The Traveling Mandolin: What I've Been Reading: 2021, Part Six

The book list continues…

"Prayer in the Night: For Those Who Work or Watch or Weep" by Tish Harrison Warren

My dad gave me this beautiful book, which is a series of meditations and essays based on the traditional prayer, the Compline, which is recited before bed each night. Warren, a priest at an Episcopal church, guides us through the Compline with her reflections on all the uncertainties and vagaries of life: lamentation, work, liminality, suffering, joy, and how God meets us in each of these places. The writing is simple, but rich with meaning: I feel like I want to read it again and again, gathering new inspiration and perspective each time. Very highly recommended for any Christian finding their way through the darkness.

"Dear White Peacemakers: Dismantling Racism with Grit and Grace" by Osheta Moore

This book, written in the aftermath of George Floyd's death, is both a love letter and a call to action from a Black woman to White Christians, an invitation to embrace our own belovedness as a way to embrace others' as well. It's also a call to tear down the systems that brutalize people of color, in order to build a world based on the Biblical concept of shalom— wholeness, harmony, and peacemaking (which, she points out, is very different from peacekeeping, defending the status quo).

This book challenged me spiritually more than pretty much any other I've read so far this year. Moore takes Jesus seriously— including all that stuff I'd really like to gloss over, such as embracing God's love of the people we call our enemies. Even the ones who are doing active damage to the world and to us and to other people.

One way I felt particularly challenged was her description of liberal White people's reactions to Floyd's death: she wrote about how many White women approached her on social media and in real life demanding that she be angry, that she berate them, that she call them out as racist. When she refused, they got angry at her for not responding in the way they thought was appropriate. I can't remember the exact quote, but she said something like, "They wanted an angry Black woman to put in their pocket." I felt seriously called out. Moore reminds me as a White person that I am not in charge of the narrative, and that demanding anger and outrage is a form of centering myself.

If you're White, regardless of where you fall on the political, social, or cultural spectrum, this book will probably make you deeply uncomfortable. For that alone, it's worth reading.

"The Enneagram of Belonging: A Compassionate Journey of Self-Acceptance" by Christopher L. Heuertz

I picked this up on a whim from a library display, since I had read and enjoyed the author's previous book, "The Sacred Enneagram." This book is a deeper dive into the Enneagram framework of understanding ourselves, and how we can use it to embrace all parts of ourselves— even what we perceived to be flaws, sins, or shadows— in order to create a sense of belonging and groundedness.

If you're unfamiliar with the Enneagram or only know it as a light put-you-in-a-box personality test, you definitely don't want to start with this book, since it assumes you already have a fairly thorough understanding of the framework and nine types. (If you need an introduction, I highly recommend the author's previous book on the subject!) But if you understand Enneagram 101 and want to dig deeper, this book is an incredible invitation to understanding yourself more deeply.

I'm an Enneagram 9 with a strong 1 wing (as identified by a test my old counselor gave me), but I had never identified too much with the way this type was usually described in passing: easygoing, prone to laziness, complacent. Anyone who knows me knows that I'm uptight, constantly worried I'm not working enough, and care way too deeply about everything. This book helped me understand that all those traits are, in fact, traits of a 9— just a particular response to my base personality. Being able to see myself through that lens was incredibly helpful, and I credit this book with a huge chunk of the personal growth, self-understanding, and increased honesty with myself that I've experienced over the past few months. If you're already introduced to the Enneagram and want to dive deeper, this is the book for you!

"Happier at Home: Kiss More, Jump More, Abandon a Project, Read Samuel Johnson, and My Other Experiments in the Practice of Everyday Life" by Gretchen Rubin

I've read some of Rubin's books about habits and found them useful, so I picked them up to see what she had to say about happiness. Turns out that this is a sort of sequel to her book "The Happiness Project," so I probably should've read that one first, but this one still stood on its own. It's a fun dive into the mini-experiments the author did every month for a year to try to create a happier home (using the power of science and analysis). Light, breezy, and full of interesting ideas, it was a fun read, especially for anyone interested in the psychology of happiness.

Others in this series: