Showing results by author "James Nugent"

In January 2014 I stumbled upon an announcement that the South Sound Estuary Association was looking for volunteer beach naturalist. For $50 I would receive training in beach ecosystems and marine biology. In return I was expected to provide 15 hours of volunteer service to the general public on the local beaches.

I was paddling hard with the wind and waves coming across my port bow. The storm had calmed down a bit and I was making a mile long mad dash from The Evergreen State College Beach to Young Cove. To the right inside Young Cove was my lagoon and my Madrona tree to which I tie up my various small water craft.

Congratulations. You have completed a graduate program, and you have decided to serve the needs of students. You will soon learn that it takes tact and skill to be a good school counselor. It also will take some personal fortitude and perhaps a bit of luck in order to be successful and thrive in your chosen field. They probably never mentioned the above to you, but it will be okay if you keep your wits about you.

The Scripture said something like, “pray always.” I pondered the issue for a while and then gave up. It was a strange concept. How could a person pray all the minutes of the day? What was prayer anyway, and how could you do it and know that God was really there? It was a bit of a mystery to me which I would not resolve for another 25 years. 

There are many guides and books that give excellent wisdom for those who would seek to make an offering of their lives to God. Still there is little practical information about how about how to go about the day to day business of being a Benedictine Oblate. This audiobook is an attempt to give practical suggestions to the beginner and the "expert". However, if what you do, gets you closer to God every day, then don't change a thing. But if you need new materials, new practices, new ideas or attitudes; then just consider listening to this audiobook.

I went to learn more about Esperanto, a language that was invented 126 years ago. In the end I found hope for the future.

When devout Catholics marry, they marry for life. They promise each other and God that they will not enter into another marriage until one of them dies. No matter what the issue, they are married for life. If they divorce and get married again outside the church, they will have sinned. They will be excluded from the primary sacrament, the Eucharist (communion).

Catholic Christians have a different attitude toward pain, even if it is part of the natural dying process. This little booklet is an attempt to illuminate the Catholic Christian way of facing pain and transform it into a useful and productive time in life. It is a frank discussion. If you have not evolved in your relationship with Jesus, you may find this discussion hard to understand or even offensive. Still, if you listen and then pray you will understand. With understanding may come peace and joy.

This book is a slice of my life. In most ways my life has been rather normal, and in a few ways, it has been extraordinary. I figure I am in the last two decades of my life. Hopefully as I share the particular and intentional things I have done, you will be inspired to make your life outstanding or at least enjoyable. Come visit my life. 

If a Catholic couple chooses to avail themselves of the spiritual resources available to a Catholic married couple; the relationship will last a life time and thrive while doing it. A failure of a marriage is directly related to the spiritual heath of the individuals involved. Even if only one of the parties embraces the spiritual principals the marriage can be saved.

For twenty years I searched for my perfect true love. I failed miserably until I asked God to help. Miracles do really happen!

From time to time all of us have social conflicts. Sometimes we are invited to dance with people who have more external power than us, for example, a supervisor or an elder sibling or parent. Sometimes we might be invited to struggle with someone we don’t care so much about; like a stranger or acquaintance or a distant in-law. In either case the choice to engage or abstain is ours. If we engage, it is important to do our best to leave our dance partner some dignity and show some respect.

This is my story of how I became a Right Wing Fundamentalist Roman Catholic and of course a Republican. I eventually became politically incorrect, and finally at peace with my church and my politics.

There is too much intentional and mistaken misinformation in our present culture about the purposes and practices of modern Catholicism. This had led to endless bigotry and needless hate speech and deeds against Christ's original Church. This little audiobook is an attempt to explain to fellow Christians what it really means to be Roman Catholic. It is not a debate. It's an honest attempt on my part to share. It is not an attempt to convert you to joining the more than 1.2 billion Christians who call themselves Catholic.

The book is called Social Jujitsu and Powerful Principles for Managing Social Conflict by James Nugent. It teaches the three key strategies of evading, deflecting, and redirecting social aggressors. This book moves on to teach about drawing the aggressor in getting them to react to you, putting the aggressor in a double bind, and helping them self-destruct.

In the beginning I used to let my Protestant friends off the hook. They would bash Catholicism while I would say nothing. Then one day after a friend made a particularly bigoted comment I realized that my friend really didn't know any better and he was being thoughtless and hurtful.

I spent 22 years of my life in part-time private practice as a counselor. The entire time, I was amazed at how really smart people would make really poor choices over and over. One definition of crazy is when we do the same thing repeatedly and persist in the hope that something new will be the outcome.

For a modern culture that does not highly value life, it is paradoxical that we don't want to talk about the dying process or the possibility of an afterlife. Catholics sometime suffer from the same hesitation about talking about death. Yet the Roman Catholic religion and culture are a constant preparation for that moment when we must trust Jesus for our salvation. All the rituals and sacraments, prepare our minds and hearts for that thing from which there is no escape.

The far southern reaches of Puget Sound are a beautiful region for sailing, boating, and small craft adventure. Still, people who live there and work there are among the few who get to enjoy it. This alternative guide to the waters of five inlets tells you how and why you might choose to visit these sparsely visited treasures of natural beauty.

Puget Sound and the San Juan Islands are composed of an estimated 300 islands and 2,000 miles of shoreline. James Nugent takes us on a voyage into this complex and beautiful playground.