Constant exchange of information is integral to our societies. The author explores how this came into being. Presenting language evolution as a natural history of conversation, he sheds light on the emergence of communication in the hominine congregations, as well as on the human nature.

God¿s imperatives for us¿ to practice peacemaking, love others and build community¿ all begin with authentic dialogue. Think of an issue that makes your blood boil. Now imagine lunch with a friend who is just as passionate about it¿on the other side. How can the two of you even broach the issue, let alone hear each other with curiosity and compassion? The answer begins long before the lunch does, by learning to engage dialogue as a habit of the heart¿an inner transformation that the ancient practices of Christian spirituality can address. This highly readable and timely guide to restoring dialogue shows Christians of many stripes how to cultivate this transformation while preparing them to approach their adversaries with curiosity, civility and compassion. This book: ¿ Examines the obstacles that keep us from dialogue: black-and-white thinking, our ¿distraction lifestyle,¿ the fear of change and others. ¿ Explores the strengths of character from which healthy dialogue springs¿and the work of the soul that cultivates them. ¿ Shows how to enhance the work of the soul by engaging the world around us. ¿ Lays out practical guidelines for dialogue and how they work in an imperfect world. ¿ Includes extended anecdotes of dialogue in action, from resolutions of interpersonal conflict to difficult dialogues on some of the most divisive issues of our age. ¿ Uses provocative questions at the end of each chapter to stimulate group discussion and individual reflection.

WINNER: Independent Press Award 2022 - Career Are you avoiding an uncomfortable conversation at work? If you're an executive or a team leader, strengthening your organization's ability to have difficult conversations is necessary and worth the discomfort. The key to successful dialogue starts and ends with changing the conversation. Recognizing that it takes two people to engage in meaningful outcomes, Can We Talk? outlines what each contributor needs to do to achieve the best possible result. Using examples from everyday work situations, this book offers guidance on how to create the right conditions for a meaningful discussion. The author identifies the seven key principles that enable both parties to gain a deeper understanding of what the other person may be thinking and will help establish their point of view more clearly: confidence, clarity, compassion, curiosity, compromise, credibility, courage. Can We Talk? includes examples and advice from those who have been there and thrived, as well as lessons learned from conversation failures and example scripts of productive conversations. Readers will learn how to prepare, start and manage the potentially challenging exchange of words that typically occur at work, and come away with an understanding that for any conversation to take place, both parties must be engaged.

A Hands-on Guide for Meaningful Conversations with GodHey God, Can We Talk? is a practical book designed to transform your conversations with God from distant and religious into meaningful and authentic dialogues. Deeply rooted in Scripture, this book gives hands-on tools for interacting with God through the everyday stuff of life. Each chapter...

Pastors’ wives are human. Let’s face it. Behind the welcoming smiles, gentle handshakes, and stylish dresses, they face untold challenges in their personal and church lives. Who does a first lady talk to? To whom does she tell her woes? In this inspiring and compelling book, First Lady Leisa Wynn-Johnson invites pastors’ wives to engage in candid and liberating conversations about their real lives. First Ladies, Can We Talk? is an open and honest discourse on the dynamics of church culture, church politics, and the realities of relationships between church folk, pastors, and their wives. Let’s talk about loneliness and isolation, misunderstandings, role conflicts, betrayal, rejection, depression, and criticism. And let’s talk about the tears, intense pressure to perform, and the longing to be liked. Each chapter has a scripture, a powerful prayer, and an encouraging affirmation of gratitude, confidence, family success, empowerment, and more. Whether you are young or old, quiet or vocal, a novice or expert first lady, a clergy wife, or in ministry yourself, these conversations will uplift, encourage, and guide you in your role as a mother, wife, and woman of God. Learn to navigate, communicate, and find joy in your God-ordained assignment. Let’s talk about it! -The importance of mentors and venting -How to find grace in times of increase and decline -How to manage expectations -What to do when the bough breaks

About the Book: EMPOWERING BEGINS AT HOME Psychology, family, team, leadership, and growth, this book covers it all. The feeling of belonging and the reassuring confidence of being heard, strengthen emotional resilience. Unfortunately, our lifestyle makes this a challenging endeavor in the cacophony of voices, biases, and expectations. Through a series of conversations, a mother-daughters trio uncovers the perfect antidote hidden within the confinement of our homes - our family. Differing perspectives highlight a family's role in nurturing wholesome individuals and societal well-being. Praised by parents, children, professionals, and college graduates, this journey through clarity, conviction, credibility, coexistence, courage, and compassion to build their circle of trust is far-reaching.

Why is the gap so great between our hopes, our intentions, even ourdecisions-and what we are actually able to bring about? Even whenwe are able to make important changes-in our own lives or thegroups we lead at work-why are the changes are so frequentlyshort-lived and we are soon back to business as usual? What can wedo to transform this troubling reality? In this intensely practical book, Harvard psychologists RobertKegan and Lisa Laskow Lahey take us on a carefully guided journeydesigned to help us answer these very questions. And not justgenerally, or in the abstract. They help each of us arrive at ourown particular answers that can solve the puzzling gap between whatwe intend and what we are able to accomplish. How the Way WeTalk Can Change the Way We Work provides you with the tools tocreate a powerful new build-it-yourself mental technology.

In short, delightful essays, a professor of English explains the key features that make American speech so expressive and distinct. With chapters on ethnic dialects and dialects in the movies, the author reveals the resplendence of one of our nation's greatest natural resources--its endless and varied talk.

Shimmer Chinodya, winner of the 1989 Commonwealth Writers Prize (Africa region) is one of Zimbabwe's foremost fiction writers. This collection of short stories reveals his development as a writer of passionate questioning integrity. The first stories, 'Hoffman Street' and 'The Man who Hanged Himself' capture the bewildered innocence of a child's view of the adult world, where behaviour is often puzzling and contradictory; stories such as 'Going to See Mr B.V.' provide the transition between the world of the adult and that of the child where the latter is required to act for himself in a situation where illusions founder on a narrow reality. 'Among the Dead' and 'Brothers and Sisters' look wryly at the self-conscious, self-centred, desperately serious world of young adulthood while 'Playing your Cards', 'The Waterfall', 'Strays' and 'Bramson' introduce characters for whom ambition, disillusion, and disappointment jostle for attention in a world where differences of class, culture, race and morality come to the fore. Finally, in 'Can we Talk' we conclude with an abrasive, lucid, sinewy voice which explores the nature of estrangement. The charge is desolation. Can we Talk and Other Stories speaks of the unspoken and unsaid. The child who watches but does not understand, the young man who observes but cannot participate, the man who stands outside not sure where his desires and ambitions lead, the older man, estranged by his own choices. 'Can we Talk' is not a question but a statement that insists on being heard, and demands a reassessment of our dreams.