One of the wonders of the Web is when you find an amazing person. Sometimes it feels as if the person has evaded your attention, as if they lived right under your nose, and you wonder how you missed him or her for all these years. Sometimes there’s just the arrival of something that makes you think. Here are three recent ones:

Maria Popova

I have no idea how I have never heard of her Brain Pickings blog before this past week, but I was listening to Tim Ferriss’ podcast when he interviewed her, and I am instantly enthralled. She explains her efforts like this:

Brain Pickings is my one-woman labor of love—a subjective lens on what matters in the world and why. Mostly, it’s a record of my own becoming as a person—intellectually, creatively, spiritually—and an inquiry into how to live and what it means to lead a good life.

I found her 7 things learned in the last 7 years pretty awesome, too. No. 6: Presence is far more intricate and rewarding an art than productivity.

Nadia Bolz-Weber

She (photo, above) is the tatted, Lutheran minister of Denver’s House for All Sinners and Saints. My minister, the Rev. Ken Beldon, mentioned her in his message last week and, lo and behold, she showed up on NPR this Sunday morning. I don’t know what exactly the universe is saying to me, but I think I need to turn my ear its way. After all, it’s hard not to listen to a minister who writes about meaningless church jargon.

Lindsay Cox

Lindsay shared the powerful story about the suicides of her parents about a decade ago. The crux of it is right here:

Most people in my life or who are familiar with my situation think they’re entitled to an opinion about my parents’ deaths because it was “their choice” to end their own lives. There’s so much shame attached to my parents’ deaths because of a lack of understanding about mental illness that sometimes it feels like I’m not allowed to be sad like people who have lost their parents to other diseases.

That I found Lindsay’s piece on Buzzfeed, of all places, has me re-thinking some of my own preconceptions. Thoughts and perspectives and people, all of great worth, are swirling around us, if we’ll take the time and have the great fortune to see them.