Tom Norris

​Future Fresh Cup Book Series

 

Several follow up books to A Fresh Cup of Tolerance are in the planning and early writing stages at this time.

 

    1.  A Fresh Cup of Counseling is nearly completed.  Subtitled A Handbook of Spiritual Counseling, it provides a clinical guide for all mental health and counseling professionals interested in pursuing spiritual counseling practices.  It serves as the foundation for the training program within The International Guild of Certified Spiritual Counselors and Coaches.

 

    2.  The second book is a companion workbook for A Fresh Cup of Tolerance, entitled A Fresh Cup of Living, subtitled 52 Ways in 52 Weeks to Transform Your Life.  It is just that, a practical workbook for living a spiritual life as a Universalist. It takes the theological ideas and life values from A Fresh Cup of Tolerance and brings them to life through a weekly series of stories, vignettes,  life lessons, and exercises. A person can follow it over a year as a weekly spiritual growth training program. It can be done individually or in study groups, similar to programs such as The Course in Miracles. 

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    3.  A Fresh Cup of Manhood is subtitled Being the Good 21st Century Guy: Father, Partner, Date.  For some fifty years as a counselor, I have watched the destructive energies of patriarchal attitudes play out against women and children.  Whether it was domestic violence or child abuse or sexual assault or sexual harassment or just plain, dumb insensitivity, I have seen how this has hurt so many women and children.  I want this book to provide guidelines on what it means to be a good guy in all the roles we play with our womenfolk and children.  It is time for our better angels to assert themselves and embrace this new century of equality and diversity.

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    4.  A Fresh Cup of Healing is subtitled Fifty Years of Working with Sexual Abuse.

 

    5.  Some ideas for a later Fresh Cup Series may include The Spirit Path Series. Each book within the series examines aspects of our daily life and how we live it. When I use the term spiritual here, it does not mean religious. Spiritual means nurturing our most caring, compassionate, connected self, and expressing that in all parts of our life. This series will appeal to parents, couples, singles, even CEOs, bosses, and employees. It will draw upon my 44 years as a social worker, psychotherapist, marriage and family therapist, minister, manager, and employee, as well as a college instructor in psychology and religous studies. The books are:

 

• The Spiritual Partner: What would you like in the ideal partner?  How can you be a better partner?  This is the manual that shows the way.

• The Spiritual Parent: There are plenty of books on parenting, but how many address the spiritual aspects of parenting and how to be a better parent?  This is the manual for spiritual parenting.

• The Spiritual Dater:  The most frequent complaint from singles: dating partners who lack sensitivity, communication skills, and courtesy.  This is the dating manual for spiritual dating from the first date to the serious romance.

• The Spiritual Boss:  The most frequent complaint from employees: bosses who lack sensitivity; communication, teamwork and management skills; and courtesy.  This is the manual for effective leadership and management.

• The Spiritual Company: In our globalized world today, many companies have lost sight of what makes them successful: committed employees, loyal customers, and quality products.  The overemphasis on short-term profits and stockholder dividends has actually decreased the long-term success and profits for many companies.  Built around the Seven Principles of Spiritual Organizations, from Mom and Pop businesses to global corporations, this is the manual for an effective and profitable company mission, organizational structure, and organizational leadership.  

• The Spiritual Employee: The most frequent complaint from bosses: employees who lack motivation, communication and teamwork skills, and reliability.  This is the manual for how to be a successful employee with a future.

• The Spiritual Self:  Finally, how do we pull this all together.  It has to start with each one of us.  This is the manual that teaches us how to live a spiritual life by how we treat ourselves, our partners, our families, our friends, our neighbors, our co-workers, and our world.