recommended by the Loyola Staff:

BOOKS:

Dakota: A Spiritual Geography. Kathleen Norris.

The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World. Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu with Douglas Abrams.

Women Rowing North: Navigating Life’s Currents and Flourishing as We Age. Mary Pipher.

The Second Mountain. David Brooks.

The Righteous Mind. Jonathon Haidt.

The Grace in Aging. Kathleen Dowling. 

On the Brink of Everything: Grace, Gravity and Getting Old. Parker Palmer. 

Abounding in Kindness. Elizabeth Johnson. 

Just This (prompts and practices for contemplation). Richard Rohr. 

Sheltered. Barbara Kingsolver.  (novel)

Felicity.  Mary Oliver.  (poetry)

Rejoice and Be Glad. David Haas. 

My Grandmother Asked Me to Say She was Sorry. Frederick Backman.  (fiction)

Where the Crawdads Sing. Delia Owens.

Seven Sacred Pauses: Living Mindfully Through the Hours of the Day. Macrina Wiederkehr. 

The Power of Moments. Dan and Chip Heath.  Breaks down the qualities of memorable moments and how we can be more intentional about creating them in our daily lives.

The Book of Delights. Ross Gay.  This poet challenged himself to find something to delight in each day and writes a short essay about it.  Delightful!

Women Rowing North.  Mary Pipher.  This psychologist focuses on the gifts of aging and what can develop over time and changed circumstances.

It Didn’t Start with You: How Inherited Family Trauma Shapes Who We Are and How to End the Cycle.  Mark Wolynn.  Compelling exploration of family trauma and how it is passed down through generations. Did you know that when mice are given an electric shock every time they smell cherry blossoms, their descendants TWO generations later will jump at that smell? Lots of other real life human examples too (but that one intrigued me.) Practical exercises for healing the family traumas we carry within ourselves.

Lessons in Becoming Myself.  Ellen Burstyn.  Part Hollywood tell-all, part epic spiritual journey – this book is not for the faint of heart as Ms Burstyn has endured a great deal of violence and trauma throughout her life. Fascinating tales of Lee Strasberg’s Actors Studio as well as her pilgrimages around the globe with teachers such as David Whyte, John O’Donohue. She concludes with hard-earned wisdom that resonated with my own experience.

VIEWING AND LISTENING OPTIONS:

SWEET Land.  Movie. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGt-6NdpCF8

Becoming. Michelle Obama.  AudioBook  https://becomingmichelleobama.com/
Technically, I’m not reading this. I’m listening to it on audible. Whenever I take the dog out for a walk, I tell Francois,  “I’m going out with my new best friend, Michelle.” Listening to her voice and stories is a deeply spiritual endeavor for me as I tune into the way our former First Lady has made her way from Euclid Avenue on the south side of Chicago. Her journey reflects spiritual discernment in her listening to her deepest self and life experiences. Again, I feel like she’s my new best friend as I tune and have these intimate glimpses into her path and deepest longings as a woman, daughter, sister, wife, mother, leader.   

The Heart of the Enneagram (40 episodes available). Podcast. Sandra Smith and Christopher Copeland.  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/heart-of-the-enneagram/id1355386179

The Red Line.  Online TV Show CBS.  https://g.co/kgs/K8jJz3
My husband and I are 8 episodes into this CBS drama. After my mom recommended it, I watched the trailer. Immediately, I was taken back into my experience as a white woman married to a black man living in St Paul during the time of Philando Castille’s killing. Like then, I am trying to live and love and process from a place of faith. This drama opens me up to big questions of how I listen and lead; engage and respond to our world around. 

 “Seeing White” Scene on Radio. Podcast. http://www.sceneonradio.org/?s=seeing+white “Seeing White” is John Biewen’s Peabody-nominated podcast series with collaborator Chenjerai Kumanyika that explores the history and deconstructs the meaning of whiteness.

 “Little War on the prairie.”https://www.thisamericanlife.org/479/little-war-on-the-prairie  Online Radio Show.  Last fall a friend recommended a “This American Life” episode about the Dakota 38– (the largest mass execution in US history, done the day after Christmas in 1862 in Mankota, MN.)  I was struck by the way our Minnesota history was unpacked by other Minnesota residents, lead by Mankota-raised documentarian, John Biewen.