Contemplify: Recent Episodes
Paul Swanson | Contemplative Shoveler
The Contemplify podcast kindles the examined life through artful musings with scholars, creatives and master teachers.
Contemplify seeks to glean wisdom from master contemplatives across the ages (Thomas Merton, Simone Weil, Lao Tzu, Ralph Waldo Emerson to name a few) by those who know them best—the scholars who have devoted themselves to studying, embracing and teaching the contemplative’s life and work in the world. Interviews with creatives and master teachers shine a light forward on engaging meaning and depth through subtle, artistic means and exploring beyond the current boundaries of thought to make way for a more sustainable frontier.
Each episode delivers a subtly intoxicating* exchange on the contemplative lifestyle with practical takeaways to emulate in daily life. Contemplify gladly joins the creatives, thought leaders and scholars ringing the bell in the ivory tower for the pleasure of those robbing a moment of contemplation on the backporch.
Ring the bell. Rob the moment. Contemplify.
Host, Paul Swanson, is a husband, father and contemplative educator at the Center for Action and Contemplation's Living School**.
*Contemplify is best served with a pint in hand. Please listen responsibly.
** All shenanigans, tom foolery and bally-hoo posted on Contemplify are my own. Contemplify is not representative of the Center for Action and Contemplation or Richard Rohr on any matter.
"Andrew Krivak is a novelist, poet, and memoirist whose work has been compared to William Faulkner’s in its rich sense of place, to Wendell Berry’s in its attentiveness to natural beauty, and to Cormac McCarthy’s in its deep investigation of violence and myth. Yet all of Krivak’s writing, and especially his fiction, presents a truly singular vision."
— Image Journal
You might remember my last conversation with Andrew Krivak on his novel, The Bear. In addition to The Bear, Andrew has written a trio of books on a family lineage, beginning with The Sojourn (a National Book Award Finalist), The Signal Flame, and Like the Appearance of Horses. It is this latest book, Like the Appearance of Horses that we zero in on today. He holds a BA from St. John’s College, Annapolis; an MFA in poetry from Columbia University; an MA in philosophy from Fordham; and a PhD in literary modernism from Rutgers. Currently, Andrew is a volunteer discussion facilitator in the New Hampshire Department of Corrections Family Connections Center, and a Visiting Lecturer in Creative Writing at Harvard. He lives with his wife and three children in Somerville, Massachusetts, and Jaffrey, New Hampshire.
In our conversation we talk about the profuse and evocative layers in Andrew’s writing, the multiplicity of the journey of hero or heroine, death as a character and and much more.
Visit Andrew Krivak at andrewkrivak.com.
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"Dr. B was passionate about expanding our understanding of the Christian contemplative tradition, reminding us that contemplation isn’t the sole domain of those who can retreat to quiet places. She understood, from her own life and from the traditions she carried forward, that contemplative practices must also arise in the midst of struggle, in the heart of communities pressed against the weight of history and oppression. She helped us see that the Christian contemplative tradition, too often framed through a narrow, Eurocentric lens, was far richer and more diverse than we had realized. It’s a tradition that belongs to all of us—and she called us to honor it fully by embracing its breadth and depth"
— Brian McLaren, posted on Center for Action and Contemplation's website
Dr. Barbara Holmes served as president of United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities, as well as professor of ethics and African American religious studies. She was ordained in the Latter Rain Apostolic Holiness Church in Dallas, Texas, and has privilege of call in the United Church of Christ and recognition of ministerial standing in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). In addition to her work with law firms, Holmes has worked with homeless missions, HIV/AIDS ministries, and international ministries in Kenya (the Presbyterian Church of East Africa) and Japan. The author of numerous books including Joy Unspeakable: Contemplative Practices of the Black Church, Race and the Cosmos, and Crisis Contemplation: Healing the Wounded Village. Holmes earned an MS from Southern Connecticut University, an MDiv from Columbia Theological Seminary, a PhD from Vanderbilt University, and a JD from Walter F. George School of Law at Mercer University. Dr. B was a Core Faculty member at the Center for Action and Contemplation. Dr. B passed away on October 15, 2024.
In this 2016 episode, Barbara shares about her own contemplative lineage, reflections on the contemplative aspects of the Black Lives Matter movement, the contemplative and social impact of Kendrick Lamar and Beyoncé, and her sense of hope in the next generation.
Visit Dr. Barbara Holmes's work at drbarbaraholmes.com and her podcast The Cosmic We.
Visit Dr. B's obituary is here.
"I was recently giving a sermon and found myself spontaneously quoting from Amy Leach's singular and surprising new book. I expect many readers will find their own lives troubled (in the Biblical sense) and enlightened by her fresh perceptions. She has lived into a hard-earned and entirely credible wisdom, the best evidence for which is her irrepressible sense of humor. One feels companioned by this book, and sorry when it ends."
— Christian Wiman, author of Zero at the Bone Amy Leach grew up in Texas, lives in Montana, and earned her MFA from the Nonfiction Writing Program at the University of Iowa. Her work has appeared in The Best American Essays, The Best American Science and Nature Writing, and numerous other publications. She is a recipient of a Whiting Award in Nonfiction, a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Award, and a Pushcart Prize. Amy Leach is the author of The Everybody Ensemble, Things That Are, and her most recent work which is the focus of our conversation today, The Salt of the Universe: Praise, Songs, and Improvisations.
In our conversation Amy and I talk about leaving the tradition you were raised in, music that stirs the soul, being overchurched, salty pickles, and so much more.
Visit Contemplify.com for the show notes to this episode.
Ben Katt has worked with On Being, as an ordained minister, an advanced meditation teacher, and author. His first book, The Way Home: Discovering the Hero’s Journey to Wholeness at Midlife is a guidebook and memoir about the inner journey that calls us further in the midst of life’s busyness. Ben is the founder of the WITHIN Prison Meditation Project, serves as a hospice chaplain, and writes regularly about identity, purpose, creativity, and belonging in his weekly STILLnewsletter.
In our conversation we talk about a David Hasselhof museum, slowing down your life to catch up to it, getting quiet, relationships of depth, and much more.
Visit Ben Katt at benjaminkatt.com | IG: @akabenkatt
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"[Jeffrey Martin writes] Songs that are stark in their simplicity, yet emotionally rich in a way that can catch your breath in your throat or leave your eyes suddenly damp."
— Paste
Jeffrey Martin is a musician with a number of albums under his belt. His latest, Thank God We Left the Garden, has been playing on repeat in my house since November of last year. That is not an exaggeration. Martin’s music has been turning my soul over with each listen, airing out the space and providing sunlight on unswept corners. Melodies and turns of phrase that alter the course of my day.
