The Next Right Thing

It's the last week of Psalm Summer, and I'll be reading Psalm 63 from the New Revised Standard Version, then from the Contemporary English version, then from the Message. At the end of this series, we'll have all the Psalms for you as a collection in The Quiet Collection app. Listen in. A playlist of the Psalms we've done so far The Quiet Collection app Order  The Next Right Thing Guided Journal G...

It's week three of Psalm Summer, and I'll be reading Psalm 40 from the New Revised Standard Version, then from the Contemporary English version, then from the Message. At the end of this series, we'll have all the Psalms for you as a collection in The Quiet Collection app. Listen in. LINKS + RESOURCES FROM THIS EPISODE: A playlist of the Psalms we've done so far The Quiet Collection app Order  The...

It's week two of Psalm Summer, and I'll be reading Psalm 1 from the New Revised Standard Version, then from the Contemporary English version, then from Psalms for Praying by Nan C. Merrill. At the end of this series, we'll have all the Psalms for you as a collection in The Quiet Collection app. Listen in. LINKS + RESOURCES FROM THIS EPISODE: A playlist of the Psalms we've done so far The Quiet Col...

It's the first week of Psalm Summer, and I'll be reading three versions of your most requested chapter, Psalm 16. When this series is over, we'll have all the Psalms for you as a collection in The Quiet Collection app. Listen in. LINKS + RESOURCES FROM THIS EPISODE: A playlist of the Psalms we've done so far The Quiet Collection app Order  The Next Right Thing Guided Journal Grab a copy of my book...

It's time for Psalm Summer and today I'll share a few words about why I hold a tension with the Psalms. I'm hearing it among my friends, at retreats I've led, from graduate students I teach, and in the spiritual direction chair -- we have a complicated relationship with God, with the Bible, with people who make up the church. Complicated doesn't have to mean bad and it doesn't have to be negative....

Today's question is a fun one. What's saving your life right now, specifically when it comes to summer? It could be anything from a favorite product to a spiritual practice, a fun new show, or a meaningful relationship. When it comes to naming what we love this summer, everything counts. And when it comes to decision making, it's fun to name these things. It's great to know what helps me come aliv...

For the third year in a row, I'm hosting a conversation with John, who I have shared life with in marriage for 22 years. We have two college-age kiddos who have just finished their freshman year and one rising high school junior. Professionally, John runs a local community funded nonprofit called Grace Discipleship, where he serves as a spiritual director providing soul care and discipleship for t...

In today's episode, I'll be sharing some of my favorite summer-time decisions and then we get to hear from YOU! If you're already feeling in a summer rut, I hope these ideas will help if you find you need a little extra inspiration heading into summertime. Listen in. LINKS + RESOURCES FROM THIS EPISODE: Episode 181: A Soul Minimalist's Guide to Summer Episode 229: A Blessing for the Graduates The...

If you find yourself at a crossroads in your life and you're asking the super common and also slightly terrifying question, "What now?", listen in. LINKS + RESOURCES FROM THIS EPISODE: We want to hear about your favorite summer decision! Do you have a tip, a hack, a mindset, a question, or an activity you've said yes to and you're so glad you did? Or maybe it's something you decide to stop doing e...

This episode is called One Question to Ask Yourself Every Quarter, but of course you can ask it more often than that. It's a question I always have in mind, and it's become such a part of my rhythm of life that I don't really even think that much about it in one particular time. I just think about it as I go along my way and record my answers as they come. Listen in.    LINKS + RESOURCES FROM THIS...

I'm glad to welcome author Taylor Elyse Morrison, who's turned being bad at self-care into a career. She's the founder of the media company Inner Workout and the author of a book by the same name. She's a founder, facilitator, coach, and serial entrepreneur making wellbeing and personal development more accessible. She's all about supporting people's journey to know, care for, and become their ful...

Today I'm thinking in threes: three categories of reading, three books I recommend and three questions to help you reflect on the last several months before heading in to the new season that's upon us. Listen in.   LINKS + RESOURCES FROM THIS EPISODE: Jami Nato  Jesus and the Disinherited by Howard Thurman Start with Hello by Shannan Martin The Lake House by Kate Morton The House at Riverton by Ka...

I'm glad to welcome one of my dear, in-real-life, local friends to the show, Anna Kimbrough. Anna and her husband, Tripp, met when they were both students at Chapel Hill and were married for 23 years until the spring of 2020, when Tripp died after complications with a biopsy. Now it's three years later, and I'm sitting down with Anna to talk about the difficulty and heartbreak of making decisions...

If you're someone who maybe grew up going to church or used to have a steady spiritual practice, but you've either grown tired, weary, bored, or skeptical, I get it, and you're not alone. Maybe lately you've been curious about God again, wondering if there's anything for you in the world of faith. Maybe you're tiptoeing back looking for something familiar, but then when you find it, you feel a bit...

Birthdays can be fun and lovely, but also sometimes a source of our own chronic hesitation or decision fatigue. And this can add stress because we want to celebrate it, but we also may wonder how we can do that well as grownups. How can we approach our birthday like a soul minimalist, and why would we want to? Listen in. Links + Resources From This Episode: Listen to Pantsuit Politics Order To Ble...

A short blessing for all kinds of friendship and all kinds of friends. Here's to you, a friend to someone, and here's to your someone who is a friend to you. Listen in. Links + Resources From This Episode: The Quiet Collection app Order The Next Right Thing Guided Journal Grab a copy of my book  The  Next Right Thing   Find me on  Instagram @emilypfreeman Find a full transcript of this episode at...

What role do friendships play in our decision-making lives? How can we be friends people trust to come to when they have a decision to make? Are there any tips or tricks on how not to be an annoying friend when someone comes to us for advice? Well, there are, my friend. I hope you'll listen in. Links + Resources From This Episode: Follow @davidgatepoet on Instagram The Quiet Collection app Order T...

As we continue this short series on friendship, I'm glad to welcome one of my IRL friends, the author of one of my top 10 favorite books of 2020, Share Your Stuff. I'll Go First and host of the 10 Things to Tell You podcast, Laura Tremaine. Laura has written a book all about friendship for grownups and it's already helped me make some really important mindset shifts in my own relationships. It's c...

What's saving your life right now, specifically when it comes to friendship? It's the first in a several-week series on friendship inspired by my friend and fellow author, Laura Tremaine's new book, The Life Council , all about 10 friends every woman needs. We'll have Laura on as a guest next week, but this week we'll kick off the series by dedicating this quarter's "What's Saving My Life" to frie...

Can we escape interruptions? You know the answer is we never will, but we can make partial, imperfect, or even settled peace with them. In this episode, I'll offer some encouragement for when your life feels like one big interruption. Listen in. Links + Resources From This Episode: Domestic Monastery   by Ronald Rolheiser The Lazy Genius The Quiet Collection app Order The Next Right Thing Guided J...

Today I'll share words from someone else for all of us to listen to and carry with us and reflect on together. I've chosen a poem by Macrina Wiederkehr, a writer who has been a companion for me for many years now (though she never knew it.) She was a master of everyday spirituality and had a lovely way of seeing and speaking of God in the midst of ordinary things of life. Macrina wrote a reflectio...

You have a decision to make or a move to discern. You ask a friend to listen and help you figure out your next right thing. And then they ask the question that is as dreaded as it is simple: "Well, what do you want?" If your response to that maddening question is no answer, no direction, no clue, then this episode is for you. Listen in.   Links + Resources From This Episode: The Quiet Collection a...

Lately, I've been thinking a lot about fear, how and when it shows up, ways it lies and tells the truth, and what it means for us as we do the hard and holy work of making life decisions. Listen in.   Links + Resources From This Episode: The Quiet Collection app Order The Next Right Thing Guided Journal Grab a copy of my book  The  Next Right Thing   Find me on  Instagram @emilypfreeman

Today I'm glad to welcome our favorite hope dealer and host of the podcast Human Hope, it's Carlos Whittaker. His brand new book How to Human , just released last month. In it he shares candidly from his own life about how he's wrestling through some of the biggest cultural issues of our current time and simple ways he's learning to refuse to let our disagreements define us. In his honest, relatab...

The decisions we make are evidence of the person who we are becoming. In the middle of our right-now, messy, beautiful, boring, terrifying wonderful lives, it's good to reflect on who we've been, who we are, and who we might become. Listen in. Links + Resources From This Episode: The Lives We Actually Have: 100 Blessings for Imperfect Days by Kate Bowler and Jessica Richie The Quiet Collection app...