Revealing Voices: Recent Episodes
Tony Roberts and co-hosts - Authors, Mental Health Advocates, and Ministry Developers
In this episode, Tony and Eric explore the season of Lent and the reason for Easter hope. Lent is a time to let go obstacles for physical, mental, and spiritual wellbeing in order to make room for new life at Easter. This dynamic of letting go and making room is true for people of all faiths, and no formal faith connection at all. Jesus offers all a living hope for abundant life beyond death. Tony shares this story —
In my faith, Easter is a season of renewal, resurrection, new life. Jesus said unless a kernel of wheat dies, there can be no harvest. If we allow things to pass away, however, we can embrace abundance beyond measure.
Easier said than done. No one wants to let something or someone they care about die. We cling to addictions to feelings, thoughts, and behaviors that may once have served a purpose but now stunt our growth or even lead to our destruction. As a child, I experienced trauma in my life. This aggravated a genetic mental disorder. This could have been very disruptive. But I was encouraged by family, teachers, and coaches, to pursue athletic prowess and scholastic achievements. I became addicted to success and recognition. But I couldn’t get enough. After being humbled in college, I turned to alcohol, nicotine , and marijuana. Some call this self medicating To quote my good buddy Steve Franz, it’s really dying by suicide in a manner deemed acceptable by society. I didn’t die physically, but these death-dealing ways did great damage to me in many ways and I hurt others as well. I quit consuming substances to raise a family but I didn’t tackle to root issue of the God-sized hole in my soul. For over 30 years I was a dry drunk — self-absorbed, self-righteous, self-destructive. When my life finally became unmanageable from things I couldn’t handle I turned back to the bottle. Soon I was in the valley of the shadow of death and saw no way out. But God showed me the Way. A friend in recovery sent me a caring text. Are you tired? Hungry? Depressed? Angry? Christ reached out to me at my lowest point and, by God’s grace, I reached back and held on tight. That was August 19, 2024. I have now been sober, sane, and serene for over 9 months now and I’m still counting each day, moment by moment. This Easter I celebrate the hope of renewed clarity, restored relationships, reconciliation with God. The Resurrection of Christ was not some incredible, irrational, inaccessible, one time miracle. God promises that all who believe and receive the Spirit of Christ have the hope of abundant life now and forever. Can you believe it? Will you receive it? To God be the glory. Now and forever. Amen. Photo credit: https://pixabay.com/photos/cross-crucifix-jesus-crucifixion-1979473/
On this episode, Tony returns from Sabbatical to discuss his journey from the chaotic waters of addiction, insanity, and spiritual disease to a life of daily recovery — sober, sane, and serene. Eric shares his inspiration for a new book — 575 Gardens. The book will contain haiku and life reflections written over the past decade. Tony and Eric then provide a sneak peek of the upcoming season 8 of Revealing Voices (March 1 marks our 7 year anniversary). In addition to Eric’s occasional Haikasts, Tony will record “Healing Stories” about the people, places, and things that have contributed to his abundant life in dual diagnosis recovery.
I’m thankful for tears. As I grow older, I find that the poignant times that often precede emotional moments are actually a mix of joy and sorrow. I have also noticed tears arise in moments of intense gratitude – times when I am thankful for unexpected blessings that seem beyond what I deserve or could imagine. 2022 was definitely a year of more crying than normal. The most outstanding of these experiences was over Labor Day and involved 3 straight days of tears.
My son, Isaac, attended a spiritual retreat called Chrysalis over Labor Day weekend. About 15 years prior, I volunteered at the same 3-night ecumenical experience. The site is still at the same Brown Country deeply forested remote location. Taking Isaac to the retreat was one of those drives that helped me recall many memories that are hard to access unless I’m back in the same space. They were very good memories of helping others experience the meaning of sacrifice, love, and reconciliation.
Doing a deep dive into an intensive weekend of self reflection and self discovery with mostly strangers is not necessarily a teenager’s idea of a fun weekend. Like many teenagers, my son had a fair share of ups and downs throughout his childhood. Most notably, he endured the divorce of his mother and me – something that undoubtedly had a spiritual impact on him beyond my comprehension. Spiritual retreats tend to surface a lot of mixed emotions and is often the reason – whether conscious or unconscious – why people decide to not take the risk.
Isaac was reluctant to commit to the long weekend, so I shared my personal experience of Chrysalis with him. We talked about the speakers over the weekend who would be sharing intimate spiritual experiences. We talked about the delicate discernment required to appreciate others’ spirituality while also questioning some of the divergent religious beliefs that may be held by those speakers. We talked about honoring the many ways that people are moved spiritually and to not judge others’ expressions of faith.
I emphasized my spiritual belief that Christianity is, at its core, the cultivation and sharing of “agape” love – a concept that the weekend would help bring into sharp focus for him.
What is agape love?
I think of it as acts of appreciation, encouragement, and service that are done without expectation of reciprocation. In daily life, it is easy to get caught in a cycle of transactional behavior. There is nothing wrong with this part of human culture, but to settle on transactions as being the basis for cultural meaning misses out on both giving and receiving in a way more aligned with agape love. This is different from romantic love. It is not intuitive or easy to learn unless intentionally taught and experienced. That is a big reason why the Chrysalis weekend is so important – it is a sort of crash course on how to better love others and – almost always – understanding how to better love yourself.
In 2004, when I went on a similar retreat designed for adults, I attentively listened to messages about forgiveness and reconciliation. The times of prayer and reflection over the weekend allowed these life changing concepts to transform how I approached my relationships. I realized how much pain I held by not forgiving my father for the endless fights we had when I was a teenager. I’ll never forget telling my dad that I was sorry for how I had treated him in high school and college. His response reminded me of the prodigal son parable as he embraced me and gladly accepted my apology – making a point to say that he had forgiven me a long time ago.
I remembered this experience and other blessings born of forgiveness as Isaac was welcomed into the retreat center. It was a drenching rain as adults gathered to pray for the teenagers we referred to as “caterpillars” on the Chrysalis retreat. How would they change over the weekend? A few tears of gratitude percolated as I prayed.
The next day, I was gardening in the sunshine at one of my favorite native plant projects in the city and wondering how my son was handling the experience. I started crying again. Perhaps it was out of a sense that there are important life lessons that I can not teach my son; I just have to trust that he will discover them by personal experience. I knew he was going through a tough time and to be able to encounter the Chrysalis retreat at this stage in his life had the potential for being a maturing event.
That evening, I was invited to the retreat site for an hour to surprise him. Over a hundred people who had been on these retreats in the past gathered to support Isaac and the other young men and women. The simple chorus of a song – “the gospel in one word is love” – brought me to tears. He was surrounded by so much goodness in that moment. I get a little choked up now just thinking about his smile and enthusiasm during that brief encounter. He gave me a hug and turned towards the campfire with a vibrancy that I had not seen from him in many months. How much of our life is just getting a brief peek into someone’s life – a moment that we pray will be one of joy, of peace, and of experiencing love with others? It was so good to see him there that night in the midst of a life changing weekend.
The next afternoon, I went to the final event where each youth had an opportunity to stand in front of their parents, loved ones, and new-found retreat friends. In the ceremony, each of the youth was given the title of “butterfly.” Of course, with my disposition for loving the symbolism and life of the butterfly, I could barely hold it together in the pew. Then Isaac stood up to share his experience. He described his appreciation for the new relationships in his life and said that he had learned to love himself over the weekend. In the pew, this proud father had apparently not cried enough that weekend. They were tears of pure joy. God – how good it was to hear him say that in such a heartfelt and sincere way.
Saline trail down cheeks
Son’s prayer, mingled memories
All day rain begins
People of a certain age likely have a vessel of pictures. To be clear, I’m not talking about a well curated photo album. For me, the vessel is a cheap plastic bin, about 8” W x 15” L x 4” D. Full of pictures. Many of them loosely organized in the original paper envelopes that they gave me at Target or Walmart or the drug store where the film was processed. Many of them are labeled: Summer 2005, Christmas 2003, Nela Baby Photos, STL trip 2004, etc. It’s not a great organization system, but its full of serendipity. If there is any thought of hunting through them for a picture, I might as well go through the entire bin. Probably over a thousand photos piled high. A few often slip to the floor as I reach for them.
Recently, I read the book “American Gods” by Neil Gaiman. The small g variety. It’s a roadtrip romp through the Midwest. The main character is a recently released prisoner who, unbeknownst to him, makes a deal to be the bodyguard of the Norse god, Odin. It’s a fun book. Emotive at times. I really liked the main character’s love for his wife, who died days before he is released from prison and haunts him (in a good way) through the rest of the book. At the climax, there is a showdown between the old gods, mostly immigrants from ancient lands who couldn’t quite make it in America and the new American gods (think Santa Claus), who capture our imagination and usurp our more deeply held spiritual wishes in accordance with cultural convenience. It is the kind of book that makes me ask questions like, “Does Jesus actually stack up to Santa Claus most Decembers?” and “What do Americans worship without knowing they are doing so?”
The site of the book’s final battle is Lookout Mountain near Chattanooga, TN. In real American history, the mountain has special significance as a sacred site of native American culture, an important Civil War strategic location, and – in contemporary times – as a tourist destination known for its extravagant gnome displays. It now captures people’s interest with the unique style of advertising that you see painted on old barns on rural highways: “You’re Almost There – Lookout Mountain!” You might call it a tourist trap. The author calls it a “thin place” where the geography, topography, and natural beauty of the place have attracted millions of people for many reasons over the centuries.
In the author’s world, a thin place is a location where gods gather because it is where people have historically gathered. These places hold significance that is mutable, where a constant battle for meaning shapes peoples’ perceptions and experiences. Is the mountain a site of worship, military strategy, or commercialism? It can be all of these things and more. Ultimately, that meaning does not have to be culturally defined. It can be highly individualized and your own belief significantly influences the experience. In my own belief system, I worship a God who created the earth as a bountiful garden for all to share. This belief often leads me to natural areas in honor of the sublime beauty that no human hand will ever be able to create.
In the Cherokee language, Chattanooga is translated as “rock coming to a point” or “end of the mountain.” On top of Lookout Mountain, as modern tourism marketing goes, you can see seven states. It is a visionary place. I wonder, before there were states, how did Indigenous people describe what could be seen from that point? On what occasions did people gather at the “end of the mountain?”
In summer of 2007, I was preparing to go to graduate school to get an MBA from Indiana University. This was a major life altering moment for me. The week before school started, I went with my wife and two young children to Athens, GA to visit family. On the way back, we stopped in Chattanooga. At the hotel, I distinctly remember my fearless 18 month old son taking a dive into the water at the kiddie pool and my daughter being enthralled by the massive miniature train exhibit. I didn’t consider our climb up Lookout Mountain a pilgrimage to a thin place, it was more of a curiosity journey.
When I was reading “American Gods”, I had not thought of Lookout Mountain for many years. But as I read the book, Gaiman’s description of the narrow passageways and the tiny kitsch gnome displays, transported me back nearly 2 decades. In 2007, I was a young father – almost excited as my kids to see what this mountain was all about. I remembered how happy I was with my family.
After coming home from Chattanooga, I started the MBA program. I was not emotionally prepared for the stressful experience. It became a quick dissent into insomnia and eventually severe depression. My bipolar symptoms were severe and I feared for my life. That Thanksgiving, I spent the academic break at the local hospital’s psych unit. I passed out and did a face plant at the hospital when they drew my blood. My wife visited me at the hospital that Thanksgiving weekend to tell me she wanted a divorce. My life crumbled in three short months.
It is a history that I do not like to remember. I had buried the memories of Chattanooga – so sweet in the moment – but made bitter because they were the last wholesome moments before the nuclear family that I thought would last forever fell apart.
After finishing the book, I was compelled to remember that time more vividly by finding a picture from the vacation and seeing what our smiles looked like – perhaps at the Chattanooga Choo Choo hotel or standing in front of the massive glass wall at the aquarium. Hopefully, to see what we looked like on top of that mountain. I looked on Facebook and through a couple photo albums. I could not find anything.
As I prepared for Christmas a few weeks later, I wrote a letter to my daughter who was not going to be home for the holiday. I wanted to find pictures to include in the envelope. I looked through my bin of haphazard pictures. I wasn’t sure what I wanted. So, I started going through the picture categories – Nela’s 1st Christmas, Christmas 2003, Christmas 2004, and the couple of envelopes marked Random. Nothing seemed to fit.
I started thumbing through the loose stacks of completely uncategorized photos and came across a picture of the kids. My daughter, 4 years old. My son at 18 months. They were standing in front of a railing with a vast expanse of hills and forests behind them. They were on top of Lookout Mountain. I was stunned and stared at their precious innocence. My heart ached from the divorce that soon followed that moment in time. I wanted to go back to that place – to that thin place – and somehow protect them.
It is good to remember being happy. It is good to search for the sacred. I enjoy reserving time for sentimentality – to conjure feelings from specific moments and make an earnest attempt to not have them tarnished by the passage of time. While harkening back to that mountaintop feeling may remind me of the steep descent, it helps me remember how much I’ve learned from the peaks and valleys – to appreciate them all for what I have learned and to cherish the ones who were with me along the way.
My hope is that we can also find thin places in the flat expenses of everyday life and we may infuse them with the belief that there is a God of forgiveness and reconciliation that, with time, allows us to taste the bittersweet and know that it is good.
I placed the picture from the mountain to the side and kept on my search for what I wanted to share with my daughter. I found 2 pictures of Christmas holidays from her childhood; one captured in black and white. Another picture was of her and her brother playing in the snow, not much older than the one from Lookout Mountain. They looked very happy. I smiled at the photos in my hands. Feeling more sweet than bitter.
I came across other poignant pictures. I pulled a few for my siblings. I did not attempt to organize them – instead, maintaining their randomness, preferring the perennial exercise of surprise of unearthed memories.
That bin has its own sense of thinness, of sacredness. It reminds me that life was, is, and always will be full of sweetness.
Sifting through pictures
Seconds to minutes, the years
All of those I’ve loved
Bailee Taylor has a Bachelor of Science Degree from the University of Southern Indiana and Master’s Degree in Art Therapy and Mental Health Counseling from Indiana University. She is a Board Certified Art Therapist (ATR-BC) through the Art Therapy Credentials Board, Inc., a Licensed Professional Art Therapist (LPAT) with the state of Kentucky and a Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC) with the state of Indiana.
Bailee advocates for art and other expressive therapies to be utilized as a tool to help people of all ages express, process and communicate their social and emotional needs when words aren’t enough. She supports children ages 3+ and specializes in helping others regulate emotions, decrease and cope with stress, anxiety and depression; increase self-esteem, social skills and mood; and process traumatic events. She applies a person centered, trauma informed and family structured approach in her work.
Since 2018, Bailee has worked with children, adolescents and families as an art therapist and mental health counselor. She lives in southern Indiana and has clients in multiple cities, including Columbus, Bloomington, Indianapolis, and beyond.
Kimberly Hoffman was diagnosed with ME/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome over 30 years ago and then with fibromyalgia 12 years ago. She works full time at Cummins Inc. in the New and Recon Parts Department as an Inside Sales Administrator and with the Disability Inclusion employee resource group. She is a writer and editor for the Disability Inclusion newsletter, advocating, educating and allying with others on the subject of disability inclusion.
Kimberly is also a children’s author of nine books with topics such as overcoming obstacles, dealing with big emotions, self-worth and diversity. She is a spinner of amazing tales that influence young minds to think deeply, reframing their impossibilities to reach their possibilities. She creates unique and innovative programming to engage any size of audience, from preschool to seniors, motivating, encouraging, and challenging them to think outside the box on a variety of topics.
Kimberly resides in her hometown of Columbus, Indiana where she is also the vice president of the Friends of the Library board. She loves being creative through writing, dancing, acting, and making jewelry. She is married to Paul Hoffman, an author and publisher. Together, they have six children, one grandchild and many grand-fur and -feather babies.
Be sure to find Kimberly on Facebook – Kimberly S. Hoffman – Author, Instagram @kimberlyhoffman_author or at her website – kimberlyhoffmanblog.wordpress.com. She can also be reached at khoffmanauthor@gmail.com.
I dedicate this podcast to Robert Pulley who has inspired multiple generations of artists in Columbus and beyond as an Arts teacher at Columbus North High School and as a professional sculptor. Mr. Pulley’s work has been featured for over a year in front of the Fresh Start Recovery Center, the building that is the subject of this Haikast. Thank you, Mr. Pulley, for the generous sharing of your craft. It’s a delight to garden around your sculpture. To learn more about Robert Pulley’s work, visit www.robertpulley.com. (NOTE: The photo accompanying this episode includes the Fresh Start sculpture)
Downtown Columbus does not have much greenspace. While there is Mill Race Park on the west side – hugging the river – it is literally across the tracks from downtown. Washington Street, the main street through the heart of downtown, lacks landscaped areas. The most notable flora are the callery pear trees lining the sidewalks for 7 blocks. They are celebrated for their rapid growth and abundant white blooms in early spring. Unfortunately, they smell bad while flowering, drop abundant mushy berries on cars and sidewalks in fall, easily break, and are short lived. And worse, they are an invasive tree species that easily spread to dominate public lands and poorly maintained properties.
Being a native plant advocate, it was a dream of mine to find a place in downtown Columbus to feature a different landscape aesthetic. When approached by Landmark Columbus Foundation in 2020 to do just that, I jumped at the opportunity to write a grant to turn one of the only green spaces downtown into a native plant landscape.
The property is at the corner of 7th and Washington, near the north end of the most heavily trafficked section of downtown. It hosts an old limestone building, over a century old, that was originally the post office. There have been many owners and uses over the years. Most recently, it was converted into the Fresh Start Recovery Center, owned by Volunteers of America, to support women recovering from opioid and other drug addictions. Pregnant women and mothers, along with their young children, are welcome for long term housing as they work towards sobriety.
When I approached staff at Fresh Start, the supervisor immediately had the vision of the project providing opportunities for horticulture therapy for the women staying at the shelter. So after signing a Memorandum of Understanding, acquiring grants, hiring a landscape architect, renting a sod cutter, purchasing plants, and recruiting volunteers, we were ready to transform the turf grass surrounding the beautiful building. On the United Way Day of Caring in May 2021, a TV crew showed up, the volunteers poured in, and the installation was installed within 8 hours. Now butterfly weed, coreopsis, New Jersey tea, spicebush, blue mistflower, columbine, prairie dropseed, and other native plants are thriving.
Native landscapes, while they may appear intimidating to maintain, are actually relatively easy to manage. Native plants have evolved to our local environment over thousands of years, and are an important part of healthy local habitats. In their native region, they are the most sustainable plants, growing deep roots and rarely requiring extra water or fertilizer. And almost all native plants are perennial, meaning that you don’t have to plant them over and over each year by seed or with plugs purchased from a store. After they are established, the primary maintenance is pruning when they get a bit unwieldy and adding mulch to suppress unwanted weeds.
Around the time of the original planting, I helped host a documentary of a film called “5 Seasons” about the landscape architect, Piet Oudolf. He is most well known for the High Line trail in New York City and the Lurie Gardens at Millennium Park in Chicago. Piet is credited for starting the “New Perennial Movement,” focusing on the structure of plants throughout the year – appreciating not just the color of flowers, but also the colors and textures of seeds, stalks, and leaves throughout all seasons. In fact, five seasons refers to planting in the spring and not cutting plants back until the following spring- a nod to appreciating plants for their beauty in all 12 months of the year & acknowledging the ecological value of the plants by not cutting them down after their flowers fade. The seeds, stalks, and leaves are very helpful food and shelter for insects and animals in the fall and winter. The film helped me focus on the entire plant and not just the flower, when considering what it means to be beautiful.
Native plants can take care of themselves in the wild without any human intervention. However, when they are brought into more formal settings – such as being neighbors with prestigious architectural surroundings – they require more maintenance to, shall I say, be more “civilized”. Some native plants may grow to be 8’ tall or higher. Downtown Columbus, known for its famous mid-century architecture, requires a bit more manicured look to be considered attractive.
The maintenance for the native plant landscape at Fresh Start is the responsibility of a combination of community volunteers and the women who live at Fresh Start. In early spring, after not cutting the plants back over winter, it is time to get the pruning shears out. In early March, on a crisp, sunny afternoon, I arrived for the year’s first maintenance job. The women from the shelter were on break outside when I arrived. One of them asked if they could help me out and I gladly welcomed her to join me – in what is always for me – horticulture therapy.
