About
I am an author and an artist living and working in Springboro, Ohio with my husband Richard. Writing for children is uplifting and enlightening. Having 11 children, I have learned how important it is for children to have "somebody" believe in them and for them to believe in somebody in return. I wrote Jolly over 45 years ago for my oldest daughter Dee. I love Christmas, and at a very basic level, I think, like most people, I don't want it to end. Jolly helps Christmas be more than just one day, and helps families celebrate more than just the presents. Over the last few decades, the Jolly story and tradition has spread across the country and even overseas. Now thousands of families practice the Jolly tradition, some don't even know from where it came. We are thrilled to finally bring this story and tradition out in book form. For more information about Jolly, please visit www.jollytheelf.com.
Jolly The Elf is published by shepherdripleystudiollc.
Involution-An Odyssey Reconciling Science to God
Description
<p>“<em>We are not human beings having a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings having a human experience.”(</em>Teilhard de Chardin<em>)</em></p><p><span style="line-height:1.6em;"><em>Involution-An Odyssey Reconciling Science to God </em> is as layered as a French cassoulet, as diverting, satisfying and as rich. Each reader will spoon this book differently. On the surface it seems to be a simple and light-hearted poetic journey through the history of Western thought, dominantly scientific, but enriched with painting and music. Beneath that surface is the sauce of a new evolutionary idea, involution; the informing of all matter by consciousness, encoded and communicating throughout the natural world. A book about the cathedral of consciousness could have used any language to paint it, but science is perhaps most in need of new vision, and its chronology is already familiar.</span></p><p><span style="line-height:1.6em;">The author offers a bold alternative vision of both science and creation: she suggests that science has been incrementally the recovery of memory, the memory of evolution/involution</span><em style="line-height:1.6em;">.</em></p><p>“<em> Involution proposes that humans carry within them the history of the universe, which is (re)discovered by the individual genius when the time is ripe. All is stored within our DNA and awaits revelation. Such piecemeal revelations set our finite lives in an eternal chain of co-creation and these new leaps of discovery are compared to mystical experience</em>” (From a reviewer)</p><p>Each unique contributor served the collective and universal return to holism and unity. Thus the geniuses of the scientific journey, like the spiritual visionaries alongside, have threaded the rosary of science with the beads of inspiration, and through them returned Man to his spiritual nature and origin.</p><p><span style="line-height:1.6em;">The separation between experience and the rational intellect of science has, by modelling memory as theory, separated its understanding from the consciousness of all, and perceives mind and matter as separate, God and Man as distinct. This work is a dance towards their re-unification: Saints and scientists break the same bread.</span></p><p><span style="line-height:1.6em;">All of time and all the disciplines of science are needed for the evidence. Through swift (and sometimes sparring) Cantos of dialogue between Reason and Soul, Philippa Rees takes the reader on a monumental journey through the history of everything – with the evolution of man as one side of the coin and involution the other. The poetic narrative is augmented by learned and extensive footnotes offering background knowledge which in themselves are fascinating. In effect there are two books, offering a right and left brain approach. The twin spirals of a DNA shaped book intertwine external and internal and find, between them, one journey, Man’s recovery of Himself., and (hopefully) the Creation’s recovery of a nobler Man.</span></p><p><span style="line-height:1.6em;">From the same review “</span><em style="line-height:1.6em;">The reader who finishes the book will not be the same as the one who began it. New ideas will expand the mind but more profoundly, the deep, moving power of the verse will affect the heart.</em></p><p><em>(Marianne Rankin: Director of Communications, Alister Hardy Trust)</em></p><p> </p>
Story Behind The Book
Jo Shepherd Ripley wrote Jolly the Elf approximately 45 years ago for her oldest daughter, Dee. Every year, Jo would read the story to friends and family and give each an elf to start their own tradition. Over time, Jolly unknowingly became a tradition that spread across the Country and across the Pond. So many families know the story of Jolly even if they did not know who wrote the story. This is actually the original story upon which a number of other elf stories are based. Every year, families that know Jo started the tradition reach out to her about how to get the story and where to buy the elf. Jo has done her very best to fulfill every request, but now she is making it a lot easier.
Reviews
Jo Ripley’s Jolly the Elf story is a delightful addition to the Christmas sagas. It is an authentic<br />family tale and tradition inspired by the most wonderful prompter of invention—a child’s<br />curiosity. The text is sweet and wistful, and the illustrations are magical. Yes, Virginia, there is a<br />Jolly the Elf.<br />— Jack Kerley, New York Times and London Times best-selling author
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