From “World of Wonders: A Spirituality of Reading” by Jeff Crosby I never asked for her name, and I wish I had. I never saw her again, and I’d hoped I would.  It was a cool autumn Saturday morning in the university community where my wife and I operated a bookstore in the early years […]

From “Sacred Compass: The Way of Spiritual Discernment” by J. Brent Bill Just like clay, we are easily molded in some ways and not in others. Another part of listening to our lives speak is to recognize these natural tendencies:

From “The Language of the Soul: Meeting God in the Longings of Our Hearts” by Jeff Crosby 

Another extremely important article by Mark Schaefer. Read the free article here.

From “How Minds Change: The Surprising Science of Belief, Opinion, and Persuasion” by David McRaney Steve would tell me later that they had learned over many conversations that reasons, justifications, and explanations for maintaining one’s existing opinion can be endless, spawning like heads of a hydra. If you cut away one, two more would appear

From “Cumulative Advantage: How to Build Momentum for Your Ideas, Business, and Life Against All Odds” by Mark W. Schaefer Maybe you’re thinking these random moments are pure luck, a mystical force beyond your control – unless you’re a Jedi master. But there are specific actions you can take to sway serendipitous fate in your

From “Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life” by Richard Rohr You need a very strong container to hold the contents and contradictions that arrive later in life. You ironically need a very strong ego structure to let go of your ego. You need to struggle with the rules more than a

From “Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation” by Steven Johnson If the commonplace book tradition tells us that the best way to nurture hunches is to write everything down, the serendipity engine of the Web suggests a parallel directive: look everything up. [Postscript from Brian: Steve’s book was written before the

From “Listening to Your Life: Daily Meditations with Frederick Buechner” by Frederick Buechner Switching on the lectern light and clearing his throat, the preacher speaks both the word of tragedy and the word of comedy because they are both of them of the truth and because Jesus speaks them both, blessed be he. The preacher

From “Walk with Me: A Journey through the Landscape of Trauma” by Ellen Corcella Before I could make it to the car, I was seized again with an identical extraordinary sensation. I had no time for this – whatever “this” was. Kathleen, after hours at a birthday party, was worn out and desperate to go