The Rocking Chair Reader - Coming Home.  In the Rocking Chair Reader series, readers are taken back in time to pre-1955 small-town America, where life was simpler and old-fashioned values meant something. Coming Home, the flagship title in this new inspirational series, features more than sixty true stories from ordinary folks who return to such small towns as Dexter, Michigan where Gail Balden grew up Excerpt from Can W e Go Home Again?":  "On my last visit I noticed the deep purple lilacs, which continue to bloom over my old garage, and was comforted that someone was picking them for bouquets. Someone was hanging sheets on the line in the backyard-sheets for bed on the front porch. The three red maples our sixth-grade class planted on Arbor Day, fifty years ago, remain strong and tall in front of Dexter Elementary School, and our favorite hangout, the A & W Root Beer, still stands at the edge of town, just past the millpond. Carhops still take the orders, and every Tuesday-rain or shine-is Coney Dog day. Can you really go home again? For Kandie and me the answer is "yes"."
	Our Turn Our Time.  An anthology of honest reflections about women committed to celebrating and valuing the passage into the second half of life. Essays are filled with insight, humor, and compassion on a broad variety of topics ranging from Balden's essay, "Your Life in Two Words," and Ann O'Neal Garcia's "There's Life in the Old Dame Yet," to Mary Jean Rivera's "My Grandmother told Me This," and Joy Mitchell's "Sexy at Seventy." Excerpt from Your Life in Two Words:  "What would it be like if we all distilled our lives and purpose to just two words that represented who we really are; if we lived our lives from our joyful hearts; if we valued our intentions, banished the negative, let go of fear, and leapt - knowing the net would appear. What would it be like? I think the world would split wide open."
	Midlife Clarity.  An anthology of personal anecdotes, essays, short poetry and plenty of humor, Midlife Clarity shows that midlife can be a time of release of true self, a chance to be free of others' expectations and a time to inventory blessings. Midlife musings include essays on cooking with feeling, sheets upon the line, shopping, laughter, healing, quilting, and the joys of ordinary moments, such as those found in Balden's essay. Excerpt from Ordinary Moments:  "We women possess valuable jewels in our women friends; they help us through many joys and sorrows and give us the opportunity to become our best selves. In times of adversity, it is the strength of our women friends upon which we can draw and who stay the course with us. Working to break free of fear and unrealistic expectations, we can continually seek ways to live a more spiritual life with love, compassion and harmony at its core."
	A Cup of Comfort.  Filled with unforgettable stories that celebrate the strength and grace of womanhood. The third book in the bestselling A Cup of Comfort series, this collection of more than fifty stories covers friendship, aging, new beginnings and gifts to be found in the midst of our ordinary lives. Excerpt from Balden's essay, The Christmas Box:  "This year my father reminds me that he is getting older and hints that perhaps he will not send the Christmas box and will send money for a few gifts instead. Oh, the pain in my heart. Not this year, Daddy, please, not this year, I murmur to myyself. And joy of joys! On December 6, a carton arrives. When the carrier hands me the package, I know instantly it is the Christmas box. My father has found a way to once again bring me home for Christmas."

Autographed copies of Our Turn Our Time and Midlife Clarity are available from Gail Balden at $14.95 plus $2 shipping. Autographed copies of The Rocking Chair Reader and A Cup of Comfort are available for $9.95 plus $2 shipping. Send a check payable to Gail Balden to 41500 Anderson Road
Nehalem, OR 97131.

Creative Journeys

503-368-7807
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41500 Anderson Road
Nehalem, OR 97131