Tag: memoir excerpt

• Shipyard Scars at Sixteen

  At sixteen, Richard M. Dell’Orfano worked in an East Boston shipyard where danger, steel, and sweat forged resilience that modern comfort no longer demands of young men.

  RMDell’Orfano

  May 26, 2026

  Autobio

  American culture, Civilian Conservation Corps, Coming of age, discipline, East Boston, hard work, hardship, industrial labor, masculinity crisis, memoir excerpt, moral equivalent of war, Path Perilous, Peace Corps, physical reality, resilience, shipyard labor, William James, working class, young men

• The Day my Father Arrived

  Waiting beneath a dying avocado tree for his father’s arrival, a wandering seeker watches ants rebuild their shattered colony and discovers a quiet revelation about responsibility, providence, and belonging.

  RMDell’Orfano

  May 6, 2026

  Autobio

  ants, avocado tree, California 1973, Christian memoir, commune life, contemplative writing, deep POV, father and son, literary memoir, memoir excerpt, metaphysical memoir, nature and faith, Path Perilous, perseverance, pilgrimage, prodigal son, Providence, redemption, responsibility, Richard Dell’Orfano, Richland House, spiritual awakening, spiritual journey, transformation

• His Money for My Life

  A sharply dressed heir seeks investment advice from a man kneeling in the dirt, plucking caterpillars into a jar—revealing a deeper divide between wealth and a life lived with purpose.

  RMDell’Orfano

  April 22, 2026

  Autobio

  caterpillars, Chapter 43, contemplation, discipline, garden scene, investment philosophy, memoir excerpt, Path Perilous, real estate insight, rural life, San Marcos, simple living, spiritual vs material, tomato garden, wealth contrast

• Down and Couldn’t Get Up

  A rainstorm ride turns violent when a crash leaves him stranded in traffic—until one stranger steps out of the line and changes everything.

  RMDell’Orfano

  April 15, 2026

  Autobio

  bicycle crash, Divine Intervention, guardian angel, hardship and faith, human kindness, life turning point, memoir excerpt, miracle rescue, Mission Road, rainstorm accident, real life crisis, San Marcos California, spiritual memoir, survival story

• The Truth … Crucified

  A young man living on the edge of poverty in 1970s San Diego takes a graveyard dishwasher job and witnesses injustice against vulnerable workers. When he speaks out, he loses everything—discovering firsthand what it means to suffer for truth.

  RMDell’Orfano

  April 8, 2026

  Autobio

  dignity of work, ethical conflict, faith under pressure, immigrant labor, memoir excerpt, moral courage, Path Perilous, poverty and survival, sacrifice and consequence, San Diego 1970, social inequality, speaking truth, spiritual journey, standing up for others, workplace injustice

• The Yellow Death Trap

  On a Mexican cliffside road with no guardrail, a packed bus meets an oncoming truck—metal scraping, gravel shifting, and nowhere to go.

  RMDell’Orfano

  April 1, 2026

  Autobio

  bus accident, Catholic themes, cliffside danger, fear and faith, intuition, life or death moment, memoir excerpt, mexico travel, mountain road, near death experience, Path Perilous, prayer under pressure, real life danger, survival, travel risk

• Food Can Kill … or Cure

  A sudden illness sends a young pilgrim to Boston’s Rising Sun clinic, where he encounters a radical idea: food itself may be the body’s first medicine.

  RMDell’Orfano

  March 6, 2026

  Autobio

  Adelle Davis, alternative medicine history, Ann Wigmore, Boston 1968, Boston Back Bay, counterculture health movement, food as medicine, healing foods, health food movement, Hippocrates, live foods, memoir excerpt, natural healing, nutrition reform, Path Perilous memoir, personal pilgrimage, Rising Sun Christianity, sprouted legumes, vegetarian diet, Wheat grass juice

• Living Deliberately—In Quiet Desperation

  My soul longed to stand tall, even as it remained shackled to the cowardice of my flesh.

  RMDell’Orfano

  January 21, 2026

  Autobio

  1960s America, academic materialism, faith and providence, Harvard, Henry David Thoreau, Jr., Living Deliberately, Martin Luther King, memoir excerpt, MIT, moral courage, Path Perilous, pilgrimage, Primitive diets, quiet desperation, Ralph Waldo Emerson, roots and branches, spiritual search, transcendentalism, Walden Pond

• Breakthrough

  A memoir excerpt recounting a quiet turning point during psychiatric hospitalization, where truth was received without recoil and healing could begin.

  RMDell’Orfano

  December 31, 2025

  Autobio

  Catholic reflection, discernment, healing and recovery, human presence, memoir excerpt, mental health journey, spiritual memoir