Miles From Home The Journey Of A Lifetime

Miles From Home is a deeply personal story and a narrative of the American dream. Born to a devoted mother and severely alcoholic father, Phillip Lee Woods was sent as an 11 year old to live with a taciturn grandfather on a lonely farm in Indianas countryside. Doing backbreaking chores from daybreak to dark and walking a long, deserted road to catch the bus, Woods school years were marked by toil, embarrassment about his circumstances, and a yearning to reunite with his mother and sister. Living in an isolated farmhouse with no indoor plumbing, no phone, and little heat, Woods and his grandfather helped each other to survive. These challenging early experiences helped the young Woods become a determined, perseverant man. Woods started out as a postal clerk, and despite not having a college education, he went on to found his own successful insurance business, Woods & Grooms, Inc. Along the way, he married his favorite post office patron and had a family of his own. His climb to ultimate success was riddled with many failures, including near bankruptcies and unsuccessful forays into raising horses and running a flight school. But more than a story of the American dream of a man who, like many, started with nothing and went on to achieve success and serve his community- this is a love story, not just between Woods and his wife of more than 50 years, but between Woods and America. At the age of 66, he decided to walk across the country from east to west, determined to see its roads again close up and meet its inhabitants in person. He wanted to see the country not as politicians and lobbyists were formulating it, but see it as a land of individuals who had their own values, their own opinions. In 2010, Woods again walked across the Unites States, from north to south, a testament to what a stout heart, a devoted wife, and a few good pairs of sneakers could accomplish. This is the tale of a long, winding journey. Readers of Woods story respond to the at times heartbreakingly honest narrative, to the tale of a life of struggle, triumphs, failures, and tragedies, but most of all they are inspired by the can-do spirit of a man who insists we all keep moving.

Autobiography of Phillip L. Woods

Has desperation driven you to do things that you never intended to do? Are hurtful and painful memories from the past haunting you and affecting your life today even though you have buried them deep inside? The author of The Journey of a Lifetime has been there and knows what it feels like to live through these experiences. Now the Lord has called her forward to share how he saved her and showed her how to heal. She states, "Today I am no longer just a victim or even a survivor. I am an overcomer because of God's mercy and grace. The Lord has shown me a better way to live. He has restored and even given me back double of that which was taken from me. This road I have traveled is not an easy road to take, but the Lord has never left me or forsaken me. He promised to always be with me, and I choose to believe His promise by faith." God has turned the pain of her past into a living testimony she can share with others to give them hope. Some people just bury their pain and live defeated and miserable lives. And some use drugs, alcohol, and other various things to numb themselves so they don't have to feel it. God has a better plan for our lives. The answer is to acknowledge the pain and go through it to the other side and be free of it. He will walk with you too if you call out to him and ask him to heal you and be willing to follow where he leads. This book will help you make that decision, for it offers you wisdom gained by the author from walking with the Lord for over fifty years. You can have a life free from the past and a future full of hope, joy, and love. God is ready, willing, and able to light the way for you. He can change your life forever!

Trekking 500 miles on the ancient Camino de Santiago was not just an item for Russ Eanes to check off his bucket list. It was a journey he had dreamed of taking for decades. At age 61, with his children grown, he was too young to retire but wise enough to know that he needed to reorient the hurried pace of his life. He left his work and took a sabbatical to "reset" himself and the first step was to head to the Camino. With everything he needed in a 16-pound pack and, equipped with a set of seven simple principles, he took off from St. Jean Pied de Port, France, to walk, as pilgrims have for twelve centuries, across Spain, to realize his dream. It was the Walk of a Lifetime. In a style that is part personal memoir and part travel memoir, he combines history, spirituality, coffee, culture and humor into an engaging journey of personal rediscovery.

“Mesmerizing, magical, deeply moving.” —Elif Shafak Expanding on the popular podcast of the same name from On Being Studios, Poetry Unbound offers immersive reflections on fifty powerful poems. In the tumult of our contemporary moment, poetry has emerged as an inviting, consoling outlet with a unique power to move and connect us, to inspire fury, tears, joy, laughter, and surprise. This generous anthology pairs fifty illuminating poems with poet and podcast host Pádraig Ó Tuama’s appealing, unhurried reflections. With keen insight and warm personal anecdotes, Ó Tuama considers each poem’s artistry and explores how its meaning can reach into our own lives. Focusing mainly on poets writing today, Ó Tuama engages with a diverse array of voices that includes Ada Limón, Ilya Kaminsky, Margaret Atwood, Ocean Vuong, Layli Long Soldier, and Reginald Dwayne Betts. Natasha Trethewey meditates on miscegenation and Mississippi; Raymond Antrobus makes poetry out of the questions shot at him by an immigration officer; Martín Espada mourns his father; Marie Howe remembers and blesses her mother’s body; Aimee Nezhukumatathil offers comfort to her child-self. Through these wide-ranging poems, Ó Tuama guides us on an inspiring journey to reckon with self-acceptance, history, independence, parenthood, identity, joy, and resilience. For anyone who has wanted to try their hand at a conversation with poetry but doesn’t know where to start, Poetry Unbound presents a window through which to celebrate the art of being alive.

Exploring the country and the heart, the author buys a Harley Davidson and takes the ride of his life.

Journey of a Thousand Miles tells the remarkable story of a boy who sacrificed almost everything – family, financial security, childhood and his reputation in China’s insular classical music world – to fulfil his promise as a classical pianist. Lang Lang was born in Shenyang in north-eastern China just after the end of the Cultural Revolution. He began piano lessons at three years old and by age ten had been awarded a place at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. In order to continue his studies he moved thousands of miles from home, living with his exacting father in a cramped, shared apartment, while his mother stayed at home to earn the money to pay his fees. At fifteen he moved to the United States to take up a scholarship at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia; by nineteen he was selling out Carnegie Hall. His tutor and mentor Daniel Barenboim was perhaps the first to describe him as ‘extraordinarily talented’; today his assessment is shared by millions. Now in adulthood, Lang Lang tours relentlessly, delighting sell-out audiences with his trademark flamboyance and showmanship. Journey of a Thousand Miles is a tale of heartbreak, drama and ultimately triumph. His inspiring story demonstrates the courage and self-sacrifice required to achieve artistic greatness.

Julie Buckles and Charly Ray built a wood and canvas canoe, exchanged marriage vows, and paddled away from their front yard, planning to travel 2,700 miles to the Arctic Ocean and winter over in a tiny cabin. What a honeymoon! Told in Julie's page-turning style, their story is full of humor and humility, rapids and relationships, love and life. It's an adventure about a couple's wilderness journey from Lake Superior to the Canadian north.

Collects excerpts from the personal travel journal sketchbooks of forty-three artists, illustrators, and designers.