In our conversation Jeffrey and I talk about his time as an English teacher, the mystery of knowing and unknowing in art, the impact of handwritten letters, and so much more.
Visit Jeffrey Martin at jeffreymartinmusic.com | IG: @jeffreymartinmusic
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“A powerful and important plunge into the reality of the mind and climate.”
— Joan Halifax, author of Being with Dying and Standing at the Edge
Susan Murphy is an Australian Zen teacher whose passionate feeling of kinship with the natural world began during her early childhood years living near the Great Barrier Reef and the Gondwanaland rainforest. A successful filmmaker, radio producer, and writer, she received dharma transmission from Ross Bolleter and John Tarrant in 2001. She leads regular retreats around Australia and teaches an Australia-wide sangha that extends internationally online. She is the author of numerous books, and most recently A Fire Runs through All Things: Zen Koans for Facing the Climate Crisis, which holds the center of this conversation.
Susan and I talk about a childhood moment of awakening, the vast meaning of the word “Country” in Australia and its ringing formation in her, the punchy joy of Zen koans, and so much more.
Visit Susan Murphy at zenopencircle.org.au
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"In Touch the Earth, Drew Jackson's poetry offers a word-weary world a new language of engagement, disruption, and insight. As with all great poetry, the words are spare, but the literary images loom large, creating indelible impressions on the reader. Like echoes that reverberate long after the first sound, the poems stay with you, they dance with your spirit. After reading the poem 'Shake the Dust,' I am still considering a much broader definition of power, one no longer confined to the monarchs, governments, and oppressors but with a conscience as sticky as cling wrap that refuses to allow its memories to be shaken loose. This collection is a meditative treasure."
— Barbara Holmes, author of Joy Unspeakable: Contemplative Practices of the Black Church and Crisis Contemplation: Healing the Wounded Village
Drew Jackson is a poet, speaker, and public theologian. He is author of God Speaks Through Wombs: Poems on God’s Unexpected Coming and Touch the Earth: Poems on The Way. His work has been widely published. Drew received his B.A. in Political Science from the Univ. of Chicago and his M.A. in Theology from Fuller Theological Seminary. He currently works as the Director of Mission Integration for the Center for Action and Contemplation, and lives in Brooklyn, NY with his wife and daughters.
In our conversation Drew and I talk about the seeds of poetry planted through the lyrical mastery of Nas as well as his immersion into sacred text, why Lucille Clifton’s poetry should explored by all, his mystical lineage and, and much more.
Visit Drew Jackson at drewejackson.com | IG: @d.jacksonpoetics
Tracy Cochran is a writer, meditation teacher, and editorial director of Parabola, an acclaimed quarterly magazine that draws on the world’s cultural and wisdom traditions to explore the questions that all humans share. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, Psychology Today, O Magazine, and New York Magazine to name a few. Her latest publication is her book Presence: The Art of Being at Home in Yourself.
In our conversation Tracy and I talk about owning the gifts and limitations of our presence, her daughter’s precocious question about Thich Nhat Hahn, the Buddha’s grief, and so much more.
Visit Tracy Cochran at tracycochran.org | IG: @tracycochran_author
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Brian D. McLaren is an author, speaker, activist, and public theologian. A former college English teacher and pastor, he is a passionate advocate for “a new kind of Christianity” – just, generous, and working with people of all faiths for the common good. He is a core faculty member and Dean of Faculty for the Center for Action and Contemplation and hosts the podcast, Learning How to See. Brian has written numerous books that you should read, and right now I recommend his latest Life After Doom: Wisdom and Courage for a World Falling Apart.
In our conversation Brian and I talk about the desire to embody urgency and patience simultaneously, the music that has formed him, complexifying hope in dire times, and so much more.
Visit Brian McLaren at brianmclaren.net | IG: @brian_mclaren
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Cassidy Hall is an author, award-winning filmmaker, podcaster, ordained minister in the United Church of Christ, and leading voice in contemplative spirituality. She is the cohost of the Encountering Silence podcast and the host of Contemplating Now and Queering Contemplation podcasts. Her latest book is Queering Contemplation, Finding Queerness in the Roots and Future of Contemplative Spirituality. Cassidy is widely published and currently resides in Indianapolis, where she is studying for her DMin degree.
In our conversation Cassidy and I talk about what drew her into contemplative spirituality and what expanded its horizons, falling head over heels with a tree, and the gift of queering contemplation, and much more.
Visit Cassidy Hall at cassidyhall.com | IG: @casshall
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Dr. Larry Ward is a senior teacher in Buddhist Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh's Plum Village tradition, the author of the book America's Racial Karma, and co-author with his wife, Peggy, of Love's Garden: A Guide To Mindful Relationships.
Dr. Ward brings forty years of international experience in organizational change and local community renewal to his work at the Lotus Institute. He holds a PhD in Religious Studies with an emphasis on Buddhism and the neuroscience of meditation, and has trained at the Trauma Resource Institute. Dr. Ward and I talk about humanity’s greatest weakness, learning from our teachers, the impact of fragrance as a teaching metaphor and so much more.
Visit Dr. Larry Ward at thelotusinstitute.org | IG: @thelotus_institute
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David James Duncan is the author of the classic novels The River Why and The Brothers K, the story collection River Teeth, the nonfiction collection and National Book Award finalist, My Story as Told by Water, the best-selling collection of “churchless sermons," God Laughs & Plays. And lest we forget his latest, and what some have called his magnum opus, Sun House.
Sun House has a reserved shelf space on my heart for the rest of my days. A winged book with scraped knee mountain poetics, spiritual charisma bathed in creek water, and characters that I am still in conversation with to this day. In our wide-ranging conversation we talk about Sun House, Meister Eckhart and the Beguines, his band of spiritual rednecks, and so much more.
Visit David James Duncan at davidjamesduncan.com
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Each solstice and equinox Contemplify offers a public Lo-Fi & Hushed contemplative practice session for both free and supporting subscribers of the Non-Required Reading List. For those interested, go tell it on the mountain…
The third week of Advent salted on joy. Not because of the circumstances, but despite them. The work remains to create the conditions for the gift of joy to emerge. The candlelight had built around the Advent wreath and solstice was breaking into a light jog. The arms of Advent and winter solstice were outstretched, reaching towards embrace. We were so close to completing the circle. Our own sweet darkness yields in a protected and patient trust. Let us welcome the gift.
