Ordinary Time Lessons Learned While Staying Put

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Ordinary Time

In her first book, the popular From the Front Porch podcast host and independent bookstore owner challenges the idea that loud lives are the ones that matter most, reminding us that we don't have to leave the lives we have in order to have the lives of which we've always dreamed. Can life be an adventure, even when it’s just . . . ordinary? Annie Jones always assumed adulthood would mean adventure: a high-powered career; life in a big, bustling city; and travels to far-flung places she’d longed to see. But her reality turned out differently. As the years passed, Annie was still in the same small town running an independent bookstore —the kind of life Nora Ephron dreamed. During that time, she hosted friends’ goodbye parties and mailed parting gifts; wrote recommendation letters and wished former shop staffers well. She stayed in her small town, despite her love of big cities; stayed in her marriage to the guy she met when she was 18; and she stayed at her bookstore while the world outside shifted steadily toward digital retailers. And she stayed loyal to a faith she sometimes didn’t recognize. After ten years, Annie realized she might never leave. But instead of regret, she had an epiphany. She awakened to the gifts of a quiet life spent staying put. In Ordinary Time, Annie challenges the idea that loud lives matter most. Rummaging through her small-town existence, she finds hidden gifts of humor and hope from a life lived quietly. Staying, can itself be a radical act. It takes courage to stay in the places we’ve always called home, Jones argues, as she paints a portrait of possibility far away from thriving metropolises and Monica Gellar-inspired apartments. We’ve long been encouraged to follow our dreams, to pack up and move to new places and leave old lives—and past selves—behind. While there is beauty in these kinds of adventures, Ordinary Time helps us see ourselves right where we are: in the middle of messy, mundane lives, maybe not too far from where we grew up. We don’t have to leave to find what we yearn—we can choose to stay, celebrating and honoring our ordinary lives, which might turn out to be bigger and better than we ever imagined.
My Christian Bucket List: Spiritual Lessons Learned While Traveling the World

Discover what happens when a young man leaves everything familiar behind including his office job and travels through 19 countries on a leap of faith to fulfill a desire to meet Christians around the world. With no plans but a God-filled human spirit longing for adventure and fellowship, will God fill his every need richly when he seeks Him according to Philippians 4:19? As a sojourner with no home, can he be at home and be a fellow citizen with the brothers and sisters of the household of God, the church, wherever he travels (Ephesians 2:19)? Through Christians and other people he encountered, the author presents the culture, history, food, budget travel advice to save you money, and crazy experiences for each country. Join his adventure through the world but also through life (priorities, money, sins, illness, death, etc...are explored through global and believers' perspectives). It is the author's sincere hope that your view of the world and God will be broadened and enriched after reading this book.
Alex

This story of an initiation begins with the white middle-class, teen-age narrator meeting charismatic, black, ageless Alex, who speaks in enigmas and conundrums and lives as a vagrant in San Francisco's Beat Generation bohemia. Convinced that Alex possesses the key to superior awareness, the boy seeks his guidance. "Come with me, kid. I'll take care of you," Alex replies. Accepting this fatherly invitation, intent on learning from Alex, the boy drops out. The hardships of hunger, tobacco, and cheap wine soon make themselves felt. Having become a stranger to his former self, he experiences ecstatic revelation: "So this is what Alex is all about! Ecstasy!" Perfect awareness cannot be retained. The boy seeks in vain to reconnect. Despairing, he repeatedly leaves Alex; but discontent with a life become meaningless irresistibly draws him back, until increasing signs of Alex's mental alienation overwhelm him, and he finally abandons Alex, haunted by a sense of loss.