Best of the Month: Forgiveness, Mechanical Pencils, and Three Magic Words

Highlights From Our Series: Helping Families Transition to Fall (Plus Our Favorite Readers Comments)

Welcome to Best of the Month, our wrap-up of all our most popular posts and favorite comments from readers like you. We love hearing your feedback. Feel free to post comments here on Bulletin, or on Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. Your feedback helps us learn what you want to see more of and, most important, helps us build a community. Transitions of all kinds are easier when we go through them together.

And speaking of together, our readership and subscribers soared this month. Thank you for spreading the word! I'll be traveling this weekend (er, hunting down material). The Nonlinear Life will resume next week. Until then, I hope you'll enjoy this wrap-up.

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1. The Hardest Part of Forgiveness

Our highest-performing article of the month is a reminder that forgiveness is as challenging as it is necessary. One subscriber asked a difficult question:

How do you forgive someone for something you know they are going to do again? - Tracy Lapsley

While others offered support by speaking to the healing nature of gratitude:

Forgiveness is easier when we recognize the forgiveness we have been given. - Shelia Grisby Irby

2. Adult Back to School

Who doesn't still dream of that new notebook smell? Lots of you, it turns out! One Facebook commenter took a trip with us down memory lane:

My sister just brought me a gift bag of school supplies with everything including the new versions of the multi-colored ink pens…4 ink options one pen, y’all remember… - Billie Abner Pangalos

Another Bulletin commenter stopped to share their enthusiasm for treating oneself to a good book, student or not:

I love this! There is nothing better than holding a physical book in your hands. After a long day of classes and running all over campus especially in the heat right now (living in DC problems) nothing makes me happier when I walk into my space than curling up with a book and a blanket. - Nina De Angelo

3. How 9/11 Transformed Interfaith Relations

The 20th anniversary of 9/11 felt deeply emotional. It also brought back feelings of fear, anxiety, and grief. I was moved by reflecting on my own experiences that day and how that awful event opened up surprising connections among Jews, Christians, and Muslims. Grateful for this heartfelt reply from one Bulletin reader:

I'm a 9/11 survivor raised in a multi-faith home (Mom was Jewish, Dad Lutheran). As a woman of faith who witnessed the horrors in downtown Manhattan my pressing question to God was "why". In the 20 years since then, I've come to see the futility of fundamentalism even as Christian fundamentalism and "literal interpretations" of religious writings continue to divide the nations. Post 9/11 I took the time to study the extreme practices of all three in an attempt to discover what II might do to facilitate greater unity and understanding among all people. I'm blessed to live in a very diverse community across from Manhattan and hope that my willingness to not be "stiff-necked" in my personal faith practices encourages love of my neighbor instead of resentment. - Donna Cole

4. The Three Most Important Words to Say to Someone In a Life Crisis

Our second-biggest piece this month was on the power of three simple words. Sometimes, admitting that you don't know what to say to someone who's hurting is more comforting than pretending you do. One reader spoke to the pain she felt in one of those moments and invoked a name I know well, the surgeon who saved my leg 13 years ago.

I understand. Feeling sad and starting a “new way of living” after my cancer diagnosis of my femur and surgery by Dr John Healy at 37. Now 78. A long, fulfilled life. - Linda Katzer

Thanks again for all of your comments and for "sliding into September" with us. See you in October!

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Thanks for reading The Nonlinear Life. Please help us grow the community by subscribing, sharing, and commenting below. Also, you can learn more about me, read my introductory post, or scroll through my other posts.

Or these books: Life Is in the Transitions, The Secrets of Happy Families, Council of Dads.

Or, you can also contact me directly.