Why not explore some new Must-Reads? Kick off your week with recent essays and interviews that came across our radar – quoted here on The Wisdom Daily – including fresh takes on life after death, using your voice, merging talent with purpose, the appeal of faith-based books, how sleep deprivation affects prosperity and more. Whatever’s transpiring in your life, may you find the words of wisdom you need.
1. Living Out Loud
“I’m not trying to defy odds. I feel like I just move through life doing what I do, and I think that, in doing that to the best of your ability, that’s the most progressive thing that you could do in your life. I think that when you stifle your voice in any way to kind of meet the status quo is when you stifle your voice and that part of you that can make a difference.”
– Viola Davis, interviewed about her career (The Wrap)
2. Happily Ever Afterlife?
“Now, one must be clear, [Walt] Whitman is agnostic on the issue of whether consciousness survives. He offers no consolation that there is life after death; what he offers is a vision of how to live as if the answer to that question didn’t matter.”
– Edward Simon, “Scripture for a Dead God” (Killing the Buddha)
3. A Clear Lens
“In life, we must challenge ourselves to approach what hurts. It’s the fight against ourselves that we must win. I love photography; it’s a medium that allows me a lot of range, but taking photos without a purpose is nothing I could ever get used to.”
– Brandon Plain, “Photography With a Broken Heart” (Medium)
4. Reading Into It
“What these books really show us about America is more complicated. Their practicality has been so popular in part because they fill spiritual vacuums that organized religions in America fail to address. Religions are divided by doctrinal differences, whereas popular books are mostly ‘untheological.’ Most churches are male-dominated, whereas many popular books focus on women and their concerns.”
– Erin Smith, “What Would Jesus Read?” (Zocalo Public Square)
5. A Buzzworthy Discovery
“Our first harvest yielded five gallons of honey, but it was black as molasses. We were perplexed and feared something was wrong. But that fear was for naught, as our honey turned out to be something of wonder. Even the veteran beekeepers who advised us were envious of our haul. It turned out this thick black honey was probably from nearby buckwheat or bamboo, and its alluring looks were matched by the sweetest, most amazing honey to ever touch our lips.”
– Maureen Petrosky, “Diary of an Accidental Beekeeper” (Saveur)
6. Keep Your Eyes Closed
“What we really need is something like an experiment for sleep. Almost as though we go out in the United States and force people to sleep different amounts and then watch what the outcome is on their wages. And it turns out that ever since we’ve put time zones into place, we’ve basically been running just that sort of giant experiment on everyone in America.”
– Matthew Gibson, “The Economics of Sleep” (Freakonomics.com)
Image credit: Helga Esteb/Shutterstock.com
Here at The Wisdom Daily (TWD), we feature spiritual insights on daily life, designed to help improve and enhance our relationships with ourselves, our families and the world around us.