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Daily Question, January 22

What books have made me feel truly grateful?

  • grateful sea

    A recent one for me is NonViolent Communication: A Language of Life by Marshall Rosenberg. There was a group studying it (NVC) at the ashram where I lived last year. I wasn't able to attend all the sessions but felt immensely grateful and hopeful that this small group was diligently learning/practicing the technique just as millions of other people around the globe have and will. It is what our world needs, from the family unit to the workplace to the political theatre. Just the other day, i...

    A recent one for me is NonViolent Communication: A Language of Life by Marshall Rosenberg. There was a group studying it (NVC) at the ashram where I lived last year. I wasn’t able to attend all the sessions but felt immensely grateful and hopeful that this small group was diligently learning/practicing the technique just as millions of other people around the globe have and will. It is what our world needs, from the family unit to the workplace to the political theatre. Just the other day, in an interview about a different subject, I heard NVC described as “a spiritual practice masquerading as a communication system” (Sarah Peyton) and I was gratefully reminded of my intention to return to studying it.

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  • Elaine

    A Circle of Quiet by Madeleine L’Engle midwifed the birth of my inner journey. Barbara Bown Taylor affirms it in every book, Sharon Butala’s The Perfection of the Morning made the connection to the primal power of the natural world (in this case the Saskatchewan grasslands), Mary Oliver’s poems always, Middlemarch, George Eliot’s outstanding classic of English literature for her timeless insight and humanity.

  • Barbara Morris

    I know why the caged bird sings, Siddhartha

  • kathleen

    The Five Invitations by Frank Ostaseski
    Radical Forgiveness by Colin Tipping
    You are your ultimate relationship by shawn levy( I think is his name)
    Anything by Pema Chodren or Thich Nat Han
    Thank you everyone for a ton of new books to check out. I love sharing our ideas

  • rachelcain

    All of the books that I have read about religious cults, and the abuse that (mostly) women and children endure have made me grateful to have been raised with freedom to form my own opinions, and the luck of being born into a family that taught me how to think, moreso than what to think.

  • Nancy

    Coming back again to this question at the end of my day and seeing all of your responses I found myself saying “Yes, how could I have forgotten that one?!” And, so many many more books to add to my list. So many books so little time ????

  • Mary

    The Untethered Soul by Michael Singer. This is a book that releases you from that inner voice that sometimes cruelly or unkindly questions motives, supports negative emotions, or reprimands you over past experiences. Loving book.

  • GT

    Hiroshima by John Hersey continues to educate that the personal is planetary.

  • Malag

    I’m so glad I’m late enough and can read all these suggestions and add to my book list. I agree there are so many. The one that jumped into my head is The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron a book that got me me open to new experiences and in touch with myself (also, then, a new experience).

  • Aine

    I have too many to count!

    Well, the Bible for one. Once it clicked that the only possible way to understand it is to look at it from the context of love, it took on new and personally loving meaning for me.

    Gilead by Marilynne Robinson is another. Such beautiful writing and real characters. It left me pondering the incandescence of life.

    The Return of the Prodigal Son by Henri Nouwen. Well, just about any book by Henri Nouwen, really.

    The Narcissistic Family: Diagnosis and Treatme...

    I have too many to count!

    Well, the Bible for one. Once it clicked that the only possible way to understand it is to look at it from the context of love, it took on new and personally loving meaning for me.

    Gilead by Marilynne Robinson is another. Such beautiful writing and real characters. It left me pondering the incandescence of life.

    The Return of the Prodigal Son by Henri Nouwen. Well, just about any book by Henri Nouwen, really.

    The Narcissistic Family: Diagnosis and Treatment by Stephanie Donaldson-Pressman and Robert Pressman because it helped me make sense of my childhood. It opened a door to a life where everything was not actually my fault.

    And humorous writers like James Thurber and PG Wodehouse for the marvelouslly gentle and therapeautic power of laughter!

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    • Aine

      We probably ought to have answered the question by authors since many more are now springing to mind!

  • Hot Sauce

    Future Memory by PMH Atwater has raised my awareness on a very deep level and has made me grateful for the mysterious reality we live in. Find Your Soul's Purpose has also raised my awareness of patterns in reality we are not normally aware of. The Baghavad Gita has made me aware of the energy patterns in the Universe we are often not aware of. The Bible is my sacred text of history, mythology, philosophy, and ethics, and I own it proudly. Don't Be a Jerk by Brad Warner has also shown me how mys...

    Future Memory by PMH Atwater has raised my awareness on a very deep level and has made me grateful for the mysterious reality we live in. Find Your Soul’s Purpose has also raised my awareness of patterns in reality we are not normally aware of. The Baghavad Gita has made me aware of the energy patterns in the Universe we are often not aware of. The Bible is my sacred text of history, mythology, philosophy, and ethics, and I own it proudly. Don’t Be a Jerk by Brad Warner has also shown me how mysterious and exciting reality is when we are really aware of it. There are too many to count, but all of these have changed my life and heightened my awareness, giving me a glimpse into the dimensions that are all around us but that we are often not aware of.

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  • Deb

    Oh. My. Too many to list. As I read the responses I find myself mentally affirming “yes!” to the ones I have read and “hmmm, I should check that out!” to those I haven’t. One I will mention here that is on no one else’s list is Swift, Lord, You Are Not by Killian McDonnell. Poetry and relationship with God and life.

  • Cintia

    So many to list… my favorites:
    Tuesdays with Morrie – Mitch Albom
    The Knight in Rusty Armor – Robert Fisher
    The celestine prophecy – James Redfield
    Uncommon Tony Dungy

  • Pilgrim

    An Interrupted Life: The Diaries of Etty Hillesum, Seven Storey Mountain by Thomas Merton, Sabbath by Wayne Muller, Let Your Life Speak, by Parker Palmer, Pilgrim and The House of Belonging by David Whyte, Kitchen Table Wisdom by Rachel Naomi Remen, Small Wonder by Barbara Kingsolver, An Altar in the World by Barbara Brown Taylor, Anam Cara by John O’Donohue, and pretty much anything else these authors have written.

  • Always Learning

    ???? The Four Agreements
    ???? Anything by Louise Hay
    ???? Anything by Brene Brown
    ???? Not to be specific, but many of the books I read with or to my students. I always chose things that entertained and had meaning. Discussing them, hearing the children share their ideas, and reading what they wrote about stories and books was tremendously rewarding and affirming. I hear from my former/forever kids who still ask about things we read. What a gift to my heart and their minds….❤️

    • Sheila

      Always Learning, I have been thinking of you and wondering how your tests came out, to see if you can have a second kidney transplant? I hope you are feeling as well as possible. Bless you.

      • Always Learning

        I am undergoing treatment testing for possible lung cancer. It is a rough time. Thanks so much for asking, though. 🙂

        • Sheila

          Always Learning, I can’t even imagine what you are going through. Please know my caring thoughts and prayers are with you. God bless you.
          Peace and love, Sheila ????

  • Joshua Flint

    The Bible and anything from Max Lucado.

  • Jeff

    So many to choose from… but just a few:

    The Bible
    Gary Chapman’s ‘Five Love Languages’
    Stephen Covey’s ‘The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People’

  • Michael

    The 4 Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz. Matthew 25. Acts 4:32–37. John Brown Biography by W E B DuBois. James Cone Liberation Theology books. Mind, Body Code by Mario Martinez.

  • Nancy

    So many to try and remember but the ones that come to mind right now are The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran and I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou. But all of you have given me many books to add to my reading list.

  • Christina

    I am currently studying with a beloved sponsee “How to Listen to God.” It is simple, direct, concise. It comforts.

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