So I gave her the pruning shears, explained what we were doing, and we worked together, with a supervisor from Fresh Start monitoring her work. The woman helping me had recently become a resident at Fresh Start and she spoke constantly throughout the hour that we worked together. I gladly listened and interjected at times when breaking her stream of consciousness seemed appropriate. She was too focused to take up my offer to wear gloves.
She bounced from plant to plant, making quick work out of what was essentially giving a 3 inch from the ground haircut to each plant. She recalled gardening with her grandparents when she was young, her appreciation for flowers, and the peace she felt in the moment. She was presently dealing with addiction and told her supervisor that this could be one of her coping mechanisms. After doing a great job for over an hour, she had to go back inside. Her hands hurt after her enthusiastic work.
While beautifying downtown with a non-traditional landscape was the original goal of the project, witnessing the therapeutic benefits for the women volunteers at Fresh Start is an equally important blessing that the plants provide. It is a reminder that taking care of the plants – as with taking care of the environment – is not a mindless task, but an opportunity for building community connections. I will gladly trade my blood, sweat, and tears for projects like Fresh Start to help beautify areas and build relationships with those who share a passion for lush, colorful, and somewhat wild landscapes.
Bare hands grab grasses
Pruning shears scalp last year’s growth
Eager haste, she bleeds
Craig Willers is a DJ going by the moniker DJ du Nord and a musical artist going by the stage name Omnös. He has always loved music from a young age. He was born in Corvallis, Oregon and raised in Hawaii. He has been interested in different types of music and currently enjoys Metal, Gothic, Industrial and Chillout. Craig is 61 this year and plans to fully retire at 62 and focus on djing and music full time in retirement. Craig was diagnosed with Schizophrenia at 18 and has endured 43 years of this horrible and deadly disease. He is retired from Safeway after 34 years and just made 32 years with his beloved wife Mindy. Craig has no children because the illness can be passed genetically.
www.ktec895.comhttps://omnos.bandcamp.com
After 7 years, I walked away from my longest held job on Valentine’s Day 2023.
I started at COSCO in January 2016 as a temporary worker. COSCO, whose name is a sort of acronym for Columbus Specialty Company, began in Columbus, IN over 80 years ago. To be clear, I do not work at Costco, the popular club store started on the west coast, known for being a slightly elevated version of Sam’s Club.
If you know COSCO, it is likely as a manufacturer of folding tables and chairs or, more recently, as the creator of a very impressive hand truck that you can buy at …. Wait for it…. Costco!
So how did I, a proud Indiana University alum from the Kelley School of Business MBA program, start out as a temporary employee?
In the summer of 2007, I started my first year in the MBA program as a married man with 2 kids, 5 years of banking management under my belt, a homeowner, and a leader of the youth group at my church. I received a scholarship and can still remember reading in my acceptance speech that I was prepared to manage my priorities of “family, church, and school” with an emphasis on that order.
By the end of the first semester, I had spent most of the 4 months in an insomniac stupor, fueled by uncontrollable anxiety, resulting in a debilitating suicidal depression. The unexpected fall into the nadir of my life included spending Thanksgiving break at the Mental Health Unit of our local hospital, separating from my wife, moving into my parents’ house, taking a leave of absence from the MBA program, and nearly losing my faith. I was divorced 9 short months after the first day of class.
It was an absolute tragedy.
By the time I started at COSCO, 8 years had passed.
During that intervening period, I had some significant accomplishments – writing a book about a major flood disaster in my hometown called “Watershed: Service in the Wake of Disaster,” marrying the beautiful Jennifer Anne Johnston, remaining a loving and engaged father of my 2 children, finishing the MBA degree through the IU evening program, and joining a church where I met a great group of new friends.
What did not happen during those 8 years was a significant stride in career growth. I held down a full time job as a care partner at the hospital for 3.5 years, a year stint as an assistant manager at Walmart, a 3 year full time contract job as a grant writer at a local youth serving organization, and a 1 year temp job at Cummins in their HR department. I had yet to earn a salary that exceeded what I earned at the bank before I started as an MBA student.
The stress of not keeping up with my friend’s career trajectories, not living up to the potential after being a straight A student throughout my life, and failing to make progress after completing my MBA were all crushing to my self esteem.
I had two more stress unit visits during this time and lived long stretches with severe depression.
… And then I started as a temp worker at COSCO, helping out as a part time Administrative Assistant, committed to finding a way to be optimistic and gain full time employment. A few months later, I was offered a full time job and over the years had multiple promotions until ascending to the Marketing Manager of the furniture department in 2022. Who could resist the new “Trusted Solutions” marketing slogan of the COSCO tables and chairs!?
Something else had happened over those seven years with the company – I rekindled my professional self-esteem, found a deep passion for environmental work in the community, and started a weekly mental health recovery group at my church.
I became a member of The Stability Network, a national organization with a vision for “People experiencing mental health challenges to thrive in supportive workplaces and communities.” To join, I needed to publicly recognize my mental health diagnosis on their website, attend mental health advocacy training, and be willing to share my mental health diagnosis in the workplace. I attended retreats in New York City and San Francisco with members of The Stability Network to learn how to effectively share my mental health journey in a way that demonstrated how mental health struggles and professional success can coexist.
When I came back from the second training, I was only about 1 year into my job at COSCO. I decided to disclose my mental health diagnosis with my manager, Brennan Eckelman. My prior experience revealing to a manager that I had a diagnosis was to alert them that I needed time off for an in-patient hospital stay due to major depression. This time was very different. I was healthy. After scheduling a meeting with Brennan, I rehearsed my talking points with a member of The Stability Network.
Vulnerability – the uneasy feeling that most of us do not like to experience at work – was essentially what I was walking into, instead of away from, when I stepped into Brennan’s office. After a few minutes of casual conversation, I broke from the regular agenda to ask if we could talk about a personal topic. “Of course!” she replied, with her usual positive energy.
I referenced my trip to San Francisco and then jumped into the reason why I was there. I told her that The Stability Network encouraged me to share my mental health diagnosis at work and I felt most comfortable starting with her. I emphasized that my mental health was stable. She replied with the utmost respect for my disclosure and with gratitude that I trusted her to keep the information confidential. We talked for about 30 minutes on the topic and I felt her support throughout the conversation.
Light through her window
Difficult topic discussed
Coworkers- now friends
Sharing the challenges of mental illness is not easy, especially in the workplace. However, doing so is one of the best ways to reduce stigma in our society. My time with Brennan was a turning point for me – I no longer needed to hide behind a professional veneer that neglected a significant part of my life story. This experience helped me develop a “vulnerable-ability” in the workplace. An ability to discuss, with the intention of helping others – at the right time and place, the experience of living with a diagnosis.
Being able to share my story with Brennan, and eventually other colleagues at COSCO, gave me the confidence to start this Revealing Voices podcast without risk to my professional career. My transparency helped me build repertoire and deepen relationships. I became a leader of a corporate initiative to encourage coworkers to focus on wellness, including their mental health. I was grateful that sharing my bipolar II diagnosis helped others feel comfortable being more vulnerable and allowed me to continue to grow professionally.
So why did I leave a workplace that played a profound role in my stability?
I admired my co-workers and their critical role in helping me reestablish my career. However, as many of us did during the pandemic, I reevaluated my career path. While many struggled with isolation during the pandemic, my mental health thrived during that time. I discovered the bedrock of my stability was my connection to nature. Gardening, landscaping, hiking, writing haiku, and working with advocates to protect our natural resources were an endless source of joy and hope during those difficult days in 2020 and 2021. Doing these activities was therapeutic for me and I wanted to share that appreciation with others.
My growing commitment to environmental advocacy turned into a recognition of a soulful desire to do environmental ministry work. I discovered a grant writing opportunity with a company called Faith in Place that supports environmental work in Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin.
I knew of Faith in Place through a recent merger with a nonprofit called Hoosier Interfaith Power & Light. I had participated in some of their virtual meetings during the pandemic to learn how they were supporting environmental advocacy within spiritual communities that ranged from Baptist to Buddhist.
I applied and devoted many hours to devouring the content on the Faith in Place webpage, podcasts, and social media. I had never been that prepared for an interview.
On a cold January morning, I took the day off from COSCO. I was volunteering to go to Indianapolis to meet with state legislators to discuss renewable energy. Before I left, I checked my email. There it was – a job offer from Faith in Place! I wholeheartedly accepted the invitation. When I arrived in Indianapolis, I serendipitously met three Faith in Place staff in the Capitol building. We gathered for an impromptu group photo with glowing smiles of surprise as they welcomed me to the team.
Later that week, I joined my co-workers at COSCO to paint a new large meeting space. As we worked together, we talked about my job transition. I spoke with gratitude about my time at COSCO, sharing parts of the career metamorphosis that led to this opportunity for me to spread my wings.
After the painting was finished, I stood in the room for a moment as we were cleaning up. The laser level that we used to paint the dividing line between gray and white sections of the wall was perfect. I thought about how this would be a vibrant space for the COSCO team – where important discussions and fun team building activities would lead the company into a profitable future. This place that was the foundation for so much of my healing, however, would no longer be my home away from home. It was time to retire from this chapter in my career and embark into completely new territory. I was confident that my mental health was ready to endure the journey. In a quiet moment after my COSCO colleagues departed, I stood alone in the large unfurnished room. I was so grateful for what was and what will be.
Meticulous line
Paint dries, new conference room
I turn towards the door
On this episode of Revealing Voices, we welcome Sherry Lanning to the show. Sherry wrote a letter to her son Robin called “The Fish Catcher” in Hope for Troubled Minds. She reads it and shares what it meant to write and publish it. Sherry is a retired nurse, living in Oregon with David, her husband of 53 years. Together, they’ve been blessed with 7 children and 10 grandchildren. She has volunteered during national disasters and with international medical missions, serving with relief teams to Guatemala, Haiti and Uganda. The challenges of her son’s schizophrenia required a safer environment. Robin was welcomed home with open arms. She balances her life by performing as a freestyle flutist and loving her 24 family members. In her spare time, she spoils her Weiner dog ladies, Annabelle and Dorothy. Sherry can be reached at goldenflute@comcast.net
In this episode, Skye Nicholson and Beth Hughes from the new Breaking Patterns podcast join Eric in Studio E in Columbus. Skye and Beth are 13 episodes into a podcast that explores how to recognize, change, and develop patterns in our lives to make us healthier and happier. Recent topics on the Breaking Patterns podcast include: – Self-love through chronic illness- Help! Why can’t I just ask for help?- Breaking Patterns with alcohol- Are you a Fixer? This is Revealing Voices first “mashcast” collaboration episode and we’re grateful for how much fun we had with this interview. Let’s do It again! To hear more from Skye and Beth, tune into the podcast feed at: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/breaking-patterns/id1740750976
I have been hiking the Sheltowee Trace Trail in Kentucky over the past 8 years. The 300 mile trail from Morehead, KY to Rugby, TN goes through the heart of beautiful rolling woods- hugging Cave Run Lake, meandering through the epoch Red River Gorge, and then tightly winding around the perimeter of Laurel Lake. After hiking across the dam at Laurel Lake, the Sheltowee follows the Laurel River 2 miles where the trickle of a tributary empties into the majestic Cumberland River. From there, the trail heads south to Cumberland Falls, the premiere tourist destination of southeastern Kentucky. The trail goes west to the South Fork of the Cumberland River and then south until it reaches its final destination in northeastern Tennessee.
Three hundred miles is a long way and so I hike it in increments. I have led 8 unique trips with 17 friends and family members since starting the hike in November 2016. I am most proud of going with my son, Isaac, on three of those journeys. He has joined me for 57 of the 191 miles that I have completed thus far.
It was in the Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area of the trail where I found myself in May 2024 with my friends Slater, Jason, and Clyde. We were prepared for the most ambitious hike that I have ever planned – 43 miles over 4 days. As we neared our drop off point, we saw a black bear scrambling into the forest as our van rambled along the gravel road that terminated at our trailhead, Peter’s Mountain. None of us had seen a bear before in the wild. It was relatively small, but I am sure bigger than my 200 lbs frame. We were thankful that it was about five miles from our starting point AND we would be walking in the opposite direction. Clyde dropped us off and we confirmed our plan to meet up at Yamacraw Bridge – 42 hours and 29 miles later.
Three miles into the Sheltowee, we encountered another black bear, about the same size as the first, that ran uphill and behind a large boulder as we unsheathed a hatchet and prepared for the worst. We neither saw nor heard any more of the bear after we passed the bend where it emerged. Quickly, we descended to Desperation Creek and on towards the Cumberland River.
The wildness represented in an animal like a bear is distinctly different from the wildness of a unique ecosystem, far from civilization. A beautiful, remote landscape elicits the joy of being the audience of a rare spectacle, while an animal strikes the fear of being part of the spectacle, where actions have real consequences in a unique and unpredictable situation. Wilderness is the setting where our historic relationship to nature can be experienced. In a controlled environment, a zoo for example, the wildness of a bear is obscured by the domestic surroundings. With the trappings of safety, it is impossible to truly feel the nature of the animal. Hiking brings you into the liminal space of wildness and unforeseen scenarios.
We all stepped to that threshold before the bear – and the feeling it elicited – passed and was not seen again.
At sunset, we found a beautiful beach camp location along the Cumberland. We woke to rain. And it rained, with a few hours of reprieve, for the next 24 hours. We were prepared for the weather, but it was nonetheless painstaking. When attempting to hike 18 miles in a day, there are many decisions to be made around conserving energy, pushing through pain, finding ideal rest sites, and understanding the needs of fellow travelers. Even very practical decisions like following a map are not always straightforward.
The rain abated early on day three, but within 2 miles, we had to cross a creek carrying the previous day’s rain – waist deep. Despite the challenge, we made it to our rendezvous point at Yamacraw Bridge on time with Slater departing and Clyde joining us for the remaining 14 miles of the trip. We had hopes of potentially, with good weather, finishing the trail a day early and heading back home to appreciate the luxury of dry clothes.
Good fortune eluded us as we hiked into the Yamacraw Trail Race, a 40 mile out-and-back trail run competition. On a muddy trail. What you might call a quagmire. In hopes that we would not be following the racers, I made a wrong turn that led us almost a mile off trail. When we returned to the Sheltowee, the three of us, each with heavy packs on, were intermittently being yelled at “Runner behind” or – spotting a runner in front – we would shuffle into the mud at the edge of the trail. I had never experienced anything like this traffic. The trail conditions, physical tiredness, and general chaos of sharing the trail confounded us.
Mud slicks and loose rocks
Rambunctious runners on trail
We’re slow and steady
We lost sight of the river and walked into the hills, again mistakenly off trail, but luckily hiking more or less parallel to the Sheltowee and without the disturbance of runners. However, as we veered back towards the main trail 4 miles later, we discovered on the map a spaghetti section of overlapping trails in the area of Yahoo Arch and Yahoo Falls. We were close to the largest campground in the area and there were many trails between us and the Cumberland River. We merged into this poorly marked trail system at Yahoo Arch.
This part of Kentucky is known for its monumental rock formations. The epicenter, about two hours northeast of us, is named “Natural Bridge State Park” for the extraordinary sandstone arches emerging from the forest. Only the iconic Arches National Park in Utah contain a higher density of these geological marvels.
Yahoo Arch, in my estimation, is the most impressive arch that I have seen in Kentucky. There are multiple levels, caves, and a spiral path that conjured the impression that we were in a sort of M.C. Escher.prehistoric rock sanctuary – impossible to capture on camera or video. It was our first pause for true enjoyment since falling asleep along the river two nights before. A kind of stare up towards the heavens and slowly rotate in place kind of pause. Being here was not part of the plan, but the gravitas of this place would ultimately help us find our way out.
Reluctantly, we continued- not 100% sure how to link back to the Sheltowee. We saw our first non-runner on the trail in over 24 hours. A guy from Charlestown, IN with a curious Caribbean accent. Being tired, I took a bit of a break to talk to him while Jason and Clyde walked on. The conversation sparked when he mentioned that he was dabbling in semi-professional photography. Before going our separate ways, I formally introduced myself and he gave me his name- Mike.
When I caught up to Clyde and Jason, it began raining again. The best we knew to do was to walk north and hopefully the spaghetti would straighten out. We headed down towards the creek that would eventually lead to the Cumberland. Crossing the water, Jason fell. Clyde unbuckled the pack from his waist and Jason staggered to the creek edge. He laid there. We were lost. Darkness was approaching. We were still 6 miles from our final destination.
While not spoken, I felt our motivation to complete 43 miles was broken.
We crossed another creek and then I scouted for a trail by climbing a steep hill to what was hopefully the Sheltowee. This was not the way.
Wet toes, muddy boots
Gingerly placing trek poles
Feet throb, descending
We hiked back to where Jason fell and then south in the direction of the campground. We heard noise nearby and hoped we were close. Once we turned a corner on the spaghetti trail, we realized that we were at Yahoo Falls.
The waterfall was majestic. While not wide like Cumberland Falls, it more than makes up for it in height. And the previous day’s rain flowed from above. The noise we heard were boys playing at the base of the falls. Unfortunately, this also meant that we were still not imminently close to the campground.
The rock shelter behind Yahoo Falls contained a wide arcing trail. Far on the other side, I saw a man taking photographs. It looked like it might be Mike.
I yelled, “Mike, is that you?”
“Yes,” he responded.
“Good to see you again. May we talk?”
“Of course,” he affirmed.
I quickly walked over, wincing at the pain in my feet. Jason was stationary and Clyde assessed other pathways.
I laughed with Mike for a moment, not sure how he had photographed Yahoo Arch and returned to this spot, ahead of us. Gazing upward, he told me it was the highest waterfall in Kentucky. He had planned to go straight back to his car, but felt inclined to photograph these falls one last time.
I told Mike what had transpired over the last hour. In a moment of full transparency, I acknowledged the awkwardness of what I was about to say and then did my best to tactfully state that, ideally, we would like to get back to our car- ASAP. I asked if he would be willing to drive the three of us and our backpacks the 15 minute drive from Yahoo Falls campground back to the church where our van was parked. Without hesitation, he said yes. I yelled across those beautiful falls for Clyde and Jason.
We followed Mike to his car, giving him time to take more photos as he guided us on the trail. Clyde asked him how to view his photography and he told us to check out Mike Heaven on Facebook. We had to clarify that his last name is Heaven. Indeed it is, he assured us. Jason may have made a remark about him being an angel.
On the fifteen minute car ride, we learned more about Mike. He is from Brooklyn and the youngest of 9 brothers. He moved to Louisville to go to college. After graduating, he became an accountant and began doing travel photography. With humility, Mike mentioned how surprised he was to gain an online following of 25,000 people in less than a year.
When we returned to our van at Flat Rock Missionary Baptist Church, Mike reluctantly took the money that I offered him for his nearly miraculous assistance. Before getting back into his car, he walked over to a long, intact snake skeleton in the church parking lot to take one final photo before being on his way.
Across the wide arc
I call to photographer
Yahoo Falls angel
I wonder if our cultural understanding of heaven is associated with an ascension from the earth because humans for millennia were excited to join the nightly parade of sublime light?
With the glow of city lights, the night sky does not speak as it did to our ancestors whose lives were accustomed to the astronomical events that defined so much of their seasons, calendars, and religious life. As an electrified civilization, we are so far removed from the moon and stars being a reliable navigation system and source of nightly beauty, that what are sometimes called “heavenly bodies” are, in some ways, forgettable. We don’t really pay attention to them, partly because we don’t need to, and, as is often the case, because we just can’t see them anymore.
The moon is an exception, practically, because it is just so large. It demands attention. Especially when its preparing to eclipse the sun.
In summer of 2023. I was working with a team of volunteers at the Touch The Earth nature preserve just outside the city. The conversation turned to the expectation of uncontrollable crowds of people flocking to Columbus for an eclipse. I thought they were joking. Six years earlier, a partial eclipse was destined for Columbus and I didn’t even think to put it on my calendar. In this case – with a full eclipse coming our way – I was told this would be different. A big deal.
Websites began popping up. Greatamericaneclipse.com clearly delineated the “zone of totality.” The black line spanning a few miles wide and arcing across the United States from southern Texas to Maine would pass directly through Columbus, IN. My work colleague near Carbondale, in southern Illinois, who is an avid photographer, touted the town’s merchandizing slogan, “Eclipse Crossroads of America” for having the unique distinction for being in the zone of totality for both the 2017 and 2024 celestial events. Everywhere I read, for communities in this special zone, tourism directors claimed tens of thousands of people may be coming to their city.
So what is the zone of totality? It means approximately 4 minutes of the moon totally covering the sun, casting a shadow over the land. In the case of Columbus, the eclipse would reach its peak just after 3 PM.
Five months before the big day, Monday, April 8, my friend announced he was organizing a Renaissance Festival at the Columbus Airport. He was planning for thousands.
April 2024 was all about the moon.
When the day finally arrived, I worked until noon, put on my Welsh dragon t-shirt, and jumped on my bike. My good friend joined me on our voyage to the Airport property. It was a beautiful day. Fears of a cloudy day that had circulated for the past week were dispelled. There were thousands of people. We bumped into many friends, none of us knowing quite what to expect. What we did know was that there were jousting competitions, falconers, knights beating each other relentlessly with swords and maces, troubadours doing improv comedy, and much more. The human spectacle was preparing for an astronomical spectacle. The minutes ticked by. I found my godsons and their family and we ventured to the one hill on the property. My friend set up a camera to virtually share the event with his family in Germany.
Wind whipped flags, then stopped
I stand on my moon shadow
360 sunset
Later in the afternoon, my friend and I hopped on our bikes, joyously journeying across town to another friend’s house to recount the wonders of the day. I was elated. It was better than I had expected- sharing a surreal experience with a silent multitude.
While we saw the moon during the day, it was a new moon that evening – invisible.
The following night, Tuesday, April 9, at the first sign of the waxing crescent moon, Ramadan ended. A Muslim colleague explained to me that one of the 5 main pillars of faith of Islam is fasting, most notably during Ramadan, when Muslims across the world commit to abstaining from food and drink during daylight hours for one month. The month is considered the time when the angel Gabriel appeared to Prophet Muhammad and revealed to him the Quran, the Islamic holy book. Because the Islamic calendar is based on the phases of the moon, the fasting ends after the moon is once again visible in the night sky – signifying the beginning of a new month – a time of celebration. The moon ushers in Eid al-Fitr, a holiday nicknamed Sweet Eid, for its association with the many desserts customarily created to end the time of fasting.
Later in April, I attended the interfaith Bridge Builders Conference in Columbus. As a grant writer for Faith in Place, a multifaith environmental and racial justice nonprofit organization, I work towards ecological restoration as an outcome of harmonious relationships between people of different faiths and spiritualities. I seek wisdom from those that find solace in spiritual traditions different from my own. We watched an extraordinary documentary called “Strangers at the Gate” about how the radical hospitality of the Islamic Center of Muncie turned a would-be bomber of the building into a devout member of the congregation. During the second day of the conference, I learned that the moon is considered a Navagraha, one of the nine heavenly bodies and deities that influence human life on Earth according to Hindu astrology.
Converted Muslim
Speaking above Hindu chants
Two floors, one building
Following the conference, I was invited to celebrate the Passover by a friend from the local Jewish congregation. On Monday, April 22, I participated in my first Seder, the dinner that celebrates the Passover – the exodus of the Hebrew people from Egypt. I was curious why the Jewish Seder and the Last Supper of Jesus were celebrated on different days – even though both religious events are associated with the Old Testament Exodus story. They never occur on the same day. Why? Because of different relationships to the lunar calendar.
I was honored to join in the Jewish rituals expressed in the Haggadah with all the food and drink corresponding to elements of the Exodus story. The Seder’s resonance echoes with themes of liberation, perseverance, and social justice as a response to their historical experience of slavery. The Seder meal is an invitation to a solemn solidarity with those who suffer from inhumane conditions.
As I left the Seder, I contemplated the ancient roots of these themes and their significance in our contemporary society. The sun was setting behind me. The month was almost over. I looked toward the heavens – a familiar reflection illuminated a deepening blue horizon – the beginning of a bright night sky that has led many to freedom.
Holding matzah bread
I am welcomed by full moon
Free to return home
On this episode of Revealing Voices, we feature contributors to Hope for Troubled Minds.
Born in Kentucky, Janet Coburn now lives in Ohio with her husband of over 40 years, Dan Reily. She also lives with bipolar 2 disorder. Janet loves reading and country music. Dan loves gardening and archaeology. Together they love travel, science fiction, and cats (they have two at the moment, Toby and Dushenka). A graduate of Cornell University and the University of Dayton, Janet writes two blogs, bipolarme.blog and butidigress.blog, which she posts in every Sunday. She often contributes articles on mental health to The Mighty website. Janet has also written two books on bipolar disorder, Bipolar Me and Bipolar Us, which are based on her decades of experience with the disorder, and frequently answers questions about mental health on Quora.
Jay Tapscott is a poet, author, and also a Peer Specialist dealing with schizoaffective disorder and working in an inpatient psychiatric unit where he was once a patient in Philadelphia. There, he models wellness as he visibly coexists with his psychiatric condition in that setting seeking to offer hope and encouragement by doing so.
Kevin “Earleybird” Earley is a mental health advocate and hip hop producer. His father Pete Earley is a Pulitzer Prize nominated investigative journalist. Kevin is also co-producer and sound editor of Revealing Voices.
In this episode, Tony is back in Columbus and takes the opportunity to team up with Eric in Studio E to interview Vachel Hudson, a mental health leader in the community. Vachel Hudson is the Project Manager for the Mental Health Matters initiative in Bartholomew County, Indiana. He works for Columbus Regional Health, leading the community-wide initiative to improve the mental health system for the wellbeing of all individuals of Bartholomew County. He works with various stakeholders from different sectors to design, plan, and implement projects that enhance outreach, engagement, and mobilization. He ensures the quality, compliance, and data analysis of the Mental Health Matters ambassador program. Vachel holds an MBA in Operations and Management from Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota and a BA in Mass Communications and Marketing from Kentucky State University. Vachel was born in Columbus and has lived in Louisville and Minneapolis for significant portions of his life before moving back to Columbus in 2023 to help launch Mental Health Matters.
I recently went on a search for my earliest recorded haiku from what I shall call the “Opening Era”. That era began with the death of my last grandparent, Amos Harlan Rippy. After his funeral on the hillside cemetery in Tell City, Indiana in 2013, I felt a commitment with an origin outside of myself to dive into my feelings and express them poetically.
Rippy and Rip were the common nicknames for my grandfather, who was called “Pop” by my siblings and me. The last name of Rippy is Irish in origin. We have records dating back to the late 1700s when the Rippy family immigrated from Ireland to Orange County, North Carolina.
Upon his death, having had 2 daughters, his surname was now locked in time as my middle name, Eric Rippy Riddle, and further honored as my son’s middle name.
While it is impossible to say the nature of the poetic calling upon my life, I do think the passing of his generation summoned in me a need to bring definition into my own emerging adulthood. Perhaps the subtle influence of the Irish ancestry beckoned an articulation of the poetic impulse. I began to call the art flowing out of me, “Openings.”
I had dabbled in poetry for years, always seeking to capture the emotions of important moments or diving into the depths of predicaments that I found myself bound. First, in the form of rhyming couplets and then in free flowing gifts to my first wife, inspired by the style of Beat generation author, Jack Kerouac.
It never really occurred to me that I was in the minority of people who choose to use language in this way. As one compelled to write on occasions of heightened awareness, desire, or emotional resonance, it seemed only natural that much of humanity would be ushered into the same necessity of poetic expression. That is not the case.
The longer form poetry that I was accustomed to writing became more difficult to conjure as I grew older. With adult responsibilities, even when I did feel the inspiration, I rarely had the time to capture the moment. I needed to lower my expectations to reignite my creative output. I chose haiku.
I began writing a daily haiku with a commitment to maintain the practice for a year. I started a Google Drive document that I could easily type on my phone. My formal haiku writing journey began on September 9, 2016.
However, in my recent research mission into writing “openings” following the death of my grandfather, I found scattered haiku that started in May 2014.
The occasion of the first haiku was a trip that I took with my then 7-year-old son and 10-year-old daughter to Red River Gorge in Kentucky. It was our first big trip together, just the 3 of us. I had started camping with friends in this part of Kentucky a few years prior and instantly found it to be one of my “happy places”.
The Red River on the day of our kayak trip was shallow. On many occasions, my kayak would bottom out. Under the much lighter weight of the kids, they even had to get out at times and drag their kayaks on the meandering stream. It wasn’t until we got to the jumping rock that we hit deep water.
That day, at that rock, became one of those moments that I knew would last forever in my memory. It holds the joy of a hot day in the growing late spring where droves of rock jumpers and observers on the beaches huddled around a deep watering hole. Jumpers waited as kayakers like the kids and me passed through. We decided to stay. My daughter found a nice spot on the beach in view of the jumping rock.
My son wanted to jump. He and I climbed to the top, feeling the communal anxiety of the 40 ft drop. Many grown adults waited as others stepped to the edge, stalled with apprehension. After watching many take the leap, my son and I made our way to the spot. We joined hands, but then he wanted me to go first. I had to wrestle my own fears to take the leap, trusting he would come after me.
And then there I was, submerged, the water deep enough to not even tickle my toes. I came to the surface and stretched out my arms. With no hesitation, Isaac jumped. My son’s youth, alive with the thrill of gravity plunging him under water for a moment. People cheered us on for his courage.
Later in the day, we camped for the first time together as a family. My daughter led the effort to build a roaring campfire on the edge of a large field, where we watched that same river winding its way past our tent. I taught the kids all the basics of camp life, profoundly grateful that I could spend this time with them, aware that I may be initiating a new tradition in our family.
That evening, as the stars basked in a clear sky, the hot embers were ready for smores. We gathered all the needed supplies and reveled in that glorious delight best reserved for moments such as this.
Haiku moments may serve as emotional images, memorable markers along life’s journey. I am thankful that my 2 original haiku capture the essence of that lovely day back in 2014. It was good to enjoy such a sweet opening and experience of fatherhood with my two beautiful children.
Water kayak you
Rock jump into waiting arms
Eight mile memory
She ate half the smore
Dark Chocolate and cracker
Marshmallow for dad
Co-Director and editor Erik Ewers has worked with documentary filmmaker Ken Burns for more than 30 years, including nearly all of his single and multi-episodic films. He currently serves as co-director and editor of Ewers Brothers Productions, a preferred collaborative company in the co-creation of Ken’s films. He and his brother Chris co-directed Hiding in Plain Sight: Youth Mental Illness, exploring the mental health crisis in our nation’s youth and young adults, which aired on PBS June 27th and 28th to millions. In this podcast, Erik opens up about his mental health struggles and the role tattoos played in his recovery, with interviewer Kevin, who was a subject of Hiding in Plain Sight: Youth Mental Illness, and fellow interviewer Tony Roberts, author of Hope For Troubled Minds.
I have a “life verse.” Before adopting this so-called life verse, I always thought of people who said they had one as being a little woo-woo. I didn’t understand how to claim something from the Bible as my own. I’m sure I was a little cynical about life verses before finding mine, because I assumed that people would find something they liked without a deep personal story and just roll with it. I was dismissive of the randomness of picking a verse.
I want to apologize to anyone that I didn’t pay attention to because of that attitude.
A life verse can be consequential and anyone who claims one may have a story that is worth considering. Really, anything that is a lifelong commitment is worthy of our attention because of the great care it takes to select and cultivate.
I tend to not want to make life defining pronouncements. This is probably because they may be more of a fleeting fancy than something with the substance of a true resolution.
As I write this, it is Lent in the Christian calendar. I normally honor the season by stopping or starting a habit as a way of focusing on the coming of Easter. This year, I decided to start reading the four Biblical gospels and stop eating food after dinner. Little more spiritual nourishment and a little less dessert nourishment. I picked them as short-term commitments.
It seems logical that a long term commitment like a life verse would require even more consideration than what to do for Lent. However, what I’m about to tell you isn’t so much about me picking a verse, it’s a story of a verse picking me.
As I was going through graduate school, I also worked full time at our local hospital. To manage my stress level, I gravitated towards a hybrid role that was a mix of a floor secretary (processing medical orders from doctors and nurses), a Care Partner (having direct patient care responsibilities in partnership with the nurses), and, for difficult patients, a Sitter (literally sitting with them and carefully watching so they wouldn’t fall, pull out their IVs, or commit self-harm). I sat with lots of people who were in critical condition. While I never saw someone pass away, there were a number of patients who I spent the last days or hours with – being on high alert monitoring the patients’ vital signs and taking care of the family’s needs.
On my last day at the hospital – a day that I had no idea would actually be my last – I brought my Bible. It wasn’t ever my expectation to read to the patient, but some days when I was responsible for sitting, I needed a good long read. I would only read the Bible to the patient if they directly asked me to share with them. It happened to be on this day, the patient was curious about what I was reading. So I read to them this passage:
“Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.”
My Bible does have lots of notes scribbled on the margins of the pages. However, it rarely lists the time and place when a verse carried indelible personal significance. I did make a note of this verse that day. March 2010. Soon after reading to the patient, I was asked to go to HR. I had been in two patient fall cases in recent weeks when I misjudged when I should give them privacy while they were using the bathroom. It was time for me to resign.
Four years later, after a long bout of depression, I found myself on the edge of another resignation. I didn’t know when it was going to happen, but it definitely felt like there was a strong possibility that I would need to step down. Many of my coworkers knew that I had been hospitalized the previous year and I had felt alienated from them for months. It was eerily similar timing to me resigning from the hospital nine months after a hospitalization for severe depression. I was hanging on to a job that I think both my contractor and I knew could not last.
I was reading a daily devotional that year. On the day that I was asked to resign, I went home for lunch and read the devotional. The same verses from Ephesians popped up again – this time beginning at verse 14, “Instead, speaking the truth in love…..”
When I went back to work, I met with my supervisor and we had the difficult conversation of me needing to resign. I was numb, feeling like I had already been grieving an inevitable end to another promising career path. I wept in the car in the parking lot, unable to collect myself to drive home. I wondered how I was going to recover from my ongoing mental illness and my second job loss in 4 years. That day, I felt like I had lost nearly everything, but I had gained a verse. It was the day my life verse was born.
I slowly rebuilt my life, with my wife, friends, and extended family offering unconditional love through the process. I took solace in contemplating what it means to speak the truth in love. I discovered that the Ephesians passage is the only verse in the Bible that is directly translated as speaking the truth in love. I knew that my recovery needed to include the way that I spoke to myself.
In depression, it is easy to embrace certain “truths” about who I am that do not take in the full picture of my humanity. My negative self-talk that fueled so much of my depressive episodes was full of self doubt and fear of failure. I can get tied up in negative emotional attachments to experiences of when I felt like I could have made better decisions, been more sensitive to others, or put forth more effort. I don’t give myself grace for my natural limitations or lack of knowledge. In short, it is truth without love.
The Ephesians passage allowed me to pause and rethink how I talk to myself. It gave me the insight that I’m only one part of an entire Christian community and that it’s ok if I only play a small part, as long as it is in earnest and pursued in a spirit of unconditional love. The truth, when considered in love, is full of grace – it does not condemn or isolate, but points to each of us being connected to a sacred community. With this affirming perspective, I began to love myself and accept my diagnosis.
I started a practice of studying the Bible using the lectio divina. It is a practice of reading small sections of the Bible multiple times and paying attention to words or phrases that resonate with the reader. I would then write reflections on what I read. I began practicing lectio divina with verses that included the word “humility.” I recovered by understanding and practicing humility.
It took almost a year to feel ready to reenter the workforce, and when I did, it was with a renewed sense of self-respect and trust in my wherewithal. I am grateful that I have not slipped back into depression since reentering the workforce.
After 7 successful years working in product development and marketing at Cosco, I was incredibly thankful for the stability, job advancement, and relationships I had built. However, in 2022, I sensed that I was being called to a new career path. I decided to go on a retreat to St. Meinrad in southern Indiana to spend time in solitude and prayer. While there, I often go to the Arch Abbey Sanctuary where the monks gather to pray multiple times per day.
As my 2 day retreat came to a close, I went for a final prayer hour. Nearing the end of the hour, the Bible was opened and a monk began reading.
“Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work….”
There it was again. I found peace and resolution in that moment as my life verse was spoken in the sanctuary. This time, I was ready for new work.
Ephesians 4 read
The verse about Truth in Love
Monks gave me a gift
Jen and Eric Riddle pay tribute to one another by reading their letters from Hope for Troubled Minds.
Hope for Troubled Minds is a trove of tributes, collected to celebrate the lives, legacy, and strength of those who lead brave lives in the face of brain disorders and mental illness. These are testimonies and shout-outs to the ones we love who have supported us, or we have supported, through some of the most testing lifelong trials that come with having these kinds of health conditions.
Throughout this anthology, you will hear from parents, children, spouses, siblings, and friends who have been inspired to share their hope for a fulfilling life, in spite of their ailments. Each tribute has been a carefully prepared gift waiting to be held in your hands to send a message of resilience in the midst of suffering, and hope in the midst of hardship. Most of all, these stories thematically resound the truth that we are here for one another, and never alone.
All net proceeds from the sale of this book will be evenly distributed to three vital mental health causes: the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), the Treatment Advocacy Center (TAC), and Delight in Disorder Ministries (DiDMin).
For more information and to find the order link, go to
https://delightindisorder.org/hftm-order/
My name is Yanerry and I’m a mental health/sexual assault advocate. I’m currently working on a college curriculum that includes the documentary that I was featured in, Hiding in Plain Sight: Youth Mental Illness. The team I’m working with is a part of the organization Work2BeWell. You can find me by Instagram @Yan.erry.
The 5-7-5 syllable format is not respected by all haiku enthusiasts. It took me 5 years of laboring away in private before I seriously began studying the centuries long history and learned how much of a rookie I really was in this poetic form.
Now, for example, I tune in to a podcast about haiku called “Poetry Pea” (that is pea as in p-e-a, please don’t ask me where the name originated). The British moderator, recording from her home in Switzerland, conducts lively conversations with guests from around the world. It’s not as pretentious as it sounds. I appreciate the haiku that are submitted for analysis and judged for publication in the Poetry Pea journal. I encourage you to check it out if you have an interest in learning more about haiku.
I was listening to the highlighted haiku on a recent Poetry Pea episode and counted out the syllables on my fingertips. 11 syllables, 10, 12, 12, oh…. there’s a 14 syllable one. Nothing came close to 17. It is clear that professionals in the artform of haiku are not incredibly fond of the 5-7-5 arrangement.
In Japan where haiku originated hundreds of years ago, they traditionally stay consistent with 17 onji. While they contain similarities, the Japanese onji and English syllable do have significant differences. Onji normally represent a much shorter sound compared to an English syllable. By an academic analysis that I read, 17 onji actually average closer to 12 English syllables. I discovered this comparison of the two languages in a book published in 1985 called the Haiku Handbook by William Higginson and Penny Harter. Obviously, this notion of the differences in syllables has been well documented for a long time. This is the primary rationale why most professionals limit their syllable count.
However, in popular culture, everyone will gladly agree with you when you confidently remember the 5-7-5 standard format. Haiku are the de facto elementary school introductory poetic form – inspiring the kind of school work that sentimental parents often keep to embarrass their kids at high school graduations. For young writers who are introduced to the notion of syllables at a young age, haiku could nearly be considered a bridge between math and phonetics. Since it doesn’t take much time to finish your assignment, no wonder it is so appreciated and remembered by students! Who wants to remember the more complicated standards of limericks, acrostics, and kennings?
I think many adults have come to consider haiku child’s play – while they may remember with fondness the introduction of haiku as a young student and the fun notion that they had a quick portal into Japanese culture for a moment, it is largely dismissed. Often in an elementary English unit, haiku will be introduced along with other forms of poetry and then steamrolled by the Shakespearian sonnet – which is often considered “real poetry” because of its English heritage, complexity, length, and rhyming schemes.
But I challenge that assumption. The brevity of the haiku is its beauty. A great haiku can stand alone, with few words doing the work, giving the reader a space to contemplate, compare to their own experiences, and appreciate the beauty and delicacy of the subject matter.
In communication, we are often told that less is more. Haiku has helped me to quiet my thoughts, concentrate on the small things, write shorter emails, become a better conversationalist, and look for natural moments of beauty all around me. It has taught me how to look and listen with more acuity for beauty.
Back to the 5-7-5. I was well into utilizing my rudimentary understanding of haiku before Higginson and Harter enlightened me on the onji and how it throws a wrench into the assumptions of our school teacher’s common practice. I defer to the authors of “The Haiku Handbook” and the many other scholars who long ago made clear that us English speakers are not actually adhering to traditional Japanese haiku by using the same sound count.
Poetry Pea is doing an excellent job of showcasing the talent of modern masters of the form. I have the utmost respect for fellow haiku writers who may think going over 12 English syllables is testing the limits. Perhaps I’m the iconoclast. I’ll stick with the 5-7-5. There is a certain amount of joy in staying with what I learned at Sutton Elementary School. I do like throwing my fingers in the air and pumping my fist when my first impulse yields the correct amount of syllables.
There is much more to know about the nuances of haiku and I look forward to sharing them with you. In a later podcast episode, we’ll get into the Japanese term of kigo – the use of seasonal words. Kigo is another recent introduction into my literary lexicon that has since been shaping my style by incorporating more traditional elements of haiku writing.
The haiku that I chose for the end of this brief lesson on haiku is, yes, adhering to my 5-7-5 style. I need these 17 syllables to give myself enough room to capture the moment in a way that 12 would just not allow.
This might be my favorite haiku that I have written. Why? Because when I read it, I remember exactly where I was and the beauty of the moment. Some writers describe a “haiku moment” like a photo, except in words. For the writer, and potentially for the reader, the brief writing carries the resonance and the feeling of a particular memory, in a way that perhaps a picture could not even convey.
A well written haiku challenges the assumption that a picture is worth a thousand words – reducing that cliche into an advertisement for the photography industry. While a picture anchors the mind to a particular place, the use of language gives the reader flexibility to color in the details from their own experiences of similar moments that may have been long forgotten. While I yearn to give you details for the time, setting, and occasion for this haiku, I withhold the additional context to give your imagination more liberty to make it your own.
As full moon rises
Silver Lake water ripples
Pale glow floats towards me
One of my favorite words is verge. It is one of those fun words that can be either a noun or verb. I first gained a deeper appreciation for its meaning when reading a book about landscapes. In that book, verge was described as a place that delineated the border of human made space and natural space. The leading example was of beachfront properties, describing how humans often desire to build sophisticated infrastructure as close to wild places as possible. So a coastline could be a verge – a transition space between the inevitable wild and the human built.
Another use of the word verge is the green space between a street and sidewalk. In this case, it is a highly controlled natural zone in the streetscape. Other terms used for that zone are berm, curb strip, swale, grass strip, terrace, green belt, tree bank, street lawn, sidewalk plot, etc. When I visited Portland, a town that does an incredible job of landscaping with diverse plantings in that zone, they refer to them as “hell strips.”
In this zone, the verge is technically, and very importantly, the right-of-way. Say “right-of-way” 5 times fast and you’ll begin to wonder how it ever got that civic definition. Whose right? What way? It would probably be more accurate to call it a no-mans-land. Often, the sidewalk verge is an example of what is essentially the public commons gone wrong – either bare minimum treatment of weeds OR an immaculate fertilized and herbicide-fed turf grass that noone ever uses except to spend a few minutes burning fossil fuels to mow. A chemical dump.
How many verge acres are there when adding up thousands of small square foot patches in this country?
In my personal experience with a sidewalk verge, I was a volunteer leader for the landscape at my church (a former warehouse packed into a dense downtown neighborhood) that was surrounded by asphalt. Before I took on the role, there was no one doing it. I daresay that no one even thought it was a needed role because it was a weed covered hell strip next to a building that we did not own. This verge was practically invisible.
I proposed a raised bed in the verge. With some TLC, it became a mini-rose garden at the side entrance of our nondescript rag tag church. A year later, Toni Costanzi, who helped us build the bed, passed away. She was the first person from the relatively young church who had a funeral in the building, so we put a memorial sign at the corner of the bed. It was truly beautiful. A little bit of heaven on that strip.
In the following three years, with some serendipitous support from local Indiana University Professor Kevin Lair, 100 linear feet of native flowers, grasses, shrubs, and trees were planted in front of the building. A section was designated as a neighborhood garden with a sign that encouraged walkers to take some food as they strolled down Sycamore St. The verge came to life. It was my introduction into native plants and forever changed my understanding of the value of ecological diversity.
There are other verges – the verb variety. Instead of a gray line of delineation, a verge can be more about decision making, at the cusp of a transition in one’s life. It can be about connecting with a new opportunity.
People say they are “on the verge,” like walking towards the precipice of a monumental life decision. To verge can be like walking from the known into the unknown – facing all the pressure that comes from making a leap towards a new life.
Verges can be thwarted by outside forces – like being on the verge to victory, only to have the ball bounce the wrong way on the road to defeat. Or you can di-verge and decide to go a different way from where you had expected.
In 2023, I attempted to verge into City Council political life. I walked into the Election Day party ahead in the polls, only to see my lead dwindle and then slip away at the last moment. I was on the verge to a new path in life and then I lost. The verge line between the public life of an elected official and the wild life of the general public grew very thin in November. In my ongoing advocacy work, I will remain near that edge, that gray space where private citizens try to influence public officials. Hugging close to that line is what I think of as democracy, as we all play a part that can go well beyond our time in the voting booth.
The day after I lost the election, I drove to Chicago for work. The timing was very helpful as I decompressed from 4 months of feverish activity. The first morning in the city, I woke up early, grabbed a cup of coffee, and walked straight to the shores of Lake Michigan. There, at Promontory Point near Hyde Park, I walked out towards the large hewn stones that formed a bulwark against the crashing waves. I was mesmerized. The skyline unfolded north of me. That crisp morning, I climbed down the rock until I was dangerously close to the spray of the water mist. I started taking pictures. Why was I doing this? I was enthralled by the rock in foreground, the stop action of a crashing wave caught at its apex, and the skyline in the background.
They weren’t great pictures. It’s impossible to catch the immanence of that place or the feeling that I had that morning – the proximity to unpredictable nature on the Chicago metropolis shore.
I had found a verge.
I danced on the stones as long as I could before I needed to leave to meet my colleagues.
Found verge at rock wall
Lake waves crash on hand hewn stone
Lawn then trail then road
On this special old school episode, Eric Riddle produced the show. The show begins reflections of friends and family members answering the question, “What Does Tony Mean to You?” The episode then transitions into Tony and Eric discussing his move to New York, details about his new book, “Hope for Troubles Minds: Tributes to Those with Brain Illnesses and Their Loved Ones,” their experience going to an Indiana Hoosiers basketball game, and the background to Eric’s Haikast episodes. The Revealing Voice podcast will continue in 2024 with more interviews, more Haikasts, and more news about Delight in Disorder ministries. Thank you for another great year as we wrap up the 6th year of podcasting!
I ran for City Council earlier this month. On the Sunday before the election, I decided to walk the outdoor labyrinth and then I went home to write, rather than continuing to seek, knock, and ask my way into office. This is an edited version of what I wrote while in that moment:
Beautiful fall day in early November. After 3 months of knocking on over 1,000 doors, I find myself sitting on my front porch, compelled to capture this moment of tension, 48 hours before the final votes are cast.
I’ve never run for a political office. This year, I finally succumbed to the drumbeat of people telling me that I have the right personality and patience to do the job.
This is what I have come to understand – people care deeply for their neighbor, but aren’t sure what is best for others. In that quandary, some think that people should trust in self organization and caring for each other, free from the restrictions or requirements of a governmental authority. Others see the mounting needs of others in society and see great value in a public institution that cares for those who struggle.
I believe that humans have the capability and responsibility to organize effective governance so that the plight of poverty is diminished in civilization. But we must be actively engaged in our democracy to make this aspiration possible.
I am at peace with my participation in this democratic process. I entered this campaign focused on meeting my neighbors, sharing my story of developing my leadership sensibilities during the city’s flood recovery, and focusing on affordable housing, the mental health matters initiative, supporting Nexus Park and the associated economic development around the area, and meaningful participation in the local climate alliance. I’m committed to the work of Landmark Columbus for preserving our cultural heritage and advancing design principles in our civic life.
Getting votes can have a corrupting influence on the imagination. It’s easy to weigh every decision as an opportunity to gain as many votes as possible. And if not careful, it’s easy to start objectifying and stereotyping people in the process. Asking yourself, who should I and who should I not care about in this time-constrained endeavor to win?
At some point about a month ago, I let go of the pressure to win and focused on the process. It is more about paying attention to democracy and less about politics. To care about people voting and wanting to be educated about the issues. This does not need to be a popularity contest.
When people talk about democracy dying, I think it’s because we have turned our minds towards the abstractions of national politics and not towards the relationships that can be formed between voters and their elected officials. It is easier to have that relationship building value in a city election. I’ve been able to meet a large percentage of the people who live in this neighborhood. I have the experience of listening to and caring for all of the perspectives that have been expressed to me along the way. People have respectfully disagreed with me. Some have not been able to engage in conversation at all due to my party affiliation. Others have been willing to listen to change their mind. I’ve had big smiles and high fives and invites into homes.
I grew up in this district on Woodfield Place, went to school, bought my first home, attended church, and settled into this home with Jen for the past 11 years in this district. I raised my children here. It’s been an honor to meet so many people who create the fabric of my existence. Who help keep me safe, who provide joy with their house decorations, who work to make this community better.
I’m unconventional – more of an artist than an economist. I would like to think that I have the best designed signs among all the candidates. I’m not the best public speaker and I still get butterflies every time I think about knocking on doors.
Today is the first day that I did not feel those butterflies. It’s the first day that I felt like I can rest and reflect without agonizing about what I could have done. And maybe I will lose this election by a handful of votes that perhaps I would have gained had I walked around this neighborhood today. It’s impossible to know.
I’ve approached each day as an underdog. Wondering if I could push past the 50% mark by Election Day. I kind of imagined this Sunday as a mad dash to win – skipping church, maybe skipping lunch and galvanizing an army of people to knock on doors with me. But I did not do that. I have watched the shadows on this day. I’ve reacquainted myself with the flowers that have browned and grayed since their full blooms were on display when I first started this campaign. They have lost their energy and are giving back to their roots, preparing for the inevitable winter and dormancy. They will emerge in the spring. I will too.
I’m not sure what will happen and I’m at peace with the public making that choice for me. I would like to think that my life won’t be dramatically different whether I win or lose. With a win, I have a council vote. If I lose, I will continue to be an advocate. Either way, at the top of my mind is serving the public in a way that is genuine, full of care, and curious about how to shape a community to be better connected. We all sit somewhere in this vast web of Columbus and we are inextricably linked. I have learned that more than ever over the course of this year. There is no way to separate each other from the reality of a shared destiny.
I chose a campaign slogan of “Listen. Learn. Lead.” to calm my nerves and to be a reflection of who I am. It’s easy to get caught in the desire to be an aspiring omni-everything leader. Great in front of the audience, great in front of the computer, great in the subject matter of public opinion, and connected to the important people – able to get things done. But the reality is that most of us only have the capacity to excel in a few of those skills. I am at peace with listening to the themes of this community and being humble enough to not have immediate answers. I hope that I encourage new people to come to public meetings to help serve the greater good.
I will be walking away from this season having learned that I’m a listener – or at least aspire to be. To accept a leadership style that is perhaps a little less driven by ego and more by a desire to empower others – not for me to be at the center, but for the connections that emerge to be the motivation for positive change.
I’ve not talked directly about the environment perhaps as much as I would have liked. I will close by saying that I want to think about all of life as my constituency. Everything that pulses and contributes to the ecosystem has a voice and purpose that is worthy to be listened to and upheld. To be a part of the conversation of creation. We are stewards of something that we did not create. How do you create a sense of stewardship over all that we are connected to, human and non-human? It’s about seeking relationships with those who struggle, who have a voice, but are not heard, and are asking for our help.
Between knocks on porch
Calm before conversation
The person cares here
I lost the election by a 48% to 52% margin. I was glad to see the newspaper print an editorial a few days later with that begin with this sentence:
“Eric Riddle was not victorious in his bid for a seat on the Columbus City Council, but on election night Nov. 7, his prevailing opponent, Kent Anderson, said Riddle was a winner.”
This quote captured my intentions in campaigning – to build a positive relationship with my neighbors and with Kent Anderson – who despite being my opponent, I referred to as my running mate.
I look forward to supporting Kent and the community in whatever capacity best suits my abilities. I’m proud to have accepted an invitation to be a Mental Health Matters Ambassador in Columbus. Perhaps that will be more impactful for me to be doing over the next 4 years!
I dedicate this Haikast to my wife, Jennifer Anne Riddle, for our 11 year wedding anniversary!I asked Jen to marry me in the center of a labyrinth on a cold February afternoon. The previous week was Valentine’s Day and she was clearly upset that I did not pop the question during dinner in downtown Indianapolis. She didn’t know that I was waiting for Ash Wednesday the following week.I first met Jen in Boston in 2009. She was one of my sister’s roommates. When I went to cheer on my sister in the Boston Marathon, the all women’s Christian household where Suzanne lived allowed an exception to have a guy stay overnight since I was a family member. I was dating at the time, so I didn’t think beyond the budding of a platonic relationship. Besides, I have never had much of a radar for flirtation. We did share great conversations about Jack Kerouac, the band U2, the NFL, and my endeavor to write a book about the Columbus flood recovery. We even shared an ice cream cone. Platonically.It was about a year later when she called me randomly after the Indianapolis Colts lost the Super Bowl to the New Orleans Saints. She called again a month later when the Duke Blue Devils beat the Butler Bulldogs in the NCAA basketball championship. At that point, I was single and surprised by what became clear, after the second call, that these were not random conversations. We quickly jumped to topics with a little more spiritual depth.Independently, in that spring of 2010, we both decided to give up all liquids except water for Lent. She was doing it for a ministry called Blood:Water mission. I was doing it because I realized that I had become entirely too dependent on daily coffee. This opened up our conversations of shared journeys. You may say that we entered the labyrinth together that spring.Two years later, when we were walking a real labyrinth together - on the threshold of the marriage proposal - we had been through a lot. She moved to Columbus and transferred to Christian Theological Seminary in Indianapolis to complete her Masters of Divinity degree. We broke up twice as I navigated the nagging suffering of post-divorce life and introducing my children to her. We lived through me having a major depressive episode. It wasn’t a straight shot to the altar. I don’t think life ever is as linear as we want it to be.Labyrinths have been around a long time. If you dive into the history, you’ll discover that many ancient cultures spread across the globe have iconography related to labyrinths. Coins from Greece in the 5th century BC included labyrinth images. It is thought that the labyrinth has been part of human civilization for over 4,000 years. If you are not familiar with labyrinths - or perhaps only associate the term with David Bowie’s film from the 1980s - there is a very strong distinction from a maze. People get lost in mazes in a series of dead ends with only one way through. If doing a maze on paper, you may need to erase your path a few times before successfully finding your way out.You will not get lost in a labyrinth or need to retrace your steps. While the traditional labyrinth, codified in the 13th century floor of a French cathedral, may seem intimidating with 11 concentric rings leading to a circle in the middle - it is not a place of dead ends. You will find your way to the center - to what some labyrinth aficionados describe as the womb. A safe place to reflect before reentering the world. Labyrinths are the home of spiritual ritual. On that Ash Wednesday with Jen, I chose the labyrinth walk as a sign that we would never face a dead end. We might not be able to anticipate the twists and turns, but we would do it together, we will find the center. As we walked out, we headed inside the church on the property. We walked out with ash on our foreheads, a sign that sacrifice and mourning is part of this life. While probably not the first choice of most people who are minutes into engagement, it was fitting for us.
There is much good news from Delight in Disorder Ministries. Kevin Earleybird Earley has been appointed Associate Producer for Revealing Voices. He will also serve as co-host. This episode is a sneak preview of some of what lies ahead. The long-anticipated, eagerly awaited book Hope for Troubled Minds: Tributes to People with Brain Illnesses and Their Loved Ones will be released November 1. The 300+ page book is filled with letters, poems, and song lyrics from over 100 contributors. Until October 1, 2023, pre-orders for books signed by Tony Roberts can be placed at this link:https://delightindisorder.org/hftm-preorder/ The photo was taken by mental health advocate Linda Mimms at the 25th Anniversary Gala of Treatment Advocacy Center.
It’s hard to accurately describe how big my parents' garden was when I was a child. I remember many summer days working with them to dig rows, plant seeds, weed and harvest. It was home to many vegetables, most notably the corn that my dad loved to grow and the green beans that I wasn’t as fond of. But just as the corn towered over my single digit self, the garden also spread wide to be as big as any that I knew. To my eye, perhaps only my dad’s parents' garden in rural Green County, Indiana was larger. Whatever the dimensions, it was large enough to plant in me a seed of understanding and a desire to want to have my own garden. I am excited that this year I only spent $10 on my entire vegetable garden thanks to a combination of saving seed packets from last year, harvesting my own seeds, trading plants with friends, getting seeds from the public library seed share program, and allowing volunteer plants to find their way. A package of brussel sprout plant plugs and a seed pack of green beans was my only expense for a massive harvest this year. It may seem counterintuitive, but the more involved with plants I have become, the less I have had to spend on their cultivation. For people who did not grow up around the cycle of planting and harvesting, I can imagine that gardening may seem like a risky gamble into struggling with unkempt weeds and frustrating neighbors. Depending on your property, a garden can be a public hobby and, if you aren’t sure of your motivations or confident in what you are doing, may invite embarrassment at the site of perceived failure when the harvest doesn’t seem worth the effort. What I can tell you is this - the more that I have gardened, the more I realize that I don’t do the gardening for my diet, property value, public relations with my neighbors, or to fill my time. I garden for the plants and for the non-human life that benefits from the presence of diversity on my property. Yes, all of the former that I mentioned are definitely benefits for me as well.. I will be the first to raise my hand to say that a late spring harvest of salad greens or a long awaited late summer watermelon are among the most savory and sweet moments of my year. In the garden, beyond the abundance of harvest, there is also death. The use of herbicides, forgetting to water during dry spells, the mildew that may get hold of my squash before maturity, and all kinds of other unforeseen events may create less than ideal conditions of growth. The natural lifecycle of plants and insects, and, of course, rabbits’ appetites, will inevitably dash one’s ideal harvest dreams. I have more than once accidentally pulled a maturing desirable plant in my hasteful weeding endeavor on a hot summer evening. It doesn’t take too long to cope with death in the garden - both intentional and unintentional. This seasonal lifecycle welcomes my presence in this entire drama, especially with native plants. The ultimate goal of a balanced, thriving environment around my home is my care and attention. That is why I do my best to restrain myself from pulling plants that migrate to parts of my yard where they were not originally planted. Rather than dumping fertilizer at a fixed location, I let them show me where they want to grow. I figure that they know better than I do what conditions work best for them - small changes in sunlight, moisture, soil type and neighboring plants play a big role in what will thrive and what will falter. Knowing this, I do my best to work with the plants to let them exert their preferences, rather than me enforcing mine. I have a perhaps too cautious concern for the use of fertilizers and anything that ends with the suffix “-ide”, so I rely on my time to be the best determiner of what grows and what dies. So I watch, learn, and plan for the introduction of new plants and successional plantings to keep the bees busy. I want to attract other flying friends - whether it be birds or other insects,
My basement stairs now have the “Rips Room” letters that I, Eric Rippy Riddle, inherited from my grandfather, Amos Harlen Rippy. The letters hung in the same formation from his home in Tell City, IN throughout my young life. It is an honor to walk down my stairs and remember the familiar walk down my grandparents basement steps. My grandfather was a quiet man. Growing up, the things that I most identified with my grandfather were:
His stable presence in all of my big life’s moments
He worked most of his life at the Tell City Chair Company
He owned a golf cart at his local course and played all the time
He absolutely loved St. Louis Cardinals baseball
He was responsible for hanging the witty sayings and announcements with the black plastic letters on the church sign
He stopped smoking in the early 1980s when I asked him why he smoked (I have little recollection of this, but it was often stated at family gatherings)
He was in the Air Force in World War 2
The family called him “Pop”. His friend’s called him “Rip.” In 2013, Pop was my last grandparent to die. I was close to all 4 of my grandparents, but Pop’s quiet nature was overshadowed by my grandmother who showered love, attention, and lots of cookies on me. His quiet presence was one of solidarity, but not as much what I would call intimacy. It felt like there was something that I didn’t know about him and wasn’ sure how to find out. The funny thing is that I did not cry at the funerals of my other grandparents. I also did not speak at those funerals. I did both the day Pop was buried. His funeral is easily the most memorable for me. I remember standing on the cemetery hillside, listening to the playing of Taps and getting an overwhelming feeling of what I can only describe as being opened. I was compelled to begin writing poetry that I described as “openings”. I wrote this after Pop’s funeral: Today, Pop was buriedNext to my mother’s motherSunny, windy on top of Tell CityMy son watched the old man fold the flagRed, White, Blue describedI stood in the tent, feeling an openingA generation is goneMy mom, dad, aunt, and uncle said their goodbyeAt the church, I took theKleenexAnd mumbled through 8 tissuesI said death is a mythand my grandfather is alive – Pop lived 68 years after he flew over Tokyo in 1945. It took me until 2022 to realize that my grandfather was part of Operation Meetinghouse. The air raids over Tokyo on March 9th and 10th in 1945 are considered the deadliest air raid in human history. With a firestorm that killed nearly 100,000 people, the napalm burned a quarter of Tokyo to the ground. While the atomic bombs get the attention, it was the Operation Meetinghouse air raid that my grandfather participated in that took the most human life. His generation fought the most lethal war in human history. Pop embodied the conflict that horrifies and amazes all who study that time in human history. I can not imagine the psychological anguish - whether felt or stuffed into his unconscious that he must have experienced. I wish I could have known more and spoken to him about that time in his life. I wept the day I pieced together the dates of Operation Meetinghouse with what my brother had discovered in Pop’s journals. While it did not feel like a family secret, this realization was an unearthing of family history that has been life altering to me. It feels like a lost treasure with a key that could only truly be opened by talking to Pop. I think part of my emotional reaction is not being able to talk to him about the experience. I am not sure how this has shaped me or how this knowledge will play a role in my life. It is real and painful and unforgettable. When he died, and I felt opened, maybe it was a way of passing on a desire for my generation to be reconcilers in a world prone to war. This deeper understanding of Pop’s Air Force service has drawn me closer to him since his passing. When I think of Tom Brokaw’s book,
Technical producer Kevin Earleybird Earley is our guest host for this episode of Revealing Voices. He interviews fellow creative and long time friend Substantial. Prince George’s County, Maryland-born MC, producer, artist, and educator, Substantial, debuted in 2000 collaborating with the late Japanese producer Nujabes, who later worked on the popular show Samurai Champloo. Legendary rapper and activist, Chuck D of Public Enemy referred to Substantial as “One of the great MCs of our time.” His soulful and introspective brand of Hip Hop music has received critical acclaim from Ebony.com, The Source Magazine, HipHopDX, DJBooth.net, and Okayplayer.com. His music videos have appeared on MTV, VH1, and BET.
Substantial has performed in nearly 20 countries and has collaborated with artists such as Kool Herc, L Universe better known as Verbal (M-Flo), Oddisee, and more. Substantial has licensed music to major brands such as Ford Motor Company, Bentley Motors, and UBER and also had his music featured in films and television shows such as Kevin Hart’s Laugh at My Pain, Kill Me 3 Times starring Simon Pegg, Daytime Emmy nominated show Tough Love and it’s spin-off series Pillow Talk. Substantial has appeared in the documentaries, Freestyle: The Art of Rhyme and Give Back. He has also written and performed original songs for games such as PUBG Mobile, Mobile Legends Bang Bang, Arknights, Tree of Savior, and Renaine. Substantial is also a two-time Hollywood Music in Media Award nominee. Earleybird and Substantial discuss taking a leap of faith, challenges for mental healthcare in minority communities, and the inspiration of music and the creative process.
Fifteen years ago, on the day my divorce was finalized, I sat around a corner table with some friends at the Columbus Bar. This was not a celebration, but a solemn gathering of men who supported me through one of the most difficult times of my life. A few months before, my best friend, Ben Stilson, and I had changed allegiances from Buffalo Wild Wings to Columbus Bar for a number of reasons - gigantic onion rings, best fish sandwich in town, first microbrewery in Columbus, and the kindness of the owner, Jon Myers. The Diesel Oil Stout was a revelation in local brewing beauty. That night of the divorce, Jon was serving us. For old times sake, in remembrance of fun evenings I had experienced in England back in college, I ordered an absinthe. Jon brought it to the table, with the special glassware, spoon, and sugar cube. It was a bittersweet night, but one of remarkable fraternal bonding and creation of new memories as I started a new chapter of life. Weeks later, Ben and I, along with our friend Patrick Fosdick, were forming a Columbus Young Professionals team to compete in a summer long “Amazing Race” competition. The goal was to solve clues that led us to special spots in town. We needed to take a picture at each location and write a blog post about it. We were looking for a fourth team member, so on a whim, we asked Jon if he would like to join us. He did and the 4 of us gathered at the front plaza of City Hall to begin the competition. We had forgotten to create a team name. In a moment of creative clarity, Ben offered up the name “The Local Drafts.” The double entendre of being recruited to this team and promoting Jon’s Powerhouse microbrewery immediately resonated. So the Local Drafts ran around for 3 months, bonding while taking silly pictures holding empty beer mugs all over Columbus. We finished fourth in that summer of 2008. As we realized our formal time as a team was coming to a close, we reflected on the deepening bonds we had established and brainstormed how we could keep the fun going. So we organized a party called a Blind Beer Taste Test. We picked 8 beers in a particular style and randomly placed them into an elite 8 bracket. One person poured 1.5 oz samples into 2 separate glasses and after trying both, a vote was taken. There was then a Final Four round and a final head to head match to decide the champion of the beer style. In October of 2008, Keystone Light won the inaugural Blind Beer Taste Test competition in the Light Beer style. We loved it. And kept doing it. I was not in a fraternity in college. I didn’t like the idea of hazing and the drunkenness associated with it. As the years went on and Ben, Jon, Patrick, and I invited more people to the taste tests, we realized that the fraternal bonds that developed through this ritual and all of the friendships that emerged outside of the taste test experiences were very special. No hazing required. In 2012, we inducted a new “class” of 4 Local Draft gentlemen and 6 more by the end of 2018. The “organization,” and I do put that in quotes, waxed and waned in attempts to formalize, but in the end we decided we all just wanted to be together. Not to have meetings, but to have gatherings. Random happenings. Maybe it was golfing or hiking or helping someone move or supporting a Draft through a job transition, or planting trees, or volunteering, or organizing spur of the moment happy hours. In 2017, we had our first overnight trip on a trip to Cave Run Lake in Kentucky - starting an annual tradition of a 3-night, out of state trip. It will take too long to tell the stories of Three Rivers, Michigan - other than to say the Drafts have all left a piece of their hearts with our gracious AirBnB host, Mary Doezema, and her idyllic acreage with its winding boardwalk through beautiful wetlands. The relationships with these men have all become such an incredible blessing for me. I did not know any of these guys in high school or college.
Judge Tim Fall is a California native who changed his major three times, colleges four times, and took six years to get his bachelor’s degree in a subject he’s never been called upon to use professionally. He’s been a trial court judge since 1995 and has taught judicial ethics to California judges for twenty years. Tim was in private civil practice for a little over seven years before taking the bench and had not seen the penal code since law school. He’s a quick study though (see the above comment about taking six years to get a four-year degree).
Tim writes and speaks about being a judge with a diagnosed anxiety disorder, and seeks to remove the stigma of seeking treatment for mental illness. His mental health memoir Running for Judge: Campaigning on the Trail of Despair, Deliverance, and Overwhelming Success (Wipf and Stock, 2020) is available in print, as well as from Audible and Kindle.
Reflecting on his pastoral career and work as a mental health minister, Tony shares what it is like to be a wounded healer with a bipolar thorn in his flesh.
I really enjoy the idea of volunteer work in public spaces. For me, it feels like the basics of civilization. Essentially, I am talking about convincing people that no one needs to get paid to benefit the common good. This is a difficult task on a number of levels.
First, people like to get paid.
Second, there are city and county workers who get paid to maintain public spaces who may not like volunteers working in these same areas.
Third, doing large scale projects to benefit the public good requires money, talent, time, and coordination.
Fourth, if the project is going to endure, maintaining public space designed and created by volunteers requires long term support from people who are paid.
This is even more difficult to achieve when doing landscape projects.
About three years ago, my friend, Ben, and I had just completed a volunteer landscape project and had ambitions for a bigger endeavor. We needed someone who had control over substantial amounts of grass (aka green canvas) and an appreciation for native plants.
We found our key supporter in Brian Payne, Director of the AirPark property on the north side of Columbus. In addition to the acre of land that he had already given us to create a meadow, he also has about a 2 mile People Trail going through his property.
We developed a fundraising campaign for $15,000 to purchase plants, signage, raised beds, and a bench for a project that we dubbed, the “AirPark Pollinator Path.” In year one, we completed the meadow and transformed an 800 square foot AirPark entrance area into a native plant bed.
We had only used about half of our money, so for spring 2023, we decided to take on over 7,000 square feet of space. It was much more than I had dreamed was possible when we started the fundraising campaign.
By the end of April, 15 new beds were completed. Over the course of one of the most incredible weeks of volunteer coordination, led by multiple Sierra Club members, the sod was removed, mulch was added, plants were layed out, holes were dug, flowers and grasses found their new homes, and water topped off the effort. And then a glorious rain fell that Saturday evening after we were done.
One of the new volunteers that came out mentioned that she is getting a Masters in Public Health. She shared with me that she is convinced that taking care of plants improves health. She wants to be able to explore that more in her education.
I told her that I am very confident that horticulture therapy is an effective way of improving physical and mental health. In my opinion, on any list of options that a doctor, therapist, public health official, pastor, or concerned friend may give to someone in need of support for their mental health, working with plants should be top 5.
I do have a broad definition for working with plants! There are lots of actions that I associate with horticulture therapy in my life. Planting, harvesting, cooking, floral arranging, smelling, weeding, watching the insect interactions, pruning, eating raw veggies straight from the ground, picking fruits from the tree, plucking berries from the bush, drying, saving seeds, composting, rubbing fingers on a mint leaf, waving my hand over the top of native grasses….
Imagine all of the things that you can do just on the other side of what you do not control – after germination, that beautiful creative act when the green shoot emerges from seed. That first glimpse of green has a name – radicle. It is in nurturing that life just one small step after the radicle moment that horticulture therapy emerges for me.
So in these beds of columbine, butterfly weed, western sunflower, joe pye weed, penstemon, aster, coreopsis, iron weed, spiderwort, rattlesnake master, wild quinine, prairie drop seed, little blue stem, and coralberry, our friends the bees, butterflies, bugs, bats, and birds will thrive. The fauna will bask in this culinary floral delight. This becomes their ecological home. The honor of shaping this home is deeply therapeutic for me.
My prayer is that you, dear listener, will thrive as your five senses are opened by interacting with plants – as you taste the pear, smell the elderberry, touch the baptisia, hear the wind through blue stem, and see the blazing star. And remember, in flashes of vibrant memory, the connections you have had with creation since your youth. It has always been there. Be there with it.
As we were wrapping up our final day of planting, the volunteers converged on a corner of the People Trail near a 3-way stop. People drove by slowly. Lingered. Walkers and bikers stopped to thank us. Some asked us what we were doing. People wanted to know who we were with… while the reasonable response was to say Sierra Club, I wanted to say, “we are with the plants.”
Slowing down, to smile
Stranger meets unexpected
In the common good
Dr. Stephen Grcevich (MD, Northeast Ohio Medical University) serves as the founder and President of Key Ministry. He is a child and adolescent psychiatrist who combines over 25 years of knowledge gained through clinical practice and teaching with extensive research experience evaluating medications prescribed to children and teens for ADHD, anxiety, and depression. Dr. Grcevich has been a presenter at over 35 national and international medical conferences and is a past recipient of the Exemplary Psychiatrist Award from the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI).
In his role as President of Key Ministry, Steve serves the primary vision caster and spokesperson for Key and plays an important role in Key’s efforts to develop collaborations with church leaders, professionals and organizations both within and outside the disability ministry movement. He is responsible for strategy and oversees the implementation of Key’s ministry plan. He blogs at Church4EveryChild.org, is a regular contributor for Moody Radio Cleveland and frequently speaks at national and international ministry conferences on mental health and spiritual development. His first book, Mental Health and the Church, was published by Zondervan in February 2018.
Steve and his wife Denise live in Chagrin Falls, Ohio. They have two daughters – Leah and her husband (Max) are students at the Alabama College of Osteopathic Medicine, and Mira is attending Belmont University and is majoring in psychology. Steve’s work serves as a distraction from the abysmal performance of Cleveland’s professional sports teams.
I love spring and love moseying around my yard, marvelling at the flowers popping through the mulch and the abundance of – are they pink, magenta, maybe even purple – or simply, redbud tree blossoms. There’s so much to be thankful for.
That being said, please take a few minutes with me to consider the suppression of this beauty. The culprit is grass.
It’s mid-April and I just mowed for the first time this year. Thankfully, over the last 5 years, I have slowly transitioned the lawn into mulched flower beds and raised vegetable beds – drastically cutting the square footage of space for my human powered, reel lawn mower. It may not be the cleanest cut, but it’s pollution free and a good workout.
There are empty lawn lots across this country. Much of it is public space, maintained by the city or state. There are some immaculate lawns full of fertilizer, herbicide, and perfectly mown lines – my favorite are the diagonal strips that make X’s. Like a baseball field ready for the World Series. But I’m not talking about the outfield of the St. Louis Cardinals.
You may not realize where these lots are in your city because they are so incredibly unremarkable. The purpose of these spaces is to keep the grass from getting too tall to not get a complaint. They are the kind of places that no one cares much about, so they are rarely used.
The funny thing is that they don’t serve much of a human purpose, but we, as humans, can’t help ourselves from mowing the spaces every week to literally kill any chance of other living things from finding a reliable food source and safe shelter. If non-human life do risk taking up residence, they’ll probably get killed by a mower blade or someone who decided that the dandelions simply cast too yellow a glow on the turf.
CNN reported in April 2022 that in Palm Springs, California, it takes 63,000 gallons of water per year to maintain the green in a 1,500 square foot yard. That’s not even a big yard.
I could go on with stats from various sources about the immense cost of maintaining a yard – Business Insider magazine reported in 2016 that Americans spend more than $30 billion/year on maintaining their yards. Some reporters describe lawn as the largest “cash crop” in the United States because of that expense. Not cash for the homeowners who spend hours and dollars to – it is very odd to say – “raise grass”, but cash for the companies that perpetuate the need for these great green monoculture carpets.
What is the benefit of this cash crop?
I think it has a lot to do with control, senseless social norms, and the fear of wilderness.
A couple years ago, my friend and I approached the Columbus, IN city airport about the possibility of adding native plant space to the AirPark. We identified an acre of space between the Columbus Community Garden and a nearby subdivision. Thankfully, the AirPark Director saw the vision of creating habitat using native plants in the space that was the type of mow over zone I’ve been describing. The Director understands that maintaining the grass is expensive and takes up the labor time of his staff.
I had no experience in converting grass to a native plant meadow, so I followed the suggestion of our local Sycamore Land Trust. We began with spraying the field with Roundup 2 times over the course of 4 months. In February, we broadcast 40 different native plant seed varieties across the area and let it grow until July. In July, it was moved to about an 8 inch height to knock down the weeds and give more light to the germinating seed.
Over Thanksgiving weekend, I went out into the field and did a 360 video of the space to send to my friend at the Land Trust. He was happy with the growth in the first year.
I brought to the field a large bin of harvested seed heads from my home. I added this seed to the edge near the bench we dedicated to my friend, Chelsea. It is exciting to have an acre that is growing wild in our city. I’ll do my best to protect the space from the temptations of turning it back into lawn. I know nature will throw flowers in the air where I had thrown down my seed. A colorful magic trick.
On Easter weekend, I walked the perimeter. It’s early in the season and there is hope already beginning to buzz across the acre. The city’s garden plots, just steps away, will be planted soon. The enhanced pollinator life in the field holds great promise in producing more bountiful yields for the gardeners.
It’s good to go a little wild. Caring for the environment is not about outcompeting your neighbor for the greenest lawn. It’s more about making a little more room for life and creating ecological landscapes that thrive with diversity.
Walking acre edge
Fall’s brown lingers, spring’s green shows
What grows next, who knows?
How do you forgive when you’ve been wounded deeply?
How do you move past the pain that keeps you up at night, leaves you isolated, untrusting, and afraid? How can you possibly forgive them, especially when they don’t deserve forgiveness?
Pastor Mark Sowersby shares his testimony with his ministry and book by the same name, Forgiving The Nightmare.
He writes —
“After living through years of sexual and physical abuse, the Lord brought me on a journey to forgive the ones who trespassed against me. Forgiving the Nightmare is a ministry to help people walk through forgiveness from past hurts or abuse by sharing the love of God and encouraging people to accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.
In 2019 I began speaking publicly about my personal journey, being transparent, open, and genuine. I have also written a book by the same name Forgiving the Nightmare Here is a link to my website and video.”
https://youtu.be/W07oCKA0iBk
www.forgivingthenightmare.com
FTN has been asked to produce a Forgiving The Nightmare TV series. They are fundraising to support this. Mark shares, “Thank you for your prayers and help. May the Lord be glorified. God bless you.”
https://www.givesendgo.com/FTNTV?utm_source=sharelink&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_campaign=FTNTV
What are your thoughts on the cliche – “The universe is trying to talk to you?”
Humans run a wide range in the coincidence through divine intervention spectrum. The Universe talking to you falls somewhere closer to the divine intervention side. Living the majority of my life as a Christian who relies on research to guide my decision making, I have been trained to respectfully listen to this entire spectrum of perspectives without rolling my eyes. So I appreciate the Biblical call to pray without ceasing, but I also appreciate the cause and effect nature of reality.
I find that isolation is one of the many effects and causes of mental health struggles. I think part of that isolation is a desire to pause life, figure out how to stop having symptoms, and then play again once the struggle is over.
During physical sickness, that pause for me is often grabbing a 2 liter of sprite, a few cans of chicken noodle soup, crackers, and some Tylenol, and hanging on the couch for a couple days to recover. After the temperature is normal and the fatigue lifts, I press play and am ready to get back to work.
Society allows the time out and generally accepts that getting back to normal is a routine part of getting sick. We are expected to isolate and get well. There’s even a growing use of the term “presenteeism” – which relates to the issues caused by working while sick and the negative impacts it can have on getting others sick. Since the pandemic, presenteeism is being addressed by encouraging more self care before getting back to work.
Mental health struggles don’t often work the same way. Symptoms don’t reliably go away in 48 hours – sometimes they may hang round for 48 days or 48 months.
During a recent struggle with feelings of isolation, I went to a mental health support group called Faithful Friends. We ate together and decided to play a game called Mad Gab. The game focuses on trying to unscramble three lines of words that sound like nonsense, but can be phonetically aligned into a common saying. For example, try to figure this one out:
Key
Pure Rye
Sonnet
I will say again, a little faster:
Key
Pure Rye
Sonnet
The answer is:
Keep your eyes on it.
At the Faithful Friends meeting, this was one of the Mad Gabs:
Yule
Nut Bar
Hawk Howl Own
Did you figure it out? Here it is again:
Yule
Nut Bar
Hawk Howl Own
The answer to this one is:
You’ll never walk alone.
The 8 of us in the room played the game for a joyous 2 hours. One of my friends in attendance said he couldn’t remember the last time he smiled that much.
He is a music aficionado. He related the “You’ll Never Walk Alone” gab to a song by the same name from the 1940s. As he talked, it occurred to me that lyrics from the song are passionately chanted at Liverpool’s Premier League Soccer matches. We listened to the Liverpool crowd singalong that is included in the Pink Floyd song called “Fearless.” We then read the lyrics from the original Rodgers and Hammerstein 1945 musical Carousel. The chorus is:
Walk on, Walk on
With hope in your heart
And you’ll never walk alone
The conversations that percolated around this song were very fortifying..
The next evening, I began reading The Antropocene Reviewed, a book by John Green. The first chapter is titled “You’ll Never Walk Alone.” Ha! I instantly sent a message to my music aficionado friend. He and I may share mental health diagnoses that bring feelings of isolation at times, but we also know the joy of rediscovering how connected we really are.
Physical recovery and mental health recovery are very different. In one, we are expected to isolate. In the other, we need to be encouraged to join a community of acceptance. We may not think that the universe ever talks to us, but we need to know that there are plenty of others who will.
Synchronicity
“You’ll Never Walk Alone” song
Appears twice this week
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkgaMFjo_lIhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OV5_LQArLa0
The Rev. Dr. Sarah Lund’s mission is to partner with others to share hope and healing. She is an ordained minister in both the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and the United Church of Christ. Sarah has served as pastor to churches in Brooklyn, NY, Minneapolis, MN, and New Smyrna Beach, FL. Sarah served as Regional Minister in the Florida Conference of the United Church of Christ and as a Vice President for Christian Theological Seminary in Indianapolis, IN. She holds degrees from Trinity University (BA), Princeton Theological Seminary (MDiv), Rutgers University (MSW), and McCormick Theological Seminary (DMin). Sarah received the Dell Award for Mental Health Education at the 30th General Synod of the UCC.
Sarah currently serves as Minister for Disabilities and Mental Health Justice on the national staff of the UCC and as senior pastor of First Congregational UCC of Indianapolis, IN. She volunteers on the national boards of Pathways to Promise, Mental Health America, Bethany Fellows, and Piedmont University. In January of 2022, Sarah joined two US Department of Health and Human Services national Think Tanks, the first about faith communities and suicide, and the second Think Tank about faith communities and youth mental health. Sarah is the author of several books about mental health: Blessed are the Crazy: Breaking the Silence About Mental Illness, Family, and Church (2014), Blessed Union: Breaking the Silence About Mental Illness and Marriage (2021), and Blessed Youth: Breaking the Silence About Mental Illness with Children and Teens (2022), and a pocket-sized mental health resource book for youth: Blessed Youth Survival Guide (2022). Sarah blogs at www.sarahgriffithlund.com.
Do you ever feel like you are in the need of some elusive, magical words to resolve a situation?
I know I do.
That feeling often comes when I am convinced that there are no words designed to communicate my heartfelt intention.
I don’t mean to make that sound like a bad thing.
Biblically speaking, this feeling is summed up by the classic Romans 8:26 verse: “…. the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.”
Words are tools of communication. There are times when words, like a prayer of great conviction, have broken through doubt, depression, or confusion to steady me. But there are times when words are not enough… When words are not the right tools for the job.
I’ve spent most of my life thinking that words should be able to solve any problem. That there are magical words that strike the anvil of reconciliation and wield a power to make everything better. I’ve found this to not be true.
In a similar vein, in my personal thought life, I get caught in cycles of wondering what words I can tell myself that will alleviate mental anguish.
When I have persistent negative feelings, my thoughts are a nebulous mass of words. It is a duel of irrationally created words wrapped in strong emotions being countered by my forced, internal, rational responses.
I have learned that words spoken or thought can not make feelings go away.
For loved ones with years of familiarity with me and genuine care for my mental well being, the same hopes for word solutions may be equally dashed. That is ok.
My wife and I have talked about the magical words. Beyond dealing with mental health alleviation, we also want magical words to gain relief from grieving death, finding forgiveness with friends, resolving cultural conflicts that never seem to cease. The desire for such magic goes on and on.
We all have situations in our lives that we want to go away AND we want them to go away by our commitment to finding the solution. It’s not that we want to evade, forget, or defer responsibility, we want to do the work and use the words and make the plan and have it all fixed.
I want magical words that conquer bipolar illness. To read the top 10 tips and execute them expertly. To hear the prayer, believe the hope, and feel the healing. To remember my therapist’s words the last time I turned the corner and do it once again, to stand firm in the encouragement of my friends. That has all helped in the past. But maybe the magic is not working today.
There are days when words are not what I need. Acknowledging that can actually be the beginning of the relief.
It is a funny sort of liberation to give up on words. The groaning of the Spirit may simply be a matter of breathing through the anxiety, feeling the crisp winter air at the edge of my nostrils. Deep breathing. Completely emptying my lungs. Groaning.
Or watching my cats nestled together on the couch, giving me the slow blink before nodding back off. They have no words for me, but they are communicating something worth considering. It is ok to rest. It is ok to just find the warmth of another for some time. Cats don’t need magic.
Deferring to that spiritual state of groaning doesn’t need to be a last resort. I would do well to think of it as a solid first option anytime I begin wrestling with words.
My wife is much better than me at knowing when to give up on attempting the magic tricks. I thank her for those times when we are beyond wordcraft.
Toe touch, shoulder nook
Her body language pep talk
Warmth without the words
Our guest for this episode is Matthew S. Stanford, PhD, CEO of the Hope and Healing Center & Institute (HHCI) in Houston, Texas. He is also adjunct professor of psychiatry at Baylor College of Medicine and the Houston Methodist Hospital Institute for Academic Medicine. A fellow of the Association for Psychological Science, Dr. Stanford’s research on the interplay between psychology and faith has been featured in the New York Times, USA Today, Christianity Today, and U.S. News & World Report. He is the author of several books, including Grace for the Afflicted, Grace for the Children, and The Biology of Sin. His most recent book featured in this episode is Madness & Grace: A Practical Guide for Pastoral Care and Serious Mental Illness. This is the first in a series of four episodes on Faith, Mental Health, and the Church. Our guest co-host for the series is Leona Satterburg, who received a doctorate from Southern California Seminary with a focus on mental health and the Church. Her passion grows from her own experience having a son diagnosed at age seven with bipolar disorder and later with schizoaffective disorder.
Welcome to the Revealing Voices Haikast series with Eric Riddle serving as our guest poet. Eric is co-founder of Revealing Voices who redirected his avocation to environmental stewardship about a year ago. I have invited Eric to blend his spiritual art with his passion for mental health advocacy here on the program. He writes:
“I’m thankful for the opportunity to read them in the style of Senryu – combining prose with haiku to provide context and explain the significance of the haiku moments in my life. Each Haikast starts with a narrative or contemplation and ends with a traditional 5 syllable / 7 syllable / 5 syllable haiku. My hope is that the haikasts will inspire your own reflections and search for beauty in the miraculous and the mundane.”
We hope to have Eric’s Senryu on Revealing Voices monthly.
Memory and Hope can be two healing agents of faith to be used as resources for personal, social, even spiritual improvement. As we remember the events surrounding the broken system that contributed to the end of Mark Rippee’s life this year, let’s not fall victim to bitterness or futile rage. Instead let us rally around the hope of all those who cared for him and still care not to let his memory die.
Kevin “Earleybird” Earley is an artist and musician based out of Northern Virginia. He is a graduate of Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York where he studied fine art, and Virginia Commonwealth University, where he has earned his Master’s in Social Work.
His love for hip-hop goes back decades, as he wrote and performed his first raps in elementary school at the age of seven years old. His rap name was given to him by a childhood friend, a pun based on his last name.
His challenges with mental health are documented in his father, Pete Earley‘s 2007 best selling book, “Crazy – A Father’s Search Through America’s Mental Health Madness”, which chronicles his 2002 incident where Kevin broke into a stranger’s house and took a bubble bath before being apprehended by the police.
His work deals with mental health, race, privilege and resilience through adversity. He speaks to inspire and resolve stigma through art. He currently works with youth who live with mental health issues and helps mentor them to recover from their respective challenges.
He has been recording and releasing music for over 20 years. He lives in the Northern Virginia area of the D.M.V. (District, Maryland & Virginia) where he was born and raised.
He was invited to The White House in 2022 following the release of the Ken Burns’ produced documentary, “Hiding In Plain Sight – Youth Mental Illness” which can be seen on PBS.
He believes in the healing properties of art and music. Music is essentially sound vibrations, and he works to create positive vibrations that have the power to help people recover and thrive from the challenges they face in life.
Janet Hays, is founder and director of Healing Minds NOLA, a 501(c)(3) educational and charitable organization based in New Orleans, LA that focuses on removing funding and policy barriers to treatment and care for people living with no-fault serious mental diseases. She is a problem solver by nature, and works tirelessly with families and individuals impacted by serious mental illness crises to explore and create alternatives to incarceration, homelessness, unnecessary hospitalizations and death.
Janet’s inclusive and collaborative approach to advocacy has resulted in the creation of Louisiana's first assisted outpatient treatment court that provides therapeutic, coordinated wrap-around support to people who struggle with medication adherence, advancing policy that brings together health and criminal justice systems to study the relationship between mental illness and incarceration and, most recently, the passage of a bill that includes Psychiatric Deterioration as a criteria for civil commitment before the standards of dangerousness to self/others or grave disability need to be met.
Kathryn Parke is a clinical social worker and psychotherapist in Baltimore MD. She has fifteen years of experience working with severe psychiatric brain disorders in both community mental health systems and clinical hospital settings. She is passionate about supporting this community and approaches her work with a method of compassionate partnering. She works with patients and their families with a wide array of mental health issues. She is currently in private practice in Towson, MD.
Tony Roberts and co-host, Laura Pogliano, talk with Kathy Day, MPA. Kathy is currently the caregiver, advocate, and conservator for her family member who was diagnosed with schizophrenia in 2010. She is active in local, state, and national advocacy to promote the need for family involvement for their loved ones’ mental healthcare. Her experience in advocacy and the personal experience in navigating the system of mental healthcare gives her a unique perspective on the challenges families encounter when searching for resources for their loved ones. In September of 2021, Kathy joined the team at the Treatment Advocacy Center as the senior family liaison. In this role, Kathy locates resources for families across the country to assist and coach them to find help for their family members. Kathy co-manages Facebook support pages and writes a blog about her experiences navigating the system of care. It’s called Broken and you can find it here: www.facebook.com/ourbrokensystem.
Tony Roberts and co-host, Laura Pogliano, talk with Kathy Day, MPA. Kathy is currently the caregiver, advocate, and conservator for her family member who was diagnosed with schizophrenia in 2010. She is active in local, state, and national advocacy to promote the need for family involvement for their loved ones’ mental healthcare. Her experience in advocacy and the personal experience in navigating the system of mental healthcare gives her a unique perspective on the challenges families encounter when searching for resources for their loved ones.
In September of 2021, Kathy joined the team at the Treatment Advocacy Center as the senior family liaison. In this role, Kathy locates resources for families across the country to assist and coach them to find help for their family members.
Kathy co-manages Facebook support pages and writes a blog about her experiences navigating the system of care. It’s called Broken and you can find it here: www.facebook.com/ourbrokensystem.
While Eric pours himself into saving the planet one pollinator plant at a time, Revealing Voices goes global with top-drawer advocates for co-hosts, a new sound engineer and guests that continue to explore what healing means in the context of caring for those impacted brain illnesses. In this trailer, Kevin Earley, Laura Pogliano, and I explore what lies ahead with episodes on Advocacy, Faith, Trauma and Art.
On Eric's final episode as co-host of Revealing Voices, we invited Brandon Andress back for his second interview. In 2021, Brandon published his fourth book, "What Can't Be Hidden." At the beginning of the show, we discuss the writing process as he switched to fiction for the first time. Brandon shares his new sense of freedom in an allegorical writing style and unique ability to present spiritual themes through the relationships of the characters.
In the second half of the show, Eric thanks Brandon and Tony for the role they have played in his life as spiritual mentors. Brandon led a weekly Men's Confession group for 4 years. Tony and Eric co-led a weekly Faithful Friends mental health ministry. Both of these groups were the source of many strong, enduring relationships that developed through transparent communication. Many topics are explored by the author threesome.
From Eric: "Thank you listeners for the last 4 years of listening to this podcast. This show has always been about exploring the meaning of healing and I'm grateful to have learned many perspectives, stories, and experiences. I'm thankful for Tony's commitment to the show and I'll continue to encourage him as a true leader of mental health ministry in our country."
As promised in episode, here it the link to the native plant ecology work that Eric has been devoting himself to in Columbus. As spring approaches, he will be putting down the mic and picking up a shovel!
Eric's parents, Dr. Bruce and Sally Riddle, join us in Studio E in this penultimate episode of Eric hosting the podcast. Bruce shares his story living with bipolar disorder, discussing the struggle getting through his med school internship and residency. Sally talks through the decision not to share the diagnosis with friends and work contacts for over 40 years. After Bruce's hospitalization in 2020, they made the decision to share the diagnosis publicly. In this episode, they talk through the experience of 5 decades of marriage and the benefits of finally being able to share with friends and their church.
Some questions explored on this episode:
When did Bruce first start experiencing bipolar symptoms?
How did he navigate the journey to becoming a doctor while struggling through depressive and manic episodes?
How have their relationships with friends changed since deciding to share his diagnosis?
How did their experience prepare them for supporting Eric when he first experienced depression in high school?
What does healing mean to them?
In this episode, Tony and Eric are in studio to discuss the roots of the podcast and future for the show. Revealing Voices will become a part of Tony's Delight in Disorder Ministries - a new nonprofit dedicated to publishing content to educate and encourage those impacted by brain illnesses and other mental health conditions. A successful Indiegogo campaign will provide seed money to get the ministry underway. More details will follow about how you can invest in this vital effort.
After episode 50, Eric will be stepping back from co-hosting to devote more of his time and energy to environmental stewardship. In his place, we will have a series of co-hosts representing leaders and experts in the field of faith and mental health. Plans are underway to conduct a series on Advocacy, Trauma, and Mental Health & the Church.
Debbie Teike, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, is the author of The Art of Invitation: Building enduring relationships · Connecting community. Debbie has extensive experience working in long-term care, elder abuse and neglect, hospice care and congregational social work. She grew up in Decatur, IL and graduated from Southern Illinois University-Carbondale (B.S. in Social Work) and Washington University’s Brown School of Social Work (M.S.W.)-St. Louis, MO.
The Art of Invitation is faith-based and scientifically grounded. It embraces an understanding of human behavior, need, and connection centered in God’s grace, mercy, peace, and love for all people. It provides remedies for the common human experiences of division, isolation, and lack of genuine connection.Debbie is married to her husband, Mark, and has three children, Erin (Jamie), David and Shanthi and two grandchildren, Eloise and Francis.
Some topic include:
How is Art of Invitation different from traditional understanding of hospitality?
How can you have an invitational communication style with someone you've known for a long time?
How can the Art of Invitation be taught in churches, businesses, and other settings?
What is a Crisis Intervention Team (CIT)?
How can law enforcement be better equipped in deescalation techniques?
What does healing mean to you?
Shownotes:
Art of Invitation website
Relational Values website
Kirsten Panachyda writes and speaks to infuse courage into the soul-weary. Her book Among Lions: Fighting for Faith and Finding Your Rest while Parenting a Child with Mental Illness is available now. Kirsten blogs at kirstenp.com. She and her husband Dan have two sons, and they are a roller-coaster-riding, travel-loving, blue-hair-dying family.
Some topics include:
How did she transition from being afraid of sharing family's story to having confidence to write the book?
What are some practical tips to prepare a loved one going to inpatient mental health facility?
How did Kirsten cope with son being hospitalied 2.5 hours from her home?
What is the Hope for Hurting Parents blog and support group?
What Does Healing Mean to You?
Shownotes:
Hope for Hurting Parents - Provides resources for parents hurting over destructive behaviors or choices of their teen to adult children
Among Lions: Fighting for Faith and Finding your Rest while Parenting a Child with Mental Illness
Kneeling Among Lions: Praying When Your Child has a Mental Illness
Diana Gruver (MA, Gordon-Conwell) writes about discipleship and spiritual formation in the every day. She is the author of Companions in the Darkness: Seven Saints Who Struggled with Depression and Doubt, and serves as a writer and communications director for Vere Institute. She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband and daughter.
The book highlights:
Martin LutherHannah AllenDavid BrainerdWilliam CowperCharles SpurgeonMother TeresaMartin Luther King, Jr.
Contact Diana Gruver at www.dianagruver.com or through Twitter @dianagruver and Facebook @dianagruverwriter.
Listen for a special offer in the interview for Diana to do a Zoom call with a small group who is studying Companions in the Darkness.
Some topics include:
What does healing mean to you?
Which saint did you most identify with?
In her research, did you discover many individuals who struggled with mental health?
What lessons did you learn from the people highlighted in the book?
Shownotes:
Redbud Writer's Guild - Vibrant and diverse movement of Christian women who create in community and who influence culture and faith
Vere Institute - Empowers church leaders to cultivate whole life disciples of Christ for everyday Kingdom impact.
I am Greta - Documentary (2020) - The story of teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg is told through compelling, never-before-seen footage in this intimate documentary from Swedish director Nathan Grossman
Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary
Eli Perez serves as the convener of NEXUS – a collaborative group that is working to bridge gaps in mental health to support women, youth, and individuals coming into contact with the justice system. NEXUS, which stands for Neuroscience Experts and Cross-Sector Unconventional Stakeholders, aims to bring together diverse groups of people to share ideas and create new solutions in mental health. NEXUS is powered by Otsuka America Pharmaceutical, Inc.
Eli serves as the Director of Patient Advocacy and Stakeholder Management at Otsuka, focusing on mental health and other CNS conditions. Eli began working in patient advocacy in order to bring his professional work closer to the communities he serves. Eli’s vision for his work is to make new connections, drive collaboration, and create solutions that address unmet needs in “patient” advocacy and professional communities.
When he’s not at work, Eli enjoys playing golf badly and watching sci-fi movies with his family. He lives in New Jersey with his wife and three kids.
Some Topics Include:
Who are some of the "unconventional" stakeholders in Nexus?
Why are Women, Youth, and Justice System the three focus areas of Nexus?
How is Nexus involved in promoting prevention?
How did Nexus pivot change its communication strategy during the pandemic?
What does healing mean to you?
Learn more at the Nexus Website
The animating question of Revealing Voices is “What does healing mean to you?”
Tony and Eric have explored a wide diversity of responses to this question from our guests over the last 3 years. You will hear the voices of 15 different people in this episode, ranging from a Mental health Peer Counselor to Pastor to Landscape Architect.
As Tony and i introduce each of the highlights, we will reference the episode where you can find the full interview.
If you are interested in hearing highlights from Season 1, listen to Episode 29.
This is part 2 with Sibyl Towner. We had so much fun with her and forgot to ask her our key question, "What does healing mean to you?" This episode focuses on her response to that question.
The episode begins with my conversation with her the day after our original interview (Tony was not in studio). The second half of the episode has our reflections, since we did not share on Episode 41.
Shownotes:
The Spring Retreat Center in Oldenburg, IN
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard
Writing Wild; Women Poets, Ramblers, and Mavericks Who Shape How We See The Natural World by Kathryn Aalto
See Episode 41 for Shownotes on Thomas Merton, Richard Rohr, and Henri Nouwen
Sibyl Towner has a passion to help people identify the voice of God that is within them and to encourage a responsiveness to that voice. She has over 50 years of experience in extended household living as well as decades of pastoral leadership positions at College Hill Presbyterian Church in Cincinnati and Willow Creek Community Church in Chicago. Noted for welcoming and listening across the ages and appreciating the gift of both men and women, she delights in creating a sacred and safe space to meet with God and others.
She currently serves as a co- director of The Springs Christian Retreat Center where she teaches a two-year certificate program for Spiritual Direction through the School of Sustainable Faith. She is co- founder of One Life Maps and co-author of Listen to my Life, a tool for recognizing and responding to God in your life.
Sibyl received training through The Sustainable Faith of School of Spiritual Direction and has served for ten years as a spiritual director at The Transforming Center. She is knowledgeable in the Enneagram.
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Some topics include:
How does The Springs Retreat Center uniquely support pastors who are struggling with burnout?
What is the arc of her ministry that led to becoming co-director at The Springs?
How does Sibyl define spiritual mentoring and how does she practice it?
How has she used her understanding of the Enneagram in her own life?
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Shownotes:
The Springs Retreat Center - Sibyl's retreat center near Oldenburg, IN (halfway between Cincinnati and Indianapolis)
One Life Maps - Sibyl's personal growth and spiritual mentoring website
Abbey of Gethsemani, Thomas Merton's abbey - location of important spiritual development for Sibyl
Enneagram Institute - Sibyl briefly touches on her use of Enneagram in her mentoring practice and personal development
Return of the Prodigal Son by Henri Nouwen
Everything Belongs by Richard Rohr
Prodigal God by Tim Keller
Eric and Tony discuss Tony's new book, When Despair Meets Delight: Stories to Cultivate Hope for Those Battling Mental Illness. The book is a memoir of a minister with a mental illness and model for mental health ministry. Autographed copies can currently be ordered at Tony's website: www.whendespairmeetsdelight.com. On October 1, copies will be available on Amazon.
Shownotes:
Tony's first book is Delight in Disorder: Ministry, Madness, Mission
me and White Supremacy book by Layla F. Saad - Eric is reading with his men's group
Bee City USA - National initiative by the Xerces Society for cities and campuses to actively plant native wildflowers and support life of bees, butterflies, and other pollinators
A blog post by Tony honoring the life of his father, Veston E Roberts
Rachel Kavathe is an artist, landscape architect, and city planner. Her work focuses on creative placemaking and site-specific art installations. Her studio is located in Columbus, Indiana.
Rachel has over 15 years of experience working with communities to create, enhance, and celebrate the genius loci, or spirit of a place. Her work ranges in scale from community-wide master planning and public space design, to public art installations, and environmental art.
Her business can be found at www.locicreativellc.com.
Since 2017, Rachel and Eric have been working on creating "Pollinator Parks" in Columbus, IN with a focus on Blackwell Park and Pleasant Grove.
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Some topics include:
What childhood experiences helped shape her passion for environmental advocacy?
How can an individual proactively advocate for the environment and reduce negative impacts of climate change?
How has public support changed in relation to investing in parks and using native plants?
What vision does Rachel have for future work projects related to wellness?
What does healing mean to you?
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Shownotes:
Just Mercy movie
Central Park 5 documentary
Friends of Pollinator Parks Facebook Group - Rachel and Eric started this group in Columbus to encourage people to invest in parks and use native wildflowers in public and private landscapes
Rachel's #100daysofsculpture Instagram project
Eric's #100plantproject Instagram project
Rachel's blog (coming soon) at www.ideasonnature.com
From pandemic to protest. 2020 has been a difficult year. We seek spiritual leadership. During this time, Tony and I look to the healing words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
This eulogy was given in 1963 following a bombing at 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. "They were discussing the eternal meaning of love", he says, reflecting on the girls last moments within the walls of the church.
A timeline of the events leading up the event was summarized in a 2019 in a CNN article:
September 15, 1963 - A bomb blast at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, kills four African-American girls during church services. At least 14 others are injured in the explosion, including Sarah Collins, the 12-year-old sister of victim Addie Mae Collins, who loses an eye.Three former Ku Klux Klan members are eventually convicted of murder for the bombing.
Victims:Addie Mae Collins, 14Denise McNair, 11Carole Robertson, 14Cynthia Wesley, 14
September 15, 1963 - - Riots break out, and two African-American boys, Virgil Ware, 13, and Johnny Robinson, 16, are also killed. In all, at least 20 people are injured from the initial bombing and the ensuing riots.- Alabama Governor George Wallace sends 500 National Guardsmen and 300 state troopers to the city. The next day, they are joined by 500 police officers and 150 sheriffs' deputies.
September 16, 1963 - President John F. Kennedy responds by saying, "If these cruel and tragic events can only awaken that city and state - if they can only awaken this entire nation to a realization of the folly of racial injustice and hatred and violence, then it is not too late for all concerned to unite in steps toward peaceful progress before more lives are lost."
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The hope embodied in this eulogy must remain in our national aspirations. We pray that we are striving to become a more just and equitable society - a core part of King's dream. It pains us that George Floyd's death is not an outlier, but only another death of people of color at the hands of the police.
A BBC article lists a timeline of deaths since Eric Garner's death by choke hold in 2014. Say their names in your thoughts and prayers, but more importantly, proactively work on behalf of those most oppressed who live in a nation desperately needing healing.
Leslie Carpenter is a serious brain disorders advocate who is working to improve quality of care for people with brain disorders all along the continuum of care locally, in the state of Iowa and in the country. She also teaches NAMI Family to Family & NAMI Provider training and is an active member of her local NAMI Johnson County Board of Directors in Iowa City, Iowa.
She and her husband, Scott, have been advocating for improvements in reimbursement rates for mental health professionals, treatment facilities, supportive community housing and ending the IMD exclusion. They have 2 children, one of whom has a Schizoaffective Disorder combined with Anosognosia.
They have witnessed just how traumatic it can be for someone with a serious brain disorder to get medical treatment, and want to work for improved collaboration between the patients and providers, and amongst the people involved at all levels of treatment.
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Leslie's Famous Snickerdoodle Recipe!!!!
3 3/4 Cups All-Purpose Baking Flour
1/2 Teaspoon Baking Soda
1/2 Teaspoon Cream of Tartar
1/2 Teaspoon Salt
1 cup softened butter
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
Oven 375 degrees. Grease a cookie sheet. Stir together flour, soda, cream of tartar, and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Beat butter for 30 seconds; add the 2 cups of sugar and beat till fluffy. Add eggs, milk, and vanilla; beat well. Add dry ingredients to mixture, beating well till well combined. Form dough into 1" balls; roll in a mixture of the 3 teaspoons sugar and cinnamon. Place balls 2" apart on a cookie sheet; flatten slightly. Bake in a 375 degree oven about 8 minutes or till light golden. Makes about 60!
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Topics Include:
Why use the term "Brain Disorder"?
What personal interactions has she had with presidential candidates in Iowa?
How can the court system support those with who struggle with their diagnosis?
What does healing mean to you?
Shownotes:
"Crazy: A Father's Search Through America's Mental Health Madness" by Pete Earley
"I'm Not Sick, I Don't Need Help" by Dr. Xavier Amador
NAMI - National Alliance on Mental Illness. There are also links to state-specific NAMI sites
Joe Biden Mental Health Platform
Next Episode:
Parenting During a Pandemic
As we press forward in these difficult days, we want to feature voices from a variety of perspectives whose life and work has been strongly impacted by this crisis. On this episode, Les Rust talks about how the virus and ensuing quarantine is impacting the ministry of faith communities.
Leslie D. Rust is a Presbyterian pastor, writer, and blogger who has a keen interest in liturgy, monastic spirituality and the mysteries of faith. Having grown up in the mountains of east Tennessee he is an avid hiker, camper, and makes and hangs out in hammocks of his own creation. He is fond of music, mirth, and at least a little bit of mayhem. He can be found blogging at characterinthemaking.com .
On this day before Easter, Tony and Eric want to acknowledge the pain experienced across the globe during this Lent season. On Ash Wednesday (February 26), social distancing and quarantines were not yet being discussed in America. Over the 40 days of Lent, we have gained more empathy for the physical, economic, social, and psychological pain created by the coronavirus.
Shownotes:
Tony pays homage to his favorite singer-song writer, John Prine, who died earlier this week.
To follow Eric's 100 Day Project on Instagram, search "#100plantproject". It's the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day on April 22!
Jen Riddle and Susan Lockwood-Roberts are guest hosts on this very special episode of Revealing Voices. Be prepared to have a different side of Tony and Eric "revealed" by their beautiful wives.....
“The function of prayer is not to influence God, but rather to change the nature of the one who prays.” ― Soren Kierkegaard
Prayer is not a business transaction between a dispassionate producer and a pleading consumer. Prayer is a conversation within a relationship of love.
A prayer of St. Francis of Assisi and the Jewish Shema bookend this episode on prayer. Praying in silence, with song, in nature, with groans, in anxiety, and for others are all discussed.
Our response to the coronavirus is to create more episodes related to the intersection of faith and mental health. As we all seek out new ways to connect with each other, Tony and Eric will continue to pursue intimate, relevant conversation.
On this episode listen for:
How to prepare and not panic?
How do we take care of our mental health with additional stress related to coronavirus?
How do we reach out to others despite our physical isolation?
How do we worship when not going to a physical location?
3 Ways to Respond - Create, Consume, Connect
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Tony reads a portion of this poem at the end of the podcast. It touches on the zeitgeist at this moment in world history.
Lockdown by Brother Richard Hendrick:
Yes there is fear.
Yes there is isolation.
Yes there is panic buying.
Yes there is sickness.
Yes there is even death.
But,
They say that in Wuhan after so many years of noise
You can hear the birds again.
They say that after just a few weeks of quiet
The sky is no longer thick with fumes
But blue and grey and clear.
They say that in the streets of Assisi
People are singing to each other
across the empty squares,
keeping their windows open
so that those who are alone
may hear the sounds of family around them.
They say that a hotel in the West of Ireland
Is offering free meals and delivery to the housebound.
Today a young woman I know
is busy spreading fliers with her number
through the neighbourhood
So that the elders may have someone to call on.
Today Churches, Synagogues, Mosques and Temples
are preparing to welcome
and shelter the homeless, the sick, the weary
All over the world people are slowing down and reflecting
All over the world people are looking at their neighbours in a new way
All over the world people are waking up to a new reality
To how big we really are.
To how little control we really have.
To what really matters.
To Love.
So we pray and we remember that
Yes there is fear.
But there does not have to be hate.
Yes there is isolation.
But there does not have to be loneliness.
Yes there is panic buying.
But there does not have to be meanness.
Yes there is sickness.
But there does not have to be disease of the soul
Yes there is even death.
But there can always be a rebirth of love.
Wake to the choices you make as to how to live now.
Today, breathe.
Listen, behind the factory noises of your panic
The birds are singing again
The sky is clearing,
Spring is coming,
And we are always encompassed by Love.
Open the windows of your soul
And though you may not be able
to touch across the empty square,
Sing
Ray Lay is a US Marine and person living with a dual diagnosis and is a member of three statewide boards. NAMI Indiana, Indiana Balance of State and Indiana Mental Illness Advisor Council. He is married and an Indiana Certified Specialist and VA Peer Support Specialist
Ray Lay is the first peer recovery specialist that we have interviewed. He shares a vast depth of lived experience that he utilizes in both one-on-one coaching and many public speaking engagements.
Ray Lay and Tony originally met during an "In Our On Voices" NAMI presentation.
Topics Include:
What is your role with NAMI?
As a Marine veteran, what experience has he had with the VA hospital system?
How did you transition out of homelessness?
What is Whole Health Action Management (WHAM)?
What does healing mean to you?
Shownotes:
Martin Luther King Jr Memphis Speech - "I've Been to the Mountaintop"
Coronavirus Tracker through Johns Hopkins Hospital - Prayers for China and all who are affected
Derek Henderson Obituary - Tony and Eric discuss the local tragedy involving in Columbus, IN.
NAMI Indiana Staff and Board of Directors - Ray Lay is on the Board
Next Episode:
Our wives, Susan Lockwood-Roberts and Jen Riddle, do a podcast takeover!
After a productive brainstorm on a cold January afternoon, Tony and Eric share updates about the upcoming season.
In the next month, we plan to gather listener feedback to choose relevant topics and help us craft questions for our guests.
For Tony's Delight in Disorder subscribers, we are excited for you to hear the voice of the man whose writing you have grown to appreciate.
First episode will release on Thursday, March 5.
Bryon Ross is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker who graduated from Indiana University in 1985. He has served diverse populations, including a program to rehabilitate sexual offenders. He now works as a therapist for a publicly funded clinic. There he serves people facing a wide range of mental health issues, including depression, anxiety, and symptoms related to bipolar disorder. He identifies not as a Christian Counselor, but as a therapist who is a Christian.
Topics Include:
What is the difference between mental healthcare and behavioral health care?
How can people "interview" their therapist?
How do you effectively discuss faith in a publicly funded clinic?
What is a remarkable healing story from your professional counseling experience?
What role does forgiveness play in mental health?
What does healing mean to you?
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Shownotes:
Yoga with Goats- Eric has done yoga for years, but never with goats
San Antonio River Walk - Tony visited on most recent honeymoon
Columbus Tree Canopy Partners - Eric planning a tree planting project for 50th Anniversary of Earth Day on April 22, 2020
Sepeedeh or “Sepee” Zabala is a working mother of two who moved to Berkeley, California in 1993 as a Christian missionary. Raised an atheist by Iranian parents who immigrated to the U.S in the sixties, she was baptized in a horse trough in a living room in Washington, D.C. while attending college. Her spiritual journey continues, now a tapestry of proven practices that allow healing, health and well-being while communing with like-minded believers of no particular faith or denomination.
Sepee is a member of The Stability Network, publicly speaking about her experiences with Bipolar, Depression and Addiction. She has advocated in Alameda County’s education and health systems for children and teens suffering brain health symptoms along with the challenges navigating school, adolescence, and relationships. She hopes to continue to advocate for young people, as well as for adults like herself who greatly benefit from employer support and workplace safety.
Sepee graduated from Georgetown’s Walsh School of Foreign Service in 1993 where she studied International Affairs and Theology. For the last 14 years she’s worked at a leading global financial firm.
Topics include:
How did her family of origin react to her mental health struggles?
How has faith supported her mental health?
What work accomodation did she request?
How has The Stability Network supported her mental health advocacy work?
What does healing mean to you?
--
Shownotes:
The Stability Network - Sepee and Eric are members, met at conference in 2018
Purdue University - the other Big Ten school in Indiana
Delight in Disorder - Tony's blog where you can find more details about his upcoming book, "From Despair to Delight"
Jazz - Ken Burns documentary
"What Does Healing Mean To You?" has been the animating questions for our podcast since our first episode.
With Tony out this month, Eric has organized the extended answers from our Season 1 guests.
We encourage you to listen for responses that are most meaningful to you and then find the interview in our podcast feed. Eric does preface each response with a few details of the interviewee.
We would appreciate your written response to the question by adding your thoughts at our Audience Participation link.
Jonathan L. Rohde is the Chief of Police of the Columbus (IN) Police Department. Before leading the department, he served as a Patrolman, Field Training Officer, SWAT team member, Narcotics Detective, Narcotics Detective Sergeant, and Administrative Captain.
He has a depth of experience in aligning resources within the community to compassionately serve those who struggle with addiction and mental illness.
In 2017, the city of Columbus started a community wide initiative called Alliance on Substance Abuse Progress (ASAP) to address the growing opioid epidemic. In this interview, Jon talks about his experience supporting the ASAP initiative.
He is married to Sarah and they have four children, Falesha (18), Klayton (15), Bailey (9), and Emerson (7).
Topics include:
What is role of police officers in situations where people are exhibiting signs of mental illness?
Comparing criminal justice and Biblical justice
How do chaplains support the police program?
How has the Columbus community worked together to address the opioid epidemic?
What does healing mean to you?
Shownotes:
Exhibit Columbus - Exhibit Columbus is an annual exploration of architecture, art, design, and community.
This American Life - Podcast episode titled "Ten Session" - focused on the reporter's experience of Cognitive Processing Therapy
Tony's article in local newspaper - A response to mass shootings in Dayton, Ohio and El Paso, TX
Emotional Survival for Law Enforcement by Dr. Kevin Gilmartin
Paul Currington is a storyteller and former comic. He hosts and produces one of Seattle’s longest-running storytelling shows Fresh Ground Stories. As a member of The Stability Network, he uses stories and humor to help people talk about mental illness
Visit the Fresh Ground Stories blog here.
Deborah Geesling, founder of P82 Project Restoration, has a heart for those with serious mental illness. Her family experience has given insight into the serious gaps in the mental health system.
As her advocacy developed, she readily identified housing as being one of the top barriers to obtaining a life with dignity. P82 Project Restoration is an organization created to fulfill the dream of opening a Christ centered home for people who suffer with chronic mental illness.
Her advocacy work has led her to speak at conferences, testify on government panels, and be mentioned in a number of publications.
Tony knows her personally through the Advocates for People with Mental Illness Facebook group.
Topics include:
How has her son's mental illness impacted her faith development?
How did her advocacy develop?
What is the mission of P82 Project Restoration?
What does healing mean to you?
Shownotes:
P82 Project Restoration - Deborah's organization
Clearing in the Distance by Witold Rybczynski - book Eric mentioned about landscape architect, Frederick Law Olmsted
Advocates for People with Mental Illness Facebook group - Tony and Deborah participate in this active conversation
Tony and Eric have one-on-one discussion on the Wounded Warriors Project and an experience Eric had with his father around Father's Day.
The episode features insights from over 100 responses to "What Does Healing Mean to You?" from the 2018 Heartland Conference. Themes emerged from the responses, framing healing as:
AcceptanceRestorationWholenessFreedomPeace
Shownotes:
Tribe by Sebastian Junger. Eric discusses in context of soldier's returning from tours of duty
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Next Episode:
Deborah Gleesing from P82 Project Restoration
Cameron has been an attorney since 1984. Cam is on the other side of the abyss of a major depressive episode in 2013, feeling better in many ways than he ever has. The Founder and CEO of Stout Heart, Inc., a 501c3, Cam speaks publicly to students, professionals, church congregations, and other groups about his resilient recovery from severe depression, and his seven years of sobriety.
Cam’s timely message is simple and powerful: Mental health conditions are just that, health conditions, not weaknesses. They are not our fault, and there is tremendous hope for ongoing recovery and effective management of these challenges.
Cam discusses ways to identify and address mental health and addiction issues in the workplace, in schools and in places of worship.
Cam is married and a very proud father of two adult children.
Topics include:
What was his experience growing up with a father who was alcoholic?
What role has Stout Heart, Inc in supporting other lawyers and students?
Forming "SEAL" teams- Supportive, Energizing, and Loving- to help maintain mental health
Describes how Electoconvulsive Therapy (ECT) helped him through a time of severe depression
What does healing mean to you?
Shownotes:
Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation - Drug and Alcohol Rehabilitation
Stout Heart, Inc. - Cam's Non-Profit
The Stability Network - Mental health advocacy group where Cam and Eric met
Listening to Prozac - The landmark book about antidepressants and the remaking of the self (1997)
Next Episode:
Tony and I discuss responses they received from over 100 people to the question: "What Does Healing Mean to You?"
Should we promote mental health or combat mental illness?
Can we do both?
In this bonus episode, Eric and Tony engage in critical dialogue about the purpose and priorities of mental health advocacy. Eric leans more in the direction of such groups as Mental Health America promoting mental health by combating stigma, as represented in this quote:
This year marks Mental Health America's 70th year celebrating Mental Health Month! In 2019 we are expanding upon last year’s theme of #4Mind4Body and taking it to the next level, as we explore the topics of animal companionship (including pets and support animals), spirituality, humor, work-life balance, and recreation and social connections as ways to boost mental health and general wellness. (from the Mental Health America, May newsletter)
Tony, on the other hand, sides squarely with groups and individuals who believe the best, and perhaps only way to promote well-being is to combat serious mental illness through improved treatment and rigorous research.
May is being celebrated as Mental Health Awareness Week or Month (MHAW or MHAM). In celebration, well-intentioned advocates are hosting events they think reduce the “stigma” of mental illness. But they are inadvertently perpetuating it...... MHAW public service announcements never feature the homeless psychotic, eating out of garbage cans, sleeping in cardboard homes, and living with festering wounds under layer after layer of filthy clothes, or those locked behind bars or in institutions. Why? The stigma advocates fear that showing the most seriously ill will create stigma. But trying to gain sympathy for mental illness by only displaying the highest functioning, is like trying to gain support for ending hunger by only showing the well-fed. (from "Why I Don't Celebrate Mental Health Month" by DJ Jaffe) Jaffe is Executive Director of Mental Illness Policy Org., and author of Insane Consequences: How the Mental Health Industry Fails the Mentally Ill.
Which side are you on? Is it possible to be on both? How can we learn from each other? Listen and see.
Dawn Adams is the Community Relations Director with Food 4 Souls. Her focus is on researching and aligning resources that allow Food 4 Souls to assist those who are ready to move into a life beyond homelessness. She is also responsible for cultivating donor partnerships, working with individuals in recovery and working with local organizations, churches and youth programs for community outreach projects.
When she is not working, she enjoys traveling, visiting the local coffee shop and spending time outside with her dog. Dawn currently resides in Fisher's, IN with her husband and twin girls and attends Heartland Church.
Topics include:
What led her to making the decision to work full time in ministry to the homeless?
How does she handle referrals to mental healthcare providers?
How has her perception of the homeless changed over her 7 years in ministry?
How has working with homeless helped Dawn heal?
What does healing mean to you?
Shownotes:
Key Ministry - Inclusion Fusion Conference - Conference Tony attended
Friends of Pollinator Parks - Eric's Pollinator Park Facebook group
Brighter Days - Homeless shelter in Columbus, IN
Next Episode:
Cameron Stout from Stout Heart, Inc.
Kevin Moore is the Director of the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration, Division of Mental Health and Addiction (DMHA). He was appointed Director on January 1, 2012, and leads the public mental health and addiction treatment system.
He was appointed after serving as Assistant Director for DMHA for 2 years, directly supervising the operations at each of the state psychiatric hospitals as they integrated the values and goals of the recovery model.
Kevin worked 24 years with the Department of Correction in a variety of direct service and administrative positions.
Topics include:
How has his job changed since the opioid epidemic became a national problem?
How does he balance his twin responsibilities of supporting mental health and addiction treatment?
Is addiction a mental illness?
How do you bridge the divide between church and state in encouraging support from the faith community?
What does healing mean to you?
Next Episode:
Dawn Adams from Food 4 Souls ministry in Indianapolis, IN
Enjoy our first Healing Stories episode, featuring our guest from episode 22, Amie Carey.
Amie does an excellent job modeling the personal storytelling that we want to be the trademark of Healing Stories.
For more on Amie, her podcast "A Girl I Know", and her advocacy efforts, please find her at www.agirliknow.org
Welcome to Season 2 of Revealing Voices!
Amie Carey is a mother of 3 from NYC who is passionate about changing the conversation around child and adolescent mental health. She has been an advocate for families in crisis for about 5 years. Amie wrote a blog about her family's experience which then morphed into a podcast called "A Girl I Know" to share her story with a broader audience.
Her oldest daughter, Violet, has struggled with behavioral challenges from a very young age. It has changed her perspective on children, mental health, and stigma.
The decision for Violet to participate in wilderness therapy and the impact it has had on the family is the focus of the episode.
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Topics include:
Describe the experience of wilderness therapy for adolescents.
How did family and friends respond to decision for Violet to participate in this form of therapy?
What changes has Amie witnessed in Violet after her wilderness experience?
Why did Amie decide to start a podcast?
How was the decision made with Violet to share the family's story publically?
What does healing mean to you?
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Shownotes:
NATSAP - National Association of Therapeutic Schools and Programs
Second Nature Wilderness Family Therapy
"The Journey of the Heroic Parent" book by Brady M. Reedy. One of Amie's favorite books on parenting.
"On Writing: A Memoir on the Craft" by Stephen King. Mentioned as an excellent book about creativity
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Next Episode: Kevin Moore, Director of State of Indiana's Division of Mental Health and Addiction (DMHA)
We have settled into our new studio and are preparing for Season 2 to kickoff on Thursday, March 7. Join us for this quick announcement about adding a new "Healing Stories" format to our podcast feed!
Highlights from guest interviews and whimsical outtakes from the year bookend this episode. Tony and Eric share their highs and lows from the season, as wells as hopes for the future of the podcast.
We thank all of our listeners for your support over the course of 2018. Look for season 2 to start in March 2019.
As we have asked each of our guests, we also encourage you to consider, "What does healing mean to you?"
Dr. Susan Lockwood, author of “Kicked to the Curb: Where Policy has Failed our Most Vulnerable Youth and the Fight for a Better Tomorrow,” discusses her new book scheduled for release in December 2018.
She is the former Director of Juvenile Education at the Indiana Department of Correction, where she retired after 17 years as a special education teacher and state-wide school administrator.
Currently, she is the owner of Nexus Point Consulting, LLC, specializing in correctional education and workforce development, and the Director of Education Strategy for American Prison Data Systems, PBC.
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Topics include:
How does she advocate for change in the criminal justice system?
Why did she choose "Kicked to the Curb" as the title to her book?
What is her experience of the integration of mental healthcare in the prison system?
What is an example of hope and resilience?
What does healing mean to you?
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Shownotes:
Indiana Persimmon Pudding Recipe
The Stability Network - Eric is a member of this professional organization that empowering people to share their stories of living successfully with a mental health diagnoses
Nexus Point Consulting - Susan Lockwood's consulting business. You can contact Susan through this website
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Next Episode:
Season Finale! Tony and Eric discuss the highs and lows of season 1, share some of the bloopers, and discuss their growing confidence as a podcasting duo.
Tony and Eric were keynote speakers at the Heartland: Best Practices for Ministries Conference . This episode is a live recording from the event. The focus is on development of the Faithful Friends Mental Health Ministry and the Revealing Voices podcast.
The keynote address was given on October 10, World Mental Health Day.
This is our first podcast release not in our standard 45 minute format.
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Next Episode:
We will be back in studio E for Episode 20 with Dr. Susan Lockwood. Her book, "Kicked to the Curb", focuses on youth in the criminal justice system. It will be released on December 4.
Author, Blogger, and Podcast host Brandon Andress joins us in studio. Brandon's new book, "Beauty in the Wreckage: Finding Peace in the Age of Outrage", focuses on the redemption of suffering. Listen for Brandon's humility as he shares his personal stories of finding gratitude, healing, and community in some of life's most difficult moments.
Brandon is also author of "Unearthed: How Discovering the Kingdom of God Will Transform the Church and Change the World" (2010) and the tongue-in-cheek "And Then The End Will Come” (2013).
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Some topics include:
How do we transform our suffering?
How did the grief he experienced during writing impact the book?
How do spiritual disciplines lead to healing?
What does healing mean to you?
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Shownotes:
Video Introduction to "Beauty in the Wreckage"
"Beauty in the Wreckage: Finding Peace in the Age of Outrage" main website
Brandon Andress Personal Website
Brandon's Outside The Walls Podcast
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Next Episode:
Tony and Eric live recording at the Heartland 2018 Best Practices Conference
Want to join a consortium of 12,000 mental health advocates? Listen to Bob Mills, Founder of Minds Renewed, discuss the mission of his ambitious organization. The goal of the organization is to become the most valuable web platform for evaluating, curating, and communicating the best mental health information on the web.
The origins began in 2001 in a mental health ministry that Bob started at 1st Presbyterian Church in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Bob's desire to honor God through serving the suffering grew out of his own experience with bouts of depression and bipolar disorder.
Some topics include:
What is the leadership structure of his mental health group ministry?
What has led to the growth of Minds Renewed?
What are some good models that he has identified through his networking?
What does healing mean to you?
Shownotes:
Mental Health Grace Alliance - ministry that provides mental health resources for families and individuals suffering with mental health struggles
Fresh Hope for Mental Health - Pastor Brad Hoefs is a podcast host and developer of a mental health group ministry model
The Stability Network - Mental health advocacy organization that helps employers, communities, and the public recognize that people with mental health conditions are their friends, neighbors and colleagues who can—and do—lead successful lives.
Author and Mental Health Podcast Host of "Waking Up Bipolar", Chris Cole, walks us through his vision of a more person-centered, holistic, compassionate mental healthcare system. Chris re-appropriates language to describe mental illness. For example, he describes his personal journey with "bipolar order". His podcast focuses on the intersection of bipolar disorder and spiritual awakening.
Chris's podcast, blog, and Cole Coaching website is www.colecoaching.com. There are multiple references in the episode to his blog post Re-appropriating Bipolar Beyond Pathology.
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Some of the topics covered in the show include:
What is his life experience with "Bipolar Order"?
How can the mental healthcare system care for individuals suffering with severe mental illness?
Who are some of the best coaches in his life?
What does healing mean to you?
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Shownotes:
Chris Cole's book: The Body of Chris: A Memoir of Obsession, Addiction, and Madness
Podcast Facebook Page: Waking Up Bipolar (with video editions of his podcast)
Tony and Eric will be key note speakers at Best Practices for Ministry: Heartland 2018. If you live near Columbus, IN please consider joining us on Wednesday, October 10 at St. Peter's Lutheran Church
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Next Episode:
Bob Mills, President and CEO of Minds Renewed
Leader of a Facebook group with nearly 20,000 members, Laura Pogliano has the unique experience of professionally working with Johns Hopkins and personally serving her son who suffered from mental illness. Laura shares her passion for advocacy, putting it into the context of a social justice movement.
Laura's Facebook group is Advocates for People with Mental Illnesses.
Laura's Non-profit is Parentsforcare.org.
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Some of the topics include:
How does her non-profit help caregivers?
How has the church shaped her family's life experience?
What are drawbacks of the "Recovery Model" in mental healthcare system?
How does HIPAA impact families?
What does healing mean to you?
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Show notes:
Lars and the Real Girl
Treatment Advocacy Center of Virginia
Video of Laura at John's Hopkins
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Next Show:
Chris Cole, Podcast Host of "Waking Up Bipolar"
Faithful Friends mental health wellness ministry model is the focus. Kim Graves and Diana Starkey, who lead the weekly ministry with Tony and Eric, help model the typical flow of the group.
Below is the format of the 7:00 - 8:30 PM ministry hosted every Tuesday night at The Living Room in Columbus, IN:
Opening Prayer | Announcements | Foundational Scripture | Introductions | Guidelines | Scripture | Accountability Check | Wellness Topic | Minute of Gratitude | Sharing | Closing Prayer
If you are interested in learning more about this ministry model, please reach out to Eric (eric.r.riddle@gmail.com) or Tony (tonyrobertsdelight@gmail.com)
Faithful Friends has met every Tuesday since starting in November 2014.
Christianity and Mental Health's intersection is the defining characteristic of Robert's Vore's podcast, CXMH. The podcast, started in January 2017, released its 45th episode this week. Robert had taken a "Podternity" leave while enjoying life as a first time father this year, but will be launching season 3 this fall.
On this episode, Robert discusses balancing the podcast with a new career in mental health counseling. He finished graduate school in July!
Some of the topics include:
What was the tipping point that led Robert to focus on mental health?
When did he decide to self disclose his own diagnosis? What impact did it have?
What vision does he have for his personal counseling career?
What is his perspective on the peer recovery movement?
What does healing mean to you?
Ways to reach Robert:
CXMH Podcast website
Robert Vote on Facebook
Robert Vore on Twitter
Donate to Robert through Patreon
Join Patreon to become a CXMH Facebook community member
Next Episode: Diana Starkey and Kim Grave join Tony and Eric in studio to discuss the Faithful Friends Mental Health Wellness ministry
Eric Riddle discusses his book, "Watershed: Service in the Wake of Disaster". Learn what Watershed Philanthropy means to Eric.
We hope you enjoy a little "behind the scenes" listening in this unedited episode!
With summer coming to an end, we will be transitioning back into an interview format for Episode 13. We will welcome Robert Vore, podcast host of the CXMH podcast. We are excited to learn more about Robert's evolving ministry at the intersection of faith and mental health.
Tony Roberts discusses his book "Delight in Disorder". We go deeper into Tony's writing process and how writing has impacted his ministry.
It is summer and we decided to record 2 unedited sessions. Enjoy a few more "umms" and "ahhs" and perhaps a few awkward silences.
Next episode will focus on how Eric's ministry has developed since a major flood impacted Columbus, IN in 2008.
Thank you to all our listeners. We look forward to bringing you more interviews starting with episode 13!
Today's focus is art therapy. Eric's sister, Maria Riddle, graduated in 2017 from the Master's in Art Therapy program at IUPUI in Indianapolis. Maria discusses the process of integrating art into more traditional methods of therapy.
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Some of the topics include:
How has your art supported your personal wellness?
When did you decide to pursue art as a career?
Examples of art therapy process in a clinical setting
What was it like growing up with Eric?
What does healing mean to you?
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Shownotes:
Tribe by Sebastian Junger
American Art Therapy Association
IUPUI Art Therapy Program
Maria Riddle email: maria.riddle@centerstone.org
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Next Episode: Tony Robert's discusses his book, Delight in Disorder, and the benefits of writing. Unedited with Eric!
Wanting to dialogue on the recent suicides of Anthony Bourdain and Kate Spade, we interview Pastor Sarah Griffith Lund. Sarah has been speaking publicly about the intersection of faith and mental wellness since releasing "Blessed are the Crazy: Breaking the Silence About Mental Illness, Family and Church" (Chalice Press) in 2014.
Sarah is the Senior Minister at First Congregational Church of Christ in Indianapolis, IN.
She received the Bob and Joyce Dell Award for Mental Health Education from the United Church of Christ Mental Health Network in 2015 for "her outstanding authorship and leadership in breaking the silence about mental illness in family and in church and offering healing and hope."
Some of the topics include:
How did growing up in a home affected by mental illness impact her faith?
What are some protective factors to prevent suicide?
What was her experience being chaplain for her cousin's execution and death?
How will her personal ministry be carried into her new senior minister role?
What does healing mean to you?
Show Notes:
Sarah's Website and Blog: www.sarahgriffithlund.com
First Congregational Church of Indianapolis: www.fcindy.org
Sip of Hope Coffee Bar (Chicago): www.sipofhope.com
The Life Saving Church: Faith Communities and Suicide Prevention by Rachael Keefe
John Prine's New Album: The Tree of Forgiveness
Columbus, IN 10 Year Flood Anniversary Event!
On this episode, we interview Kelcey Rockhold. She is an Oregon native, currently living in the Arizona desert with her family. Kelcey works as a freelance editor, and when she isn’t blogging, baking, or laughing at “The Office,” she can usually be found connecting with others in conversation (usually over coffee and pastries.)
We talk with Kelcey about her experience with intensive psychiatric treatment, recovering from an eating disorder, and finding the hope of Christ through faith, family, and freedom from the cultural disorders around body image. Some of the topics include:
What is the experience like going through different diagnoses in a short period of time?
What was the impact of being keynote speaker at "Shattering Stigma with Stories" Conference in 2014?
How did your pregnancy impact your mental health?
What is intuitive eating and how has nutrition impacted your mental health?
What does healing mean to you?
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Kelcey's work can be found at Writings from the Raven's Desk: A Journey of Healing and Hope.
Kelcey is on Instagram: @Awayinthewild
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As always, you can find much more at www.revealingvoices.com.
On this episode, Tony interviews co-host, Eric Riddle. In this interview, Eric and Tony discuss unconditional love, haiku, "bipolar order", wearing a banana suit, Faithful Friends ministry, and many other topics.
Some of the questions include:
What is peer recovery?
How did you disclose your diagnosis to your children?
What does it mean to have a mood disorder?
Why did you wear a banana suit?
What does healing mean to you?
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As always, you can find much more at www.revealingvoices.com.
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Eric is currently participating in #the100dayproject on Instagram. During the project, he is writing daily haikus that can be found at #hundredhaiku
Author of Watershed: Service in the Wake of Disaster, a book about the 2008 flood in his hometown of Columbus, IN.
Member of The Stability Network: www.thestabilitynetwork.org
LinkedIn Profile link
Mark Teike has served as senior pastor at St. Peter's Lutheran Church in Columbus, IN since 1992. Mark and his wife Debbie, a licensed clinical social worker who is the author of The Art of Invitation, have three grown children and one granddaughter.
Mark and Debbie grew up in Decatur, IL. Recently, Mark has become much more aware of the struggles related to mental illness and is passionate about helping individuals and congregations walk alongside those who live with a mental illness, as well as their families.
Some of the questions include:
Who inspired you to pursue pastoral ministry?
How can the faith community work with local ASAP partners to address the local opioid crisis?
How do you respond to people who spiritualize struggles with mental health?
How can the church reach out to individuals who feel isolated?
What does healing mean to you?
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Click here to learn more about the Alliance for Substance Abuse Progress (ASAP) in Bartholomew County
Marie Henning has spent her career as a Human Resources professional. In this episode, Marie takes us behind the doors of the office where crucial conversations occur, prayers are offered, and people in distress are uncommonly cared for.
Marie offers encouragement to those who face job stress and educates on the benefits offered by employers to support mental health.
Some of the questions include:
How do you support employees who are experiencing symptoms of mental illness?
Has disclosure of mental health diagnoses increased since the beginning of your career?
How have you seen stigma impact an employee's career?
What opportunities have you had to share faith and prayer?
What does healing mean to you?
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) info: https://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs28.htm
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) info:
https://adata.org/learn-about-ada
Here on episode 4, we welcome Katie R. Dale. Katie shares her unique blend of passion for recovery and humor over episodes in her past. She reveals joys and frustrations, and still comes to affirm the value of both faith and mental healthcare.
Katie addresses such questions as:
Who were your early faith inspirations? What experiences do you have in psychiatric hospitals? What is your view of pregnancy and mental health? Why did you entitle your blog Bipolar Brave?
Katie currently serves as a caseworker at a behavioral non-profit to assist and facilitate change and growth in those with mental illness. As a former behavioral inpatient and proud bipolar, she has a unique first-hand perspective on the mental healthcare system and the symptoms of mental illness.
Katie has written a memoir and maintains a website on her disorder and faith at Bipolar Brave . Her speaking engagements include guest appearances on: Psych Central; Fresh Hope For Mental Health; and, Counterpoint! With Gary Jenkins.
Katie’s writing and story has been featured in such places as: BP Magazine; The Mighty; and, Delight in Disorder.
You can also read Katie's Allegorical poem, "The Plight of Lady Manic" in our blog.
On this episode, Eric interviews co-host, Tony E. Roberts. As an avid blogger and author, Tony is comfortable revealing his journey with mental illness. In this podcast, we learn how Tony developed the confidence and calling to share the difficult intimate details that are part of his experience.
Tony shares the personal meaning of Psalm 37:4 - "Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart."
Some of the questions include:
How was Tony's pastoral career affected after being diagnosed at age 30?
What is a manic episode like?
What inspired Tony to write Delight in Disorder?
How has stigma impacted Tony's ministry?
What does healing mean to you?
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Contact Tony:
Email: tony@delightindisorder.org
Website: www.delightindisorder.org
Facebook: www.facebook.com/tonyeroberts1964
Our guest on this episode is Amy Simpson. Amy is an author, speaker, and life & leadership coach who is one of the leading Christian advocates for persons with mental illness. Her award-winning book Troubled Minds: Mental Illness an the Church’s Mission has opened many sanctuary doors to a topic largely concealed.
Listen to this interview and learn how Amy is "a gently blazing fire" of mental health advocacy.
We explore Amy’s latest book, Blessed Are the Unsatisfied: Finding Spiritual Freedom in an Imperfect World (InterVarsity Press, 2018). The book is born in large part out of her own family experience where faith and mental illness are intricately related. She then goes on to explore such crucial and, at times, excruciating questions such as:
Does Jesus really want us to be satisfied in this life?
What is her perspective on the prosperity gospel?
How does addiction relate to spiritual dissatisfaction?
How can we cultivate an unsatisfied life?
What does healing mean to you?
You can find Amy at…
email: contact@amysimpson.com
Website: www.amysimpson.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/amy.simpson.author
Twitter: @aresimpson
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aresimpson/
Instagram: amy.r.simpson
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/aresimpson/
Our guests today are Jen Riddle (Eric's wife) and April Cohen (Tony's sister). April graduated with a B.A. in Nursing from University of Indianapolis in 1997. She has worked 21 years in the field of psychiatric nursing, both in-patient and out-patient. In addition to being Tony's sister and principal caregiver, she is married to Dan Cohen. The two of them have 5 children and 5 grandchildren. Her favorite form of therapy is bargain shopping.
Jen is a recent graduate of Christian Theological Seminary in Indianapolis, IN. For nearly 15 years, she has worked with children with autism and their families. She is an elder at The Living Room non-denominational church in Columbus, IN. A native of Buffalo, she enjoyed watching the Bills NFL playoff run this year!
On this episode, Jen and April discuss what drew them into their spiritual and healing professions. April shares what it is like to care for an adult brother who has bipolar disorder, and Jen reveals how she and Eric navigate a relationship with a mental health diagnosis.
Episode 1 is less than a month away. In this release, Tony and Eric share a brief story of how they met in 2014 and what led them to the brink of Revealing Voices. There is also a sneak peak of what to look forward to in future episodes.
Behind the scenes blog posts of the podcast creation are at www.revealingvoices.com
All music in the release was produced by Tre Scott. Cover Photo produced by Ruby Reese Photography.