find the Scriptural definition of wife, also known as a good thing. Both will grasp God’s idea of the Scriptural meaning of “submission.” Men and women, husbands and wives will come to know, and understand what each is to yield to the other, and what neither should be willing to submit.

Men and women are perhaps more alike than either would care to admit. In this guide, former Personal Development Coach and Personal Trainer Nina van der Plas invites you to laugh at how very human we all are.

All Women Are Bitches, and All Men Are Bastards allows us to take a closer look at ourselves before we point a finger at the opposite sex. By providing valuable insights into what goes on behind the scenes in our actions, she helps her clients to understand that everything works in balance. Lessons we learned in childhood are played out in our adult lives, and the more aware we become, the easier it is for us to break these patterns.

A new way of being can begin with something as simple as a change in focus. This can be difficult, as it can challenge a relationship to grow—or grow apart. Fear is what keeps people from pushing ahead, and the old safeguard of “at least I’m not alone” seems like a safe haven.

But if we loved ourselves enough, we would never allow ourselves to be miserable, hurt, or sad. By changing our behaviour and holding ourselves responsible, we can learn true respect for our selves and others, self-confidence, self-empowerment, integrity, a healthy body image, and an uninhibited sense for creative expression. Once we learn to look within and from another’s point of view, we can have more valuable relationships.

This is a journey inward—sandpaper for the soul.

Men and women are perhaps more alike than either would care to admit. In this guide, former Personal Development Coach and Personal Trainer Nina van der Plas invites you to laugh at how very human we all are.

All Women Are Bitches, and All Men Are Bastards allows us to take a closer look at ourselves before we point a finger at the opposite sex. By providing valuable insights into what goes on behind the scenes in our actions, she helps her clients to understand that everything works in balance. Lessons we learned in childhood are played out in our adult lives, and the more aware we become, the easier it is for us to break these patterns.

A new way of being can begin with something as simple as a change in focus. This can be difficult, as it can challenge a relationship to grow—or grow apart. Fear is what keeps people from pushing ahead, and the old safeguard of “at least I’m not alone” seems like a safe haven.

But if we loved ourselves enough, we would never allow ourselves to be miserable, hurt, or sad. By changing our behaviour and holding ourselves responsible, we can learn true respect for our selves and others, self-confidence, self-empowerment, integrity, a healthy body image, and an uninhibited sense for creative expression. Once we learn to look within and from another’s point of view, we can have more valuable relationships.

This is a journey inward—sandpaper for the soul.