Brian Allain

From “Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation” by Parker J. Palmer I was in my early thirties when I began, literally, to wake up to questions about my vocation. By all appearances, things were going well, but the soul does not put much stock in appearances. Seeking a path more purposeful […]

From “Trust the Whisper: How Answering Quiet Callings Inspires Extraordinary Stories of Ordinary Grace“ by Kathy Izard For me, trusting the whispers in my life signaled the beginning of answering all of those questions. I’d been certain my to-do voice would guide me to discover how I would finally leave the world a better place.

From “Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation” by Steven Johnson The snap judgments of intuition – as powerful as they can be – are rarities in the history of world-changing ideas. Most hunches that turn into important innovations unfold over much longer time frames. They start with a vague, hard-to-describe sense

From “Walk with Me: A Journey through the Landscape of Trauma” by Ellen Corcella In the mornings, I woke up to a pretense of normalcy. My mother had oatmeal, toast, and orange juice on the kitchen table: my father read the newspaper; and we were shuffled off to school. My father conspired in the cover-up.

From “Wired to Lead: Being the Leader the Church Didn’t Think You Could Be” by Suzanne Nadell I am forever grateful to my colleagues of color who called me out, who said, “Suzanne, now that you know X, what are you going to do about it?” Dear church, once you know the truth about your

From “Sacred Compass: The Way of Spiritual Discernment” by J. Brent Bill There aren’t any set rules for writing spiritual stories. Your story can be as brief or long as you want. If you’re unsure where to start, pick one of the pivotal moments in your life, a time that you found life changing. You

From “Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life” by Richard Rohr The very first sign of a potential hero’s journey is that he or she must leave home, the familiar, which is something that may not always occur to someone in the first half of life. (In fact, many people have not

From “What Makes You Come Alive: A Spiritual Walk with Howard Thurman” by Lerita Coleman Brown My interest in spirituality had begun many years ago, during college. Over the years, I read Catholic mystics like St. Theresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross; dabbled in Thomas Merton; studied Quaker mystics George Fox, Thomas

From “Discernment: Reading the Signs of Daily Life” by Henri Nouwen with Michael J. Christensen and Rebecca J. Laird A certain realism is necessary to fulfill a call to work and live among the poor. You have to accept your own history and limitations. You have to remind yourself that Jesus said, “Blessed are the

From “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success” by Carol S. Dweck, PhD When I was a young researcher, just starting out, something happened that changed my life. I was obsessed with understanding how people cope with failures, and I decided to study it by watching how students grapple with hard problems. So I brought children