Month: January 2025

Becoming Rooted (book review)

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Each aging day I’m realizing it’s a fantasy to think there is another human being who thinks and acts exactly like me. Some days I wallow in it. Most days I accept reality.

Example #1: Not all my running friends agree with me about ideal running conditions. Mostly the disagreement is temperature. The longer the run the cooler the preferred temperature (upper 40’s-lower 50’sF). For 4-6 mile runs, just keep it out of the 60’s, please.

Example #2: Even more of my friends don’t view engaging politics and current events how I do. Some would say I need to pick a side or at least stay more informed. I’m pretty adamant that the best approach is meeting in the middle and pursuing unity over division.

As I read Randy Woodley’s Becoming Rooted, I thought about several of my friends. Some would never read this book. Some would thoroughly enjoy it. And there I sit in the middle, perfectly content.

Although it’s designed as 100 meditations to read daily, I chose to read several in a sitting. The meditations are grouped under 10 sections, 10 meditations each. Just a couple of pages, each meditation punches a thought ending with an action step. Thoughtful and practical. Challenging and unifying. Welcoming disagreeing friends into a conversation to remind you that you are connected to each other and therefore rooted to one another.

Woodley sums up his efforts through the meditations with this list of values in the final one:

  • Respect: Respect everyone. Everyone and everything is sacred.
  • Harmony: Seek harmony and cooperation with people and nature.
  • Friendship: Increase the number and depth of your close friends and family.
  • Humor: Laugh at yourself; we are merely human.
  • Equality: Everyone expresses their voice in decisions.
  • Authenticity: Speak from your heart.
  • History: Learn from the past. Live presently by looking back.
  • Balance work and rest: Work hard, but rest well.
  • Generosity: Share what you have with others.
  • Accountability: We are all interconnected. We are all related.

Back to my fantasy, maybe more friends will choose to read this book than I imagine.

Roots

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Roots have been on mind this week. Led me to two interesting exchanges.

Today I was introduced to Safiya Sinclair on an episode of Everything Happens. The episode title, Rewriting Roots, peaked my interest. The question that made me sit up in my chair was, “When did you first know your words were so powerful?”

That question reminded me of another question. In my spiritual direction conversation this week, I was asked something similar. We were discussing purpose and vocational alignment. The question was something like, “What do you look for to let you know you are on the right path?”

Safiya and I were forced to go back in time. The question was about roots. She answered by telling about her mother’s pivotal role in connecting her to poetry = Roots. I answered by sharing about a grounding exercise to write a personal mission statement my first semester in seminary = Roots.

You want to know about someone’s rise to success, to understand what makes them tick? Question them about their roots.

You want to self-assess if you are fulfilling your calling, if you are growing as you wish, if the seeds you’re planting matter? Go back to your roots.

Photo by Zach Reiner on Unsplash

Top 3 2024 Word of the Year Songs

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The first year I chose a word for the year was 2020. It’s an exercise I’ve grown to appreciate. If you have yet to consider it, here are a few blog posts about it:

https://mountainmodernlife.com/word-of-the-year/

https://www.fillingthejars.com/word-for-the-year/

My 2024 word was “courage” for which I created a playlist. At one time the playlist had over 20 songs. Last month as we edged closer to year end, I began deleting songs as a way of keeping focus. And in a fun way, unintentionally, I got down to the top three songs on the list that spoke the most to me along this theme. So I thought I’d share them with you.

To share them, here’s the playlist and videos of each song. Take Courage!

Think Ahead (book review)

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Books aren’t like movies. Some movies you can watch over and over (at the top of my list, Moneyball). There are few books I’ve read that I thought to myself, “I would read this over and over.” Actually, outside of The Bible, I’ve only said that about a couple of books.

ALERT: Craig Groeschel‘s latest book Think Ahead makes the list.

What constitutes a book being re-readable? Well, compare that to the benefits of regular exercise. You do it because it’s good for you-you need it to improve your quality of life.

There you go. I believe there are books worth reading more than once because they improve quality of life. That’s the top criteria.

Similarly like regular exercise, there are books that reading it once isn’t enough. Going to the gym only on January 1st annually isn’t enough. There must be multiple visits. Only once doesn’t cut it. Some books have the level of content that you know when you read it, “I’m going to need this again down the road.”

To be honest, the big idea of Think Ahead comes pretty naturally to me. That idea is the power of pre-deciding. In his epilogue, Groeschel says this about that power:

  • Pre-deciding reduces the number of decisions to make.
  • Pre-deciding reduces the fear of deciding wrong.
  • Pre-deciding prevents emotion from taking over.

Whether pre-deciding is a natural way of living for you or not, here’s the deal: no one is perfect. Decision-making can become overwhelming in unforeseen circumstances. Some decisions are harder than others urging paralyzing fear. In either of these scenarios, emotions can lead us astray.

After one read in 2024, I’m pretty sure Think Ahead deserves a second read. And if it is going to improve my life quality, I guess I’m pre-deciding-Think Ahead is on the list to read for 2025.