This is The Pathless Path with Brad Wetzler (formerly Enlightened-ish), my weekly dispatch about how we can brave the wilderness of these tough, post-modern, hyper-capitalist times…together. It’s about storytelling, healing, adventure, the human heart, and the pursuit of the sacred and the holy, too.
Here are some things that are lighting me up this week. (Leave a note and tell me what’s been lighting you up this week.)
Book: Between the Listening and the Telling by Mark Yaconelli
I'm only 100 pages in, but Yaconelli's storytelling world has captivated me. As the seasoned author and visionary behind The Hearth, a community-oriented storytelling nonprofit, Yaconelli doesn't see stories merely as narratives but as indispensable allies. He believes they unlock the enigmatic tapestry of life, providing the wisdom needed to face life's challenges with greater meaning and grace.
For those yearning for personal healing, seeking to mend family bonds, or longing to strengthen community ties, this compassionate guide awaits. This book is the perfect starting point for anyone grappling with heartache or searching for the purpose that fuels their existence.
Movie: Past Lives
I loved this movie about Nora and Hae Sung, two deeply connected childhood friends torn apart after Nora's family emigrated from South Korea. Two decades later, they reunite in New York for one fateful week, confronting notions of destiny, love, and the choices that shape a life, creating a heartrending modern romance.
It's a poignant, beautiful, and soulful film that explores the enduring power of friendship and the complexities of love and fate.
Stuff: The Soho Urban Artist Sketch Kraft
This lineless notebook has captured my heart. (You can see how well-loved it is by my greasy paw prints!) On its raw, unbleached pages, I scribble notes to myself, track the progress of my spiritual practices, capture profound quotes from books, and sketch hand-written drafts of chapters. Simplicity is its virtue. The notebook is one way I’ve found to bring a touch of grace and order to the day's chaos.
If you haven’t bought my memoir, Into the Soul of the World: My Journey to Healing, yet, I hope you will.
Here’s what author Michael Paterniti wrote about it:
”Reading Brad Wetzler’s Into the Soul of the World is like embarking on a thrilling, dangerous journey—rivering straight into the heart of what matters most—to find yourself transformed. Ever the seeker, Wetzler wrestles with dark family secrets and triggered trauma, redefining what it means to be a man and spiritual being living in the twilight of our hyper-American materialism. If Into the Soul of the World belongs on a shelf next to Eat, Pray, Love, what lingers is Wetzler’s relentless audacity to try to tell the truth, however uncomfortable—about families and lovers and our times—In hopes of setting himself, and us, free.”
Are you an aspiring memoirist who has struggled to finish your book? Sign up for my next Write Your Way Home: A Memoir Masterclass, a comprehensive four-week course for beginner and intermediate memoir writers. You’ll walk away with everything—tools, mindset, and confidence—you need to finally write and finish your memoir.
michael Paterniti’s review is the review i would have written (if i could write.)