A Wider Conversation

plus: my (slightly ambitious) summer reading list

On Sunday afternoon, I took a two-and-a-half-hour nap. It was the kind of nap where you wake up with drool pouring from the corner of your mouth. The kind where your blurry eyes and blurry brain require a few minutes to remember who and where you are. You know the kind of nap I mean, and to say I was tired is an understatement. 

I didn’t anticipate the emotional and relational energy I would expend in releasing The Way of Belonging into the world. Truly, all of it was good—very, very good—but even so, receiving abundance takes a different kind of openhandedness and courage. I am finding it is not natural for me to let the good things in. (Something I need to sit with a little longer, for sure.)

But all things considered, here we are three weeks out from the book skip-hopping into the world, and my body still feels as if it sat down at the end of a marathon and cannot quite pick itself back up. This is me:

Photo by Jackman Chiu on Unsplash

But the nice thing about having a book in the world is that it begins to do more of the talking for you. No longer does it need me to talk incessantly about what’s inside, what you will find, what it’s about, but rather, we can begin to have a conversation. We can let the book expand from one-way words into dialogue. Into reciprocity. Into an exchange.

And I like that.

I once heard author Courtney Ellis remark how important it is for her to remind herself every time she begins a new project that she isn’t writing the book, but simply a book.¹ That reframing was incredibly helpful and freeing for me personally and professionally. So from the beginning, my approach with The Way of Belonging was not to offer a prescriptive, one-size-fits-all approach to the topic, but rather to be a participant in a much wider conversation. I didn’t (and still don’t) view The Way of Belonging as an end-all-be-all, but one fractal of a much more intricate and infinite design. Only God himself contains the whole.

So while, yes, my brain and body are tired, I am finding much joy as I see the conversation about belonging continue to expand, not only taking its place among other books written on the topic, but also on podcasts and across text messages and over cold cups of iced coffee. And I hope these conversations continue, reverberating and rising amid the “everyday-ness” of our lives.² I hope the exchange softens us toward God and each other, as we offer what is ours to give while maintaining an open hand.

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Within the next few weeks, I’m going to be launching season two of the Human Together podcast. This season will focus on widening the conversation on belonging, bringing in voices that can speak deeper or wider into areas I cannot. I’ve already recorded with several guests and am really looking forward to sharing these episodes with you. 

But in the meantime, I want to leave you with a few conversations (on podcasts and in print) where I was invited to chat about the themes within The Way of Belonging, in case you want to continue to explore or enter in. I’m also going to share my ridiculously long summer reading list, because, well, do I really need a reason? (I think not.)

Still on the way,

PS: If you have read The Way of Belonging, would you do me a favor and leave a rating and/or review on Goodreads or Amazon (or wherever you bought the book)? Your honest feedback helps the right readers find the book, and for that, I am grateful. You can even copy/paste your words from one site to another, to keep things simple. Thank you!

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Words Happening Elsewhere

It’s really important to me to share the conversations I’ve been around The Way of Belonging, because 1) I’m grateful to be invited into any space and I do not want to take that lightly, and 2) I know what it takes to not only host but also produce a podcast episode, interview, or publication. Sharing each one with you is a way for me to honor the work they’re doing in the world.

So with that in mind, here are some episodes, if you want to listen in:

• Dear Wallflower with Keelia Clarkson (Ep. 66, “Why Does Community Matter?”)

• The BETWEEN podcast with

  BETWEEN by Matt Mattson

• Shifting Culture with Joshua Johnson (Ep. 191)

• Girls Talking Life with Yohonna Smith (GTL Extra - The Way of Belonging)

• Artists for Joy with

  Merideth Hite Estevez
  (Joy for the Long Haul, Ep. 178)

• More to Life (S3, E7: “The Key to Connecting with Sarah E. Westfall”)

• Better on the Inside with Jon Pyle (“A New ‘Way’ to Think About Belonging”)

• Be Filled with Tashena Anderson-Place (S5, E5 - The Way of Belonging)

If you prefer to read with your eyes, here are the print essays and interviews:

• “Let a Little Weakness Show” (interview, Common Good Mag, 6/2024)

• A personal interview with RAPT Interviews (6/2024)

• “Belonging over the Long Haul” (personal essay, Elisa Morgan blog, 5/2024)

• “Our Desire To Belong is an Invitation” (devotional, Proverbs 31 Ministries, 6/2024)

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My Summer Reading List

My eyes have always been too big for my stomach, and that reality has not been isolated to food. I own that. However, a woman can dream.

With that it mind, here the books I’ve piled up to enjoy during the summer months. I’ll include direct links below for your perusing, but I’d also like to hear: What books are on your summer stack? Tell me everything.

not pictured: The Artist’s Joy by Merideth Hite-Estevez (link below)

Here are links³ to all the books, listed as show on the pile and not necessarily in the order I will devour them:

• The Artist’s Joy by

  Merideth Hite Estevez

• When We Belong by Rohadi Nagassar

• Othered by

  Jenai Auman

• The Mother Artist by Catherine Ricketts

• Of Wings & Dirt by

  Kimberly Phinney

• The Sex Talk You Never Got by Sam Jolman

• Ghosted by Nancy French

• Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

• How to Do Nothing by Jenny Odell

• It Wasn’t Roaring, It Was Weeping by

  Lisa-Jo Baker

• A Non-Anxious Life by Alan Fadling

• Humble by Daryl Van Tongeren (a re-read)

• The Religion of American Greatness by Paul D. Miller

• Picking Up the Pieces: Leadership after Empire by Katherine McShane & Elan Babchuck

• Echoes of Eden by Jerram Barrs

• Night by Elie Wiesel (another re-read)

• The Creative Act by Rick Rubin (one more re-read, for good measure)

1. I first heard Courtney Ellis chat about this with friends Shawn and Maile on their previous podcast, The Stories Between Us (ep. 109).

2. My spiritual director used this word when I met with her earlier this week. I’m not sure it originated with her, but I’m quite positive it will make a regular appearance in my vocabulary.

3. These are not affiliate links. Just the good, old-fashioned kind. :) As much as possible, I try to direct you to the author or publisher’s websites, so you can see all your buying options.