I usually devote the 30-Day Out post to music playlist additions.
https://open.spotify.com/track/7v4dq1VhVjUU857z1UZ2sI?si=I_j4gEQGS2Kcu-kWyxAe1g
I do welcome any suggested tunes to add to my phone’s musical inventory. Please let me know any that you think are appropriate either to my venture or to the trail in general. But, lately I’ve been leaning toward a different kind of diversion…
- Audible books from the library app, carefully selected and listened to while out in nature on walks or while milling about the house, working on various projects.
- Paper books, either borrowed from the library or gifted to me by dear friends.
- And, in the early morning hour, I’ll light candles over the hearth and sit in the quiet and candlelight in my favorite club chair. I’ll listen to the Lectio 365 app and ponder the morning’s reading. Sometimes also journaling.
Wisdom and Truth are a gold thread interwoven into our lives in sometimes unexpected places. Amid the dull and crude fibers of daily interactions and the dross we read and hear online, the glimpse of such gold is enough to take one’s breath away.
Recent treasures:
“Falling Upward” by Richard Rohr
An examination of the second half of life and how it differs from the first. How paying attention and living with integrity can give one’s second half (if we’re fortunate enough to have one) more meaning and purpose than we had previously imagined.
“From Strength to Strength” by Arthur C. Brooks
From the Harvard professor who teaches a course on Happiness. Along similar lines to Falling Upward, the book addresses a natural shift that happens when we age. Examines the timeframe of extreme high performance and career development (particularly, early 30s) compared to an era of storytelling and teaching (late 50s and beyond) and why it’s important to not use the same standards of success in both eras. We’re happiest when we have the freedom to lean into our current strengths.
“Finding Your Walden” by Jen Tota McGivney
An insightful re-introduction to Walden’s sensibilities as applied to today’s complexities. She examines principles learned from Thoreau’s writings on essentialism and dives into what living deliberately might look like in individuals’ lives today. The five questions at the end of each chapter were thought-provoking and excellent journaling prompts.
“Walden” by Henry David Thoreau
Haven’t actually read this for many decades. Following “Finding Your Walden” – it is refreshing to hear Thoreau in his own words. He wasn’t a hermit – but, rather, a sociable neighbor, observant scientist, poet, avid hiker, and a laborer who endeavored to work just enough to provide honestly for his essential livelihood. He knew his health was precious and also limited. He wanted to seize all of the life that could be rung out of each day.
The Desert Fathers and Mothers of the fourth century. During Lent this year, Lectio 365 focused on the writings of notable sages who lived just a few hundred years after Christ’s resurrection. People who went out into the wilderness to live simply, care for each other, and devote their lives to God. Simple, yet thought-provoking, lives. A favorite prayer: “Lord, as Thou wilt and as Thou knowest, have mercy on me.” – St. Macarius the Great.
“An Altar in the World” by Barbara Brown Taylor
I’m currently about halfway through this wonderful book and am savoring each page. The book begins with the era, long ago, before churches with four walls had been constructed, in a time when God met people in the desert, in dreams, in a burning bush, in the wilderness. And there, to mark the holy occasion, altars were constructed out of stones. The writer eloquently points out that in today’s world we are just as likely to meet God while walking in nature or in the face of strangers on the subway as to find God in our churches. And, the key is – to pay attention.
That is the common thread of gold that keeps appearing in these recent books and recordings. Pay attention. Focus on where you are and what is in front of you. Live on purpose. More soon on how that plays out for me – especially on the next hike.
If anyone has additional books for me to pick up or to add to my playlist on audio books, please let me know in the comments.
Thank you!
*a couple days later… work and home projects persisted.
More later…
Love the musing and book recommendations. I’ll add to you quotes. One from a tutor on a recent course speaking about sacred places – ‘God is where we are, not where we would imagine God would be. He invites us to arrive where we are. Availability to God in the here and now’. And from the mystic Rhor (Universal Christ) – Religion at its best, helps people to bring this foundational divine love into ever increasing consciousness. In other words its more about waking up than about cleaning up’.
Great quotes! Thanks for the comment. 🙂