5 Trails I'm Exploring
20 December 2024
Hello Friends and Fellow Seekers of the Good True Beautiful!
Here are 5 Trails I’ve Been Exploring Recently:
READING: American Leftovers: Surviving Family, Religion, and the American Dream. This memoir is a true-life wild ride of a tale, told with gut-wrenching honesty by three siblings about their experiences growing up in an extreme religious missionary family. From smuggling Bibles as children across high mountain passes in Asia to fleeing rape mobs on dust-laden back country roads to witnessing wonders time and again that were hard to call anything other than "miracles," Eric, Heidi, and Shaun share the many bizarre moments of their unconventional upbringing with candor and insight as they reflect back as adults on what all of it meant and how those experiences shaped them into the people they are today.
Several dark threads run through the narrative, as the authors wrestle with the religious duplicities and outright lies they experienced at the hands of their parents and others they encountered within the religious communities they served, as well the larger questions of identity, purpose and meaning that arise out of such a wild and wide-ranging multicultural upbringing.
This is a great book for anyone interested in seeing what life can be like for religious missionary families, especially those in the evangelical charismatic stream. But even more so, it's a great book for anyone interested in exploring what it means to be human, to grow out of all the stuff we grew up in to become who we're meant to be, and how fraught and difficult that journey can be for all of us.
p.s. I listened to the audiobook version of this book, which was terrific, as it allowed me to hear the story from the authors' own voices.
LISTENING: Every year I curate a “Soundtrack of My Life” for the year, a musical compilation of songs that capture something of the essence of my experiences from the year just past. This year’s is the most eclectic yet I think — from the wistful longings of my three weeks in Scotland (“A Calling Home”), to the simple joy of driving free on the open road (“Into the Wild”), to the frequent ache of not quite knowing where I’m going or why I’m headed that way (“We’re All Going Home”)…I hope you find something in this year’s playlist to warm your heart and strengthen your soul.
WATCHING: “The Dragon Prince.” This animated series launched on Netflix six years ago to much fanfare and critical acclaim, but then I got busy and it fell off my radar in the second season. The 7th season just came out, and I recently rediscovered it. I have really been enjoying catching up with the characters and the terrific storytelling. If you’re looking for a fun ride this holiday season, I recommend it. But a word of caution: just because it’s animated, don’t make the mistake of thinking it’s just for kids. There are mature themes involved, and real stakes at play. It’s a Netflix original, so however you get that in your country, you can probably find it there.
SEEING: For my fellow science geeks out there, I recently came across the best science images of 2024, as presented by Nature. So much awesome. The wonders never cease!
PONDERING: “I stand among you as one who offers a small message of hope, that first, there are always people who dare to seek on the margin of society, who are not dependent on social acceptance, not dependent on social routine, and prefer a kind of free-floating existence under a state of risk. And among these people, if they are faithful to their own calling, to their own vocation, and to their own message from God, communication on the deepest level is possible. And the deepest level of communication is not communication, but communion. It is wordless. It is beyond words, and it is beyond speech and beyond concept.” — Thomas Merton
What new trails have you been exploring lately? Share them with me in the comments!
Until next time!
Michael
