My Commonplace Book

Want to write a memoir? Become a custodian of memory, says William Zinnser.

Todd Wilson argues that many Evangelical approaches to spiritual formation fail because they don’t foster integration or wholeness.

Poet Christian Wiman prescribes awe as the only true antidote to the despair that characterizes the modern world.

Research shows that experiences of awe have a greater impact on mental well-being than contentment, amusement, gratitude, and joy.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau recognized a connection, at least in his own case, between cognition and locomotion.

Christian Wiman reflects on the ways art helps us process fear, pain, and loss rather than being paralyzed by them.

Makoto Fujimura said, “In my studios in Princeton, New Jersey, and Pasadena, California, in between pouring precious pulverized minerals onto handmade paper to create the prismatic, refractive surfaces of my art, I rest in my quiet space, waiting for the paper surface to dry…”

Charles Spurgeon said, "We do not know how remote the period of the creation of this globe may be—certainly many millions of years before the time of Adam…"

William Styron said this about the lived experience of depression: “It is not an immediately identifiable pain, like that of a broken limb. It may be more accurate to say that despair…comes to resemble the diabolical discomfort of…”

Clyde Kilby said, "I shall open my eyes and ears. Once every day I shall simply stare at a tree, a flower, a cloud, or a person. I shall not then be concerned at all to ask what they are, but simply be glad that they are…"

N.T. Wright believes beauty matters. I believe that taking creation and new creation seriously is the way to understand and revitalize aesthetic awareness and perhaps even…

Charles Spurgeon had no patience for people who were too spiritual to enjoy nature. He urged Christians to delight in the created world since God himself delights in it.

Sarah Clarkson said, “Material matters because it reflects the originating glory of its Creator and housed the flesh of God himself in the incarnation.”

William Carlos Williams said, “Green is a solace, a promise of peace.”

Lesslie Newbigin said, "The sacralizing of politics, the total identification of a political goal with the will of God, always unleashes…"

“Anxiousness — a difficult disease. The patient thinks he has something like a thorn, something pricking him in his viscera…”

Barry E. Wolfe said, “No one who has ever been tormented by prolonged bouts of anxiety doubts its power to paralyze action, promote flight, eviscerate pleasure, and skew thinking toward the catastrophic…”

In her final collection of essays, Mary Oliver wrote, “Attention is the beginning of devotion.”