Category: Books & Mentors That Changed Me
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Fear Is Part of the Journey, But Not the Final Chapter
Series: What Book Changed the Way You See the World? How many of you remember the Weekly Reader we received in school? It introduced us to new books and gave us the opportunity to order them. I looked forward to those little newspapers and the adventures they promised. Growing up just after World War II,…
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Open Heart. Open Hands. Clear Boundaries.
Today’s Curious Pilgrim topic is “We all stand on the shoulders of someone who believed in us.” The greatest lessons I have learned in life have not come from books or classrooms. They have come from experience. As I reflect on the people whose shoulders I stand on today, I have realized that one of…
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What Book Changed the Way You See the World?
Some books entertain us. Others inform us. A few quietly shape the way we see ourselves, other people, and the world. The book that changed the way I see the world is not just one book. It is a collection of books written over many centuries that asks three timeless questions: Who am I? Why…
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We All Stand on the Shoulders of Someone Who Believed in Us
There are some writing prompts that are difficult because there are simply too many people to choose from. “We all stand on the shoulders of someone who believed in us” is one of those. After Hurricane Katrina devastated Mississippi in 2005, I helped lead a nonprofit organization that coordinated recovery efforts. It was meaningful work,…
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Books That Challenge Us: Spiritual Friendship and the Gift of a Friend
Some books entertain us. Some teach us. A few change the way we see the world. For me, that book was Spiritual Friendship by St. Aelred of Rievaulx. I was introduced to St. Aelred during the Summer of Saints study at St. James Episcopal Church in the summer of 2025. At first, I thought I…
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Standing on the Shoulders of Those Who Believed in Us
There is an old saying that we stand on the shoulders of giants. I have discovered another truth along life’s journey: we all stand on the shoulders of someone who believed in us. As I look back over seventy-six years, I realize that many of the people who shaped my life never became famous. They…
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Aelred of Rievaulx and the School of Love
One of the unexpected gifts of my spiritual journey has been discovering the writings of Aelred of Rievaulx. Though he lived nearly nine hundred years ago, his words feel surprisingly fresh and relevant to our own day. Aelred is best known for his book Spiritual Friendship. In it, he presents a vision of human relationships…
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The Divine Dance of Love
Rediscovering the Trinity A Curious Pilgrim Reflection One of the most transformative ideas I have encountered in recent years comes from Richard Rohr’s book The Divine Dance. Rohr suggests that many Christians have spent centuries trying to explain God while missing the invitation to experience God. For many of us, faith began with learning doctrines,…
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Emptiness Alone is prepared for Fulness
Richard Rohr in The Divine Dance is inviting us to rethink both God and ourselves — not as isolated beings competing for importance, but as participants in an eternal flow of self-giving love. At the center of this reflection is the ancient Christian idea of kenosis, the “self-emptying” described in Philippians 2: “Though he was…
The Curious Pilgrim 