From “Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation” by Steven Johnson In the early 1920s, two Columbia University scholars named William Ogburn and Dorothy Thomas decided to track down as many multiples as they could find, eventually publishing their survey in an influential essay with the delightful title “Are Inventions Inevitable?” Ogburn […]
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From “Listening to Your Life: Daily Meditations with Frederick Buechner” by Frederick Buechner These two paragraphs conclude the introduction to The Sacred Journey: WHAT I PROPOSE TO DO now is to try listening to my life as a whole, or at least to certain key moments of the first half of my life thus far,
From “Embracing Your Second Calling: Find Passion and Purpose for the Rest of Your Life” by Dale Hanson Bourke A second calling isn’t about something you do but about someone you become. It is the belief that the best is yet to come, and it will probably look very different than anything that has come
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From “What Makes You Come Alive: A Spiritual Walk with Howard Thurman” by Lerita Coleman Brown After his father’s death, a grieving and lonely Howard spent much of his time outside alone. Silence and solitude offered solace to Thurman, and in nature he frequently experienced the presence of God, or oneness. He sensed that something
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From “Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation” by Parker J. Palmer Behind this understanding of vocation is a truth that the ego does not want to hear because it threatens the ego’s turf: everyone has a life that is different from the “I” of daily consciousness, a life that is trying
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From “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success” by Carol S. Dweck, PhD There’s another mindset in which these traits are not simply a hand you’re dealt and have to live with, always trying to convince yourself and others that you have a royal flush when you’re secretly worried it’s a pair of tens. In this
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From “The Language of the Soul: Meeting God in the Longings of Our Hearts” by Jeff Crosby All of us carry, I’m convinced, deep-seated longings or yearnings in our heart. It is how we are wired as people, whether we are conscious of it or not. And I’ve come to believe that being attentive to
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From “Life Worth Living: A Guide to What Matters Most” by Miroslav Volf, Matthew Croasmun, and Ryan McAnnally-Linz Gautama Buddha: the privileged prince who became the venerable founder of one of the world’s great traditions. Simon Peter: the fallible follower of Jesus who became the rock on which the Chrisitan church was built. Ida B.