Light for Small Choices: An Interfaith Guide to Everyday Discernment by Elian Qelaro

Light for Small Choices: An Interfaith Guide to Everyday Discernment by Elian Qelaro
Clear, warm, and deeply practical, Light for Small Choices shows how ordinary decisions become easier when you learn to listen well. Elian Qelaro weaves wisdom from Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu, and mystical traditions into a single, usable craft of discernment something you can practice at the kitchen table, in a meeting, or on a long walk. You’ll learn to read the signs of daily life, test motives without shame, sit with silence that clarifies, and lean on counsel and community when the path is cloudy. A gentle thirty-day practice turns insight into rhythm.
What you will learn
• Foundations of discernment attention, intention, memory, and patience
• Five everyday signs you’re discerning well (peace, clarity, proportion, freedom, fruit)
• Christian “discernment of spirits”: consolation/desolation in plain language
• Muslim paths of taqwa, istikhara, and basira God-consciousness, prayerful seeking, inner sight
• Jewish frames wisdom and law together, plus havdalah as the art of making distinctions
• Buddhist tools mindfulness and prajñā for seeing causes and conditions
• Hindu lenses viveka (discrimination) and vairāgya (non-clinging) in daily choices
• Mystical lineages Sufi, Hesychast, and contemplative practices for quiet courage
• Listening practices attention, silence, journaling, and memory as guides
• Testing desires and fears clean questions that reveal what’s really steering you
• Using counsel elders, texts, and friendships that refine judgment
• Decision playbooks for work, money, relationships, media, and modern overload
• When the path is cloudy how to move through suffering, thresholds, and delay
• A “Personal Rule of Discernment” a 30-day plan with prompts, reviews, and resets
Who this book is for
• Seekers who want grounded spiritual practice without jargon or proselytizing
• People facing real-life choices in work, love, money, and media
• Clergy, chaplains, therapists, and educators looking for interfaith tools
• Book clubs and study circles ready for calm, generous conversation
Keywords
discernment, interfaith wisdom, decision-making, mindfulness, taqwa, istikhara, basira, havdalah, viveka, vairagya, prajna, contemplative practice, spiritual formation, practical spirituality
Open Light for Small Choices and carry a steady lantern into your day one quiet question, one honest signal, one wise next step at a time.