Wendell Berry’s “To Know the Dark” was the vessel for the Winter Solstice Lo-Fi & Hushed Practice Session. You can follow the link to peek at the entire poem.
Welcome this dark knowing into practice. May we show up with expectation under its seamless cloak. Advent rejoices within the crackles of reality. Let us slow our pace to hear this joyful song.
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"Oshida’s life and legacy is an experience of the spiritual senses knowing the mystical voice. Biblical in sources and Buddhist in form, reading this book took me as a reader to the great pause of silence."
— Sister Meg Funk, OSB
Lucien Miller received his PhD in comparative literature from Berkely and taught Comparative Literature and Chinese at the University of Massachusetts. He is a deacon, spiritual director, and author. Lucien and I talk about his book, Jesus in the Hands of Buddha: The Life and Legacy of Shigeto Vincent Oshida, OP. Fr. Oshida taught with a clarity born of mystical devotion, bent towards right action, flowing from community. Lucien regales me with stories about Fr. Oshida; his memorable first visit traveling to Takamori Hermitage that landed him in jail, Fr. Oshida’s elemental fire-mass, the foundational difference between word-idea and word-event, and much more.
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"You do not have to be good. You do not have to walk on your knees For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting. You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves."
— 'Wild Geese' by Mary Oliver
Carmen Acevedo Butcher, PhD, is an author, teacher, poet, and award-winning translator of spiritual texts. Today Carmen and I talk about the importance of practice; chanting, lectio divina,walking meditation, poetry, drawing, and other customized pecularily particular practices. Carmen models what her practices looks, sounds, and feels like shares the impact on her life. This conversation is a reminder that in times of anguish, joy, or suffering, practices keep our heart pumping and our internal hearth fired.
Visit Carmen at carmenbutcher.com | IG: @cab_phd |
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Looking for a live practice with a dispersed community? A few options...
- Lo-Fi & Hushed Contemplative practice every Wednesday with Contemplify (virtual)
- Center for Spiritual Imagination (virtual and in-person)
Dr. Kim Haines-Eitzen is a Professor of Religious Studies with specialties in Early Christianity, Early Judaism, and other ancient Mediterranean Religions at Cornell University. Her book Sonorous Desert: What Deep Listening Taught Early Christian Monks—and What It Can Teach Us explores the dynamic relationships between ambient environmental landscapes and the religious imagination, especially in the case of desert monasticism. Dr. Haines-Eitzen was born in Jerusalem and grew up in Nazareth. Exploring the Negev and Sinai deserts in her formative years has shaped her interest in deserts and solitude. She now divides her time between the lush Finger Lakes Region of New York State and the high desert of Southeastern Arizona.
Dr. Haines-Eitzen and I talk about the Mennonite hymnal, learning to listen more deeply to our surroundings, the sounds of the desert monasticism, mediocrity, slow thinking, and practicing the cello in the dark, and much more.
Visit Kim Haines-Eitzen at kimhaineseitzen.wordpress.com
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"I highly recommend What Makes You Come Alive to churches, religious and educational institutions, and spiritual seekers everywhere who are looking for an inward journey that finds its home in the world of nature, people, and things."
— Walter Earl Fluker - Editor and Director of the Howard Thurman Papers Project
Dr. Lerita Coleman Brown is a retreat leader, speaker, spiritual companion, and professor emerita of psychology at Agnes Scott College. Professor Brown frequently speaks on contemplative spirituality and Howard Thurman. She is the author of What Makes You Come Alive: A Spiritual Walk with Howard Thurman and When the Heart Speaks, Listen: Discovering Inner Wisdom. She has been featured in PBS documentaries about Howard Thurman and the Black church. She lives in Stone Mountain, Georgia. In our conversation, Professor Brown and I talk about the life, mysticism, and work of Howard Thurman, as well as his affinity to emperor penguins. We talk about the contemplative imagination and depth of Thurman, his trust of the Spirit’s activity, and what he called “Working Papers”. Professor Brown has embodied the teachings of Howard Thurman and breathes them out in her own styling and language. More than once in this conversation, Professor Brown opened a window for me that I had painted shut. That is a rare gift.
Visit leritacolemanbrown.com
Visit contemplify.com for shownotes, NonRequired Reading List, Lo-Fi & Hushed Contemplative Practices Sessions.
Lo-Fi & Hushed is weekly space for the contemplative practice of lectio divina with poetry. This practice is graceful, transformative, and subdued. Lo-Fi & Hushed is available worldwide, on Riverside livestream, and you can participate from the hallows of your own home.
“I do not complain of suffering for love, it becomes me always to submit to her, whether she commands in storm or stillness, one can know her only in herself. This is an unconceivable wonder. Which has thus filled my heart and makes me stray in a wild desert.”
— Hadewijch of Antwerp
Visit https://contemplify.com/hushnow/ to learn more.
"David Shumate's High Water Mark is absolutely fresh and unpredictable. . . . You will be surprised by your confrontation with the utterly first rate."
— Jim Harrison
David Shumate is the author of The Floating Bridge and High Water Mark, winner of the 2003 Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize. His poetry has appeared widely in literary journals and has been anthologized in Good Poems for Hard Times, The Best American Poetry and The Writer’s Almanac. Shumate is poet-in-residence at Marian University and lives in Zionsville, Indiana. David and I talk about poems that surprise you, the elemental essence that gardening, cooking, contemplation, poetry share, what it means to follow the brush, culturing of wisdom is at the heart of the arts, and much more. David also reads a few of his poems including one of my all-time favorites, “Teaching a Child the Art of Confession”.
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Douglas E. Christie, Ph.D., is Professor of Theological Studies at Loyola Marymount University. He is author of The Word in the Desert: Scripture and the Quest for Early Christian Monasticism; The Blue Sapphire of the Mind: Notes for a Contemplative Ecology; and The Insurmountable Darkness of Love: Mysticism, Loss and the Common Life. He is the founding editor of the journal Spiritus and served as co-director of the Casa de la Mateada Program in Córdoba, Argentina from 2013-2015. Doug and I talk about why the poetic and apophatic theology of Hadejwich of Antwerp and Jan Van Ruusbroec might be important for our times, incarnational risk and AI, kindness as a spiritual practice and much more.
Listen to Doug's first appearance on Contemplify here.
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Carmen Acevedo Butcher, PhD, is an author, teacher, poet, and award-winning translator of spiritual texts. If I had to pick a favorite, it would be Brother Lawrence’s Practice of the Presence. Her dynamic work around the evolution of language and the necessity of just and inclusive language has garnered interest from various media, including the BBC and NPR’s Morning Edition. A Carnegie Foundation Professor of the Year and Fulbright Senior Lecturer, Acevedo Butcher teaches at the University of California, Berkeley, in the College Writing Programs. Carmen and I talk about the mystics that allure, the noetic power of language, necessity of compassion and so much more.
Visit contemplfiy.com for shownotes.
Lisa Wells is an author, poet, and co-founder of a small, nonprofit press based in Seattle, Washington called Letter Machine Editions. Her latest work is Believers: Making a Life at the End of the World. In Believers Lisa locates folks who meet the climate catastrophe with a fierce and loving gaze, with their sights on restoring humanity’s relationship with the planet as best they can. With a poetic and engaging pen, Lisa continually asks how then shall we live? Lisa and I talk about despair and love, trash as the shadow of our culture, doing the best we can, dropping out of high school and joining a wilderness school, and much more.
Visit Lisa at lisawellswriter.com or lettermachine.org.
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Scott Avett is a visual artist, musician, and songwriter. No amount of descriptors quite do him justice. Scott’s work was met by my ears before my eyes. His songs slip into the ear stream, reverberate off the rib cage and remind the heart it was born free. Scott’s paintings hold your gaze in absorption, jostle you awake, and drop you off a block later. In our conversation today Scott and I talk about creativity and contemplation, mysterious inputs that need to be absence of the thought of outputs, the study of sacred texts, parenting and death, and much more.
Visit Contemplify.com for show notes.
Visit Scott at scottavett.com or theavettbrothers.com | IG: @avettar | T: @ScottAvett
Haleh Liza Gafori is a translator, vocalist, poet, and educator born in New York City of Iranian descent. Her latest work, is a translation of Rumi poems entitled Gold. I first heard one of her translations of Rumi sitting around a campfire on a Sunday morning in Patagonia, Arizona. I was bit by the passion and this conversation does not disappoint. Haleh and I converse about being raised in a family that celebrates poetry, how a translator’s work is never done alone, what clergy of today might learn from Rumi’s transformation, translating as a spiritual practice, and much more.
Visit Haleh at halehliza.com | @halehliza
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Belden Lane is Professor Emeritus of Theological Studies at Saint Louis University, author of numerous books including The Solace of Fierce Landscapes: Exploring Desert and Mountain Spirituality and Backpacking with the Saints: Wilderness Hiking as Spiritual Practice. Belden Lane is a true elder, and in our conversation he exhibits that when we talk about wild places, the rough play and laughter of God, grief after losing a son, what we can learn from trees, and much more.
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Good poetry is inherently spiritual. It is a clown car of interpretation. Once a door of perception is opened, endless and surprising “Ahas” tumble out. When you have a spiritual teacher who embodies a poem, their words become thunder and contemplation soaks you.
Get a taste of Season Four of Contemplify. First full episode is out in a week.
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I was overly giddy, strangely nervous, but above all grateful to be in conversation with James Finley about his breathtaking new book, The Healing Path: A Memoir and an Invitation. Each page is a thousand pages deep, that is how Jim walks about the world, drawing from the depths and teaching with winsome grace, poetics, and of course, wisdom. I have read The Healing Path twice now and I don’t see an end to rereading it, it charts the unfolding of Jim’s life; terrorizing trauma and abuse he endured as a child and at the monastery, graced invitations of transformative amidst the anguish, spiritual guidance from Thomas Merton, the richness of marriage to his beloved late wife, Maureen, and so much more.
Learn more about this episode at contemplify.com.
A musing inspired by Shawn Askinosie's story about Belgium beer brewing monks and the parables of Jesus from Feb 2023
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A musing on Bill Holm's "Horizontal Grandeur" pulled from his book of essays, The Music of Failure.
Father Adam Bucko has been a committed voice in the movement for the renewal of Christian Contemplative Spirituality and the growing New Monastic movement. He has taught engaged contemplative spirituality in Europe and the United States and has authored Let Your Heartbreak be Your Guide: Lessons in Engaged Contemplation, and co-authored Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Vision for a New Generation (with Matthew Fox), and The New Monasticism: An Interspiritual Manifesto for Contemplative Living (with Rory McEntee). His work has been has been featured by ABC News, CBS, NBC, Harper’s Magazine, New York Daily News, and Sojourner Magazine and he currently serves as a director of the Center for Spiritual Imagination and the Cathedral of the Incarnation serving Brooklyn, Queens, and Long Island in New York.
Follow Adam on social media: Twitter | Instagram
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Musing from November 9th, 2022 inspired by by reading Chris Dombrowski's The River You Touch
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Fr. David Denny is a lifelong seeker whose commitment to the unfolding mystery of life has brought him to explore the deserts of place and soul. In 1975 Fr Dave entered the Spiritual Life Institute, a contemplative monastic community rooted in the Carmelite tradition. And in 2005, he left that community to co-found the Desert Foundation with Tessa Bielecki. A writer, a poet, retreat master and teacher, Fr. Dave now hangs his hat in Tucson, Arizona.
In our conversation, Fr. Dave and I talk about the roundabouts, the striking insights, the totality of the journey of his life that lead him to be an urban hermit. Fr. David Denny has co-authored Seasons of Glad Songs: A Christmas Anthology, Desert Voices: The Edge Effect and is a part of the collection The Nature of Desert Nature edited by Gary Nabhan.
Visit Fr. Dave’s website: sandandsky.org
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The inner desertarises primarily from grief:the universal desert of lossthat grinds the soul to dustand bears within itthe threat of despairas well as hopefor transformationand compassion. – Fr. David Denny Fr. David Denny is a lifelong seeker whose commitment to the unfolding mystery of life has brought him to explore the deserts of place and soul. In 1975 Fr Dave entered the Spiritual Life Institute, a contemplative monastic community rooted in the Carmelite tradition. And in 2005, he left that community to co-found the Desert Foundation with Tessa Bielecki. A writer, a poet, retreat master and teacher, Fr. Dave now …
“You won’t soon read a more beautiful book, nor one so earthy, wise, delicious, and alive. This is not a book about fish or rivers or Montana or parenting. This is a book, to paraphrase another poet, plain and simple, to break open the frozen sea within.” —Rick Bass I have been waiting years to have this conversation with author, poet, and fly-fishing guide Chris Dombrowski. There is a kinship I feel with Chris’s lens on life. He is a top-shelf writer to boot. The River You Touch: Making a Life on Moving Water comes out October 11th, 2022. I …
I have been waiting years to have this conversation with author, poet, and fly-fishing guide Chris Dombrowski. There is a kinship I feel with Chris's lens on life. He is a top-shelf writer to boot.
The River You Touch: Making a Life on Moving Water comes out October 11th, 2022. I have read it and pre-ordered multiple copies for friends and family. If you are a longtime listener, you know I do not ever do a hard sell. Buy this book for yourself. And another for any friend who seeks to live a mindful and creative life in the throes of responsibility to family, self, community, and a little plot of land on the planet. Published by the fine folks at Milkweed Editions, they will ship The River You Touch for free when your order from milkweed.org before October 11th, 2022.
Alright, I am getting off my soapbox.
Chris Dombrowski is a poet, author, teacher, and fly-fishing guide. His nonfiction debut, Body of Water: A Sage, A Seeker, and the World’s Most Alluring Fish (Milkweed Editions, 2016), was hailed in The New York Times Book Review and drew comparisons to Gary Snyder and John McPhee in the Wall Street Journal; and Orion magazine called it “a spiritual memoir in the tradition of Annie Dillard’s Pilgrim at Tinker Creek". I loved Body of Water and I think Dombrowski's latest book, The River You Touch is even better. It runs its hands through the currents of place, vocation, creativity, and community. In our conversation Chris and I talk about parenting, the calling of a place, poetry of children, accepting the complex humanity of mentors, and the intricacies of sparkling water.
Buy this book. You will reread it and gift it to those who understand that "in a life properly lived, you are a river"*.
Visit Chris’s website at cdombrowski.com to keep tabs on his work in the world
Follow Chris on social media: @dombrowski_chris
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I’ve been musing to myself this week about what happens in my daily sit. Like a collection of pocket lint, these musings have been telling me something about what I carry with me each day. I practice every day not to get good at meditation or wear the costume of a contemplative. I come to practice to practice. To practice showing up vulnerably before the ever abiding God, as I am, even when I can’t imagine the fullness of who that is. I begin by stapling my attention to an intention to apprentice itself to the eternal silence presencing itself …
I asked Todd Davis if he could read some of his poems from his latest collection called Coffin Honey. And he generously said yes. Take a beath, find a comfortable seat, preferably out of doors and let the poetry of Todd Davis seep in through your pores and raise forth the best of you.
Before we get started, I want to note that in this episode of poems from Todd Davis include content about sexual assault and self mutilation. If that sounds like poetry you are not comfortable listening to, we sure understand. Take care of yourself.
All of the poems included here are from Todd’s latest book of poems, Coffin Honey.
Visit Todd’s website at todddavispoet.com to comb through and order all of his work of poetry.
Enjoy the work of Todd Davis.
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Reading Todd Davis’s gorgeous poems, you can’t help but feel that the capacities of human vision, and also our appetite for exactly this way of seeing and naming have been mysteriously, precisely increased. – Jane Hirshfield The poems of Todd Davis sharpen a reader’s spirit and focus, on the bloodstained teeth breaking apart the day-to-day doldrums and on the mythic imagination necessary to bear witness to this daunting moment in our species, on our planet. Todd Davis and I spoke back in 2019 about his book Native Species and he has read his poems in the last two years on …
The poems of Todd Davis sharpen a reader’s spirit and focus, on the bloodstained teeth breaking apart the day-to-day doldrums and on the mythic imagination necessary to bear witness to this daunting moment in our species, on our planet.
Todd Davis and I spoke back in 2019 about his book Native Species and he has read his poems in the last two years on the Contemplify Backporch Advent Outpost series. Today we focus on Todd’s latest book of poems, Coffin Honey. We step into the rich imagery of characters, landscape, and emotion vibrating off the pages of his work. We also do not shy away from the thick smoke of trauma, poetry as a survival skill, the cost of risking participation in crafting such poems, and much more.
Before we get started, I want to note that in this episode with Todd Davis we converse about sexual assault and self mutilation, in both personal and mythic stories. If that sounds like a conversation you are not comfortable listening to, we sure understand. Take care of yourself.
Visit Todd’s website at todddavispoet.com to slip through the doors of his poetry.
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Absolutely fascinating, gorgeously written, frequently brilliant. In her story of how an ancient monastic order found a home in California, and how the author found a home with them, Paula Huston offers us an invitation into a world that few see, but all will want to experience. – James Martin, SJ Paula Huston has written a book, The Hermits of the Big Sur, that charts the history of the New Camaldoli Hermitage. A history born amidst Vatican II and World War II with even deeper contemplatives roots back to the 11th century in the mountains of Italy. Paula follows the …
Paula Huston has written a book, The Hermits of the Big Sur, that charts the history of the New Camaldoli Hermitage. A history born amidst Vatican II and World War II with even deeper contemplatives roots back to the 11th century in the mountains of Italy. Paula follows the ragtag set of novices who become the elders of the community, those who wandered to follow other calls, and those hermits who it their life’s work to be enfolded by Mystery. Paula Huston is more than author, but oblate of New Camaldoli Hermitage aka a non-monastic member of the community. She shares with us the gifts her contemplative rhythm has brought to her days, the virtues of working an olive press and writer’s pen, and gleanings from being in friendship with the monks over these decades.
Visit paulahuston.com to keep tabs on her works of beauty.
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(My audio starts shaky, but gets better after 8 minutes)
Bill Porter, aka Red Pine, calls the hermit life, "graduate school for the spiritually inclined." Bill Porter is a translator of Buddhist and Taoist mountain poets that uncross your third eye and waft the scent of a fine scotch.
What can I say about Bill Porter that he won’t say better about himself? I first stumbled on his book Road to Heaven: Encounters with Chinese Hermits while on retreat. His adventures and chitchats with hermits beckoned me to discover more about this hermit tradition and the man captivated by trekking into the mountains in search of monks living off the map. Bill is credited with an uptick of interest in the hermit life in China.
Stateside Bill Porter is best known under his translator name of Red Pine, translating the work of Cold Mountain, Stonehouse, Lao Tzu and others over at the granddaddy of beautiful publishing Copper Canyon. We talk about this and more.
To visit Bill Porter, well if you bump into him in his hometown. To find his work online go his publisher Copper Canyon at coppercanyonpress.org.
The hermit life is cool. That is the stone that skips across this season of Contemplify. The urging, the calling, to retreat from the hustle of the red dirt economy. To wash your face with cold water. Blink away the dust. Sit still in the sun and watch the shadows kneel in prayer. This season of Contemplify highlights a few folks who touch the hermit life by study, proximity, and by craft.
There will always be those who are called to live the hermit life. Then there are those of us who tend to the hermit within. We learn from the hermit how to drop contemplative seeds into our smoothies, sing John Prine songs, and write the names of God on our hearts.
Fenton Johnson is the author of At the Center of All Beauty: Solitude and the Creative Life. His book Geography of the Heart: A Memoir received the American Library Association and Lambda Literary Awards for best LGBT Creative Nonfiction, while his book Keeping Faith: A Skeptic’s Journey among Christian and Buddhist Monks received a Lambda Literary and Kentucky Literary Award in Creative Nonfiction. A regular contributor to Harper’s Magazine, Johnson has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts and has been featured on Terry Gross’s Fresh Air. He is emeritus professor at the University of Arizona and serves on the faculty of the creative writing program of Spalding University. Today we talk about At the Center of All Beauty, contemplative principles, the interior landscape as the frontier, embracing humility, the importance of a community of practice and of course solitude and the creative life.
Check out Fenton's work at fentonjohnson.com
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Brie Stoner is a juggernaut of creativity who channels these forces as a musician, artist, podcaster, writer, teacher, and mother. Her latest project is a podcast called Unknowing; a conversation series with artists, spiritual teachers, authors and friends as she explores the practice of unknowing as the (beautiful, surprising, messy) spiritual path of creative possibility. As some of you know, we were co-hosts on the podcast Another Name for Every Thing with Richard Rohr. Check out Brie Stoner’s work at thejourneyofbecoming.com (While there you can support Brie’s work as an independent creative. I am a big believer and supporter of independent artists, and Brie is one to support. Join her community of support today)
Follow Brie Stoner on the socials | Instagram | Twitter | Patreon
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Amy Frykholm is a writer, scholar, and journalist. Long time listener’s will recognize Amy as the second guest ever on Contemplify when we spoke about her book on Julian of Norwich. For those new to Amy's story, she has a PhD from Duke University and is a senior editor at The Christian Century. Her wry wit and adventurous spirit deserve a place in her accolades too. Today we talk about her latest work, Wild Woman: A Footnote, the Desert, and My Quest for an Elusive Saint. This cheeky quest follows Amy in the footsteps of St. Mary of Egypt as she seeks insight and inspiration from this wild woman, equal parts mystery and mystic. I am thrilled to have Amy back on Contemplify.
Check out Amy’s work at amyfrykholm.com.
Follower Amy on Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
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Stephen Mitchell is a translator, author, and poet. I was first introduced to his work through his translation of the Tao Te Ching. Stephen was educated at Amherst, the Sorbonne, and Yale, and de-educated through intensive Zen practice. He is married to Byron Katie, founder of The Work. Today we talk about his latest work, The First Christmas: A Story of New Beginnings that tells the story of Jesus birth with imagination, humor, historical context and red-blooded gusto! As someone who has been steeped in Christmas narrative my entire life, I was elated by this telling packed with new perspectives and wise characters (including the ox and the donkey alongside their human counterparts).
You can check out Stephen’s work at stephenmitchellbooks.com.
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Blessed Darkness and Blessed Light, this Advent season. Here we are again, In the midst of Season Two of Contemplify and I am sliding in another bonus episode part of the 2nd annual Backporch Advent Outpost on Contemplify.
Today’s poet is Chris Dombrowski. I first read Chris’ book Ragged Anthem and then his earlier work in the book Earth Again. It wakes me to the day at hand. Dombrowski’s poetry has been a constant companion to me during this pandemic, his connection to earthbound attention, humor, musicality of our days, longing born from loss, whole-makin and restoration. I cannot say enough about the poetry of Chris Dombrowski. May these poems catch you in the moment you are ready to receive them.
Chris Dombrowski, will be reading three poems, ‘Francis’ from Ragged Anthem and ‘Possible Psalm’ and ‘Sustenance’ from Earth Again. There is a link in the shownotes for this episode at Contemplify.com to order Chris’ books. Visit Chris Dombrowski’s website at cdombrowski.com.
Take a sip, breathe a little deeper. Here is Chris Dombrowski pouring us an Advent nightcap.
Blessed Darkness and Blessed Light this Advent season. Here, In the midst of Season Two of Contemplify I am sliding in a bonus episode. This is the first episode of the 2nd annual Backporch Advent Outpost on Contemplify.
This year there will be one poet in each outpost, offering their poetry to gild the thin space beyond waiting or reception. Pour a tea or a finger of rye, consider this your Advent nightcap.
Todd Davis, will be reading two poems from his forthcoming book of poetry Coffin Honey from Michigan State University Press. There is a link in the shownotes for episode at Contemplify.com to pre-order Todd’s book, Coffin Honey.
Take a sip, breathe a little deeper. Here is Todd Davis reading us first, “Of This World” and second, “Wayfaring”.
Sister Joan Chittister is a member of the Benedictine Sisters, played a huge hand in developing the Charter of Compassion, was president of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious., director of Benetvision, founder of Monasteries of the Heart, passionately advocated on behalf of peace, human rights, women’s issues, and church renewal, written over 60 books, and has a bird named Lady Hildegard. The focus of our conversation today is Joan’s book, The Monastic Heart: 50 Simple Practices for a Contemplative and Fulfilling Life.
Check out the show notes at contemplify.com
J. Drew Lanham is an Alumni Distinguished Professor of Wildlife Ecology, Master Teacher, and Certified Wildlife Biologist at Clemson University . He's the author of The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man's Love Affair with Nature and the collection of poetry and meditations, Sparrow Envy: Field Guide to Birds and Lesser Beasts, which is the focus of our conversation today. And I just gotta share this self-descriptive line by Drew, “I am a wondering wander in love with nature and all the sensuality that falls softly in raindrops, rises riotously with each dawn chorus and whispers goodnight with Whip-poor-wills at dusk.” Drew is my favorite type of guest. A multi-hyphenated creature of the wilds; an academic, poet, writer, seer, teacher, prophet, justice seeker, and changemaker in culture. Drew’s generosity of spirit is evident in his pen and in our conversation. You will get a taste of his poetry today, and then purchase yourself a copy of Sparrow Envy.
Check J. Drew Lanham’s work at jdlanham.wixsite.com/blackbirder
Gary Nabhan (aka Brother Coyote) is an Ecumenical Franciscan Brother, a first generation Lebanese-American, seed saver, agro-ecologist, ethnobotanist, agrarian activist, and author. A former MacArthur Fellow, he has been called the "father of the local food movement" by Time. He currently holds the W.K. Kellogg Chair in Food & Water Security for the Borderlands. Gary has engaged with farmers and refugee farmworkers in Lebanon, Egypt, Palestine, and Oman. Nabhan keeps orchards, gardens and greenhouses at his home in Patagonia, Arizona, then fishes and forages from an old adobe house on the shores of the Sea of Cortez in Mexico. The focus of our conversation today is Gary’s book, Jesus for Farmers and Fishers: Justice for All Those Marginalized by Our Food System.
Check out Gary Nabhan’s work at garynabhan.com.
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On the cusp of season 2, I was ruminating on how I might introduce the tonality of this series of conversations. The September musing jumped to mind.
In this musing, I reflected one some words to live by according to Ralph Waldo Emerson
And there was one Emerson line that stuck to my ribs. No matter how hard I scraped, it would not leave me alone.
"Nothing great is ever accomplished without enthusiasm."
Not cheerleader or car salesman enthusiasm. But enthusiasm as the fire within, the fire blazing the passions of being and becoming. In the resonance of this enthusiasm I learned that The greek roots of Enthusiasm mean being inspired by a god or as an incarnate possession. The muse of enthusiasm sings and inspires this season of Contemplify.
Each guest this season tends a contemplative fire, offering kinship and perspective. I raise glass around the fire to each of these resplendent souls. Over the course of our conversations we highlight the overrated and underrated notes of contemplative life, and ask questions that pierce our fears in the face of turmoil, and let go into the wildness of being fully alive.
Join me in kindling the examined life for all of us contemplatives in the world
Season Two of Contemplify starts next week. New episodes drop every other week for the rest of the year. Subscribe to Contemplify to ensure I can digitally hand deliver each new episode to you directly. I raise my glass to you, dear listener, as we journey together as contemplatives in the world kindling the examined life with enthusiasm.
September 2021 Musing on Ralph Waldo Emerson's philosophy of life.
Season 2 of Contemplify is getting warmed up on the stove. I'll let you know when it is ready to be served.
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This marks the 100th episode of Contemplify. We celebrate the triple digit with a musing and an announcement.
A contemplative musing on machines, lifeblood, and facing the facts of life.
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Scott Ballew is songwriter from Austin, Texas. He earns his keep as the Head of Films and Commercials at YETI, producing and directing films that inspire a life well-lived. During the pandemic, Scott dusted off his guitar and got to writing songs, polishing them, and then to his own surprise, releasing an album out into the wild. Scott Ballew’s first album is called Talking to Mountains. In our conversation we talk about the genesis of his album, the relationship between sobriety and creativity, the entanglement of humor and sadness, how legendary Texan songwriter Terry Allen helped form Scott’s artistic backbone, the perennial life questions that have been peppering him throughout his entire life and a good deal more. You can listen to Scott Ballew’s album Talking to Mountains on all the streaming services or head over to leisurerodeo.com to get your mitts on a cassette or an LP. And you read that right, that’s leisurerodeo.com.
There is so much I can say about the poet and essayist Leah Purpura. I’ll give this brief introduction, Lia was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, the writer in residence at the University of Maryland, and has been published in all the notable places. I read her two most recent works, It Shouldn’t Have Been Beautiful, a book of poems, and All the Fierce Tethers, a book of essays, and was graced by her mastery of language and reverence for the awe and wonder in the details. Our conversation does not disappoint, Lia is wise, poetic, and enjoys the same teeter totter I do; playful with serious matters and serious about playful matters, balanced on the fulcrum of loving presence.
Jeffrey Foucault is a top shelf songwriter. Foucault has a slew of albums worth your collection and his latest album, Deadstock, should be the first one you pick up. Deadstock has been a real good friend to me in the ups and downs of this season. Foucault’s music makes a grown man like me swoon, sway, and slyly sing his lyrics to myself. This is the type of music that keeps me sane and holds my heart in communion with the whole heartbreaking human family.
Our conversation holds the tenor of two respectful Midwesterners holding court while a storm blows in. A storm was coming to blanket Jeffrey’s place with feet of snow while I was sitting easy in the desert with pints of coffee peppering him with questions about literary influences like Jim Harrison and Barry Lopez, crafting an album, humor, Greg Brown, Chris Dombrowksi, fishing, and why poetry belongs in bars. These themes and much more built a trellis of conversation to cover us from the winter storm and desert heat. Doesn’t get much better than this for me folks, a real banquet of stories told with a lot of humor, humility, and generosity.
Check out Jeffrey Foucault’s music and newsletter at jeffreyfoucault.com. Buy Deadstock, thank me now. Sign up for his newsletter, my favorite monthly missive (and that includes my own offering).
Andrew Krivak is the author of three novels: The Signal Flame (2017), a Chautauqua Prize finalist, and The Sojourn (2011), a National Book Award finalist and winner of both the Chautauqua Prize and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize for fiction, and his latest novel, The Bear. In our conversation you hear of Andrew’s formation as a Jesuit, our dwelling in the depth dimension of now, how his novel The Bear relates to that dimension and is also a manifesto against interiority, and so much more. Friends, I read The Bear and found it to be an incredibly moving novel about place, presence, courage and strength in uncertain times. And let’s face it, all times are uncertain. I have bought, loaned, recommended The Bear to countless people. After this conversation you will understand why.
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Fred Bahnson is an immersion journalist of the soul and one of my favorite public contemplative intellectuals. If you’ve been hanging out around Contemplify, you have likely heard his name or seen links to his work. And I am sure that won’t be changing anytime soon. His most recent piece appears in Harper’s Magazine and is called ‘The Gate of Heaven is Everywhere’. It charts the contemplative turning in our times with gusto, charm, and sustained attention to the deep roots of the Christian contemplative tradition. Check it out, you’ll dig it.
Much of our conversation plunges into Fred’s book, Soil and Sacrament which is a record of a pilgrimage of depth across the topsoil of sundry landscapes. Bahnson traverses through community gardens (Christian & Jewish), a Bennedictine monastery, and communal subsistence farming in Mexico. Within these pages, The incarnational questions I always walk around with in the back pocket of my heart echo throughout - how then shall I live? How then shall we live?
Beverly Lanzetta is a profound teacher who invites her readers and students to engage in the fullness of Mystery each day through the cultivation of practice and rhythm. I was elated to get my mitts on her latest book A New Silence: Spiritual Practices and Formation for the Monk Within. Our conversation flows out of this work, we talk about contemplation rhythms, parenting, the archetype of the monk, the via feminia and so much more. Reflecting on A New Silence makes up the bulk of our conversation today, but I want to really emphasize how A New Silence provides many exercises and practical ways of moving into a monastic way of life. A New Silence is for any seeker who hears the call to a contemplative path in their own context.
I’m closing this Advent Series out with some poetic gifts. A few friends are stopping by to raise a glass and offer a poem or prayer, though I am unsure of the difference anymore. In this final Advent outpost, the Mystery is stirred by a couple of my favorite poets, Teddy Macker and then Todd Davis, before contemplative teacher Beverly Lanzetta brings us home with a prayer. Like I said, prayers and poems dip from the same well. Join us as we take our fill.
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I’ve asked some friends to swing by and offer a few words. In this second Advent outpost, we move throuogh the course of a day, from dawn to dusk. one of my favorite poets, Chris Dombrowski, kicks us off with a dawn poem from his book Ragged Anthem. I have some words on attention for the life of a day. And artist Jonathon Stalls leads us on a sunset walking meditation to round us out. So lace up and stretch those limbs or roll those wheels to this second Advent outpost.
Check out Chris Dombrowski’s work at cdombrowski.com
Check out Jonathon Stalls’ work at intrinsicpaths.com
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My wife and I started an Advent neighborhood get together last year; soup, wine, bread, cheese, poetry, stories, hymns, and children bellowing. A eucharist of sorts, but more with an ancient turn to honoring both the light in the darkness, and the darkness itself. Due to Covid this will not be happening this year.
So I am attempting to put the spirit of what I experienced in that neighborhood Advent get together into a Contemplify Advent series. Something not churchy, but more in line with the wonder of seeing a coyote's hideout in my neighborhood park or the clang of Mystery's one hand clapping while the other hand tries not to spill the wine.
I’ve asked a few friends to stop by and offer a few words. In this first Advent outpost, I begin with a story and reflection, then I pass the mic to the poet Todd Davis who shares a poem from his book In the Kingdom of the Ditch. And contemplative teacher Beverly Lanzetta closes us out with a prayer titled “Canticle of Silence” from her forthcoming book A Feast of Prayers.
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It took me months to read Douglas E. Christie’s book Blue Sapphire of the Mind: Notes for a Contemplative Ecology. I found it a joy to read slowly, soaking in the poetics married with scholarship on the Christian contemplative tradition which I so dearly love. It felt like a love letter, albeit in academic one, to a tradition that is still bursting with so much fruit waiting to be tasted by the many. I think it will wet your contemplative whistle, disarm any judgements, and welcome you to be a part of the great contemplative conversation. Our conversation highlights a few arrows of Blue Sapphire of the Mind that struck my heart. We talk about contemplation and parenting, memento mori (remebering deatth), a painting by George Inness, apprenticeships, contemplative practices and so much more.
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Today’s episode is first. It is one voice among many podcasters from around the globe releasing the same episode, a collective call for awareness, grief, and loving action in our climate emergency and our sacred duty to participate whole-heartedly-bodily-mindfully in the healing of our home in the cosmos. This episode includes Scientists, activists, farmers, poets, and theologians who talk bravely and frankly about how our biosphere is changing, about grief and hope in an age of social collapse and mass extinction, and about taking action against all the odds.
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Ruminations on divine union and the contemplative uprisings available in each moment.
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Exploring the subtle sacraments that animate our lives and the process of quieting the mind in words and silence.
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“The walking of which I speak has nothing in it akin to taking exercise, as it is called, as the sick take medicine at stated hours …but it is itself the enterprise and adventure of the day.” - Henry David Thoreau
A plucked musical movement, hairpin poetic turns, mythical stories in rough harmonics. Baptize me into this Kitchen Music Society of Delights and Sorrows. No time like a pandemic to establish a new society. Perhaps by the end of this, you’ll join the membership.
To learn more about Contemplify, head over to contemplify.com
"Christian Miller teaches us that the road to virtue lies in humility about our own virtue and an acceptance that others are struggling with their flaws. This is a very valuable book at a moment when our society could use a dose of openness and a sense of forgiveness."
- E.J. Dionne Jr., Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution and University Professor in the Foundations of Democracy and Culture, Georgetown University
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"Be like the fox
who makes more tracks than necessary,
some in the wrong direction.
Practice resurrection."
- Wendell Berry, Manifesto: Mad Farmer Liberation Front
In this episode, we’ll explore the God of tree trimmers and the souvenir of deep breathing.
Birthdays are akin to over-excited neighbors. You either appreciate their intrusions or avoid them like Homer Simpson does Ned Flanders. I treat birthdays like Flanders. I love a good party, cake, and sing-song version of ‘Happy Birthday’, but I am slow to allow the spotlight to turn squarely onto my face. A strange confession for a guy with a podcast. But I do love the birthday questions...
"Many poets feel that they know the natural world, Todd Davis has absorbed this world fully into his heart and mind. He is a fine, rare poet."
- Jim Harrison, author of Legends of the Fall
“Although Manning has been lauded throughout the country for his work — garnering accolades from some of the major poets of our time, like W.S. Merwin, in addition to the numerous awards he has received — he has found his place in this literary life, wearing it now as effortlessly as the patterned chambray shirts he favors. He is a man of the people, intent on bringing poetry and scenes of rural beauty to them, words of the past, but also the present — the poetry of preservation, of all of us."
—Jason Howard, Leo Weekly
“In that larger tradition of transcendent art, if we let them into our hearts, these new poems from Jericho Brown will awe and unsettle us.”
- Frederick Speers, New York Journal of Books
I hoped for some last gesture beyond a handshake, writes Chris Dombrowski in Ragged Anthem, a soulful book of longing that is as comic as it is reflective. These poems sing of humankind in need of something it can only seem to get from the natural world, and of how we won t get it until we begin to understand ourselves as natural as any tree or river. Or as Dombrowski himself says, Again / I took daybreak for granted, easy / as mistaking pinecone for wasp nest, / wasp nest for shed antler, antler / for branch. Here, these so-called mistakes make for discovery that approaches the magic of revelation..
–Jericho Brown, author of The Tradition
"Chris Dombrowski has proven himself to be among the best poets of his generation. As one of those readers who admired and enjoyed his first two books — better put, who has gone to the poems for spiritual sustenance, for wisdom, and for the magic of being transported to the landscapes where the poet makes his life—I’m happy to report that Ragged Anthem continues to sing those essential songs in beautiful and unexpected ways."
– Todd Davis, author of Native Species and Winterkill
This series will introduce you to two poets who help me circle the mystery: Chris Dombrowski and Jericho Brown. My hope is that through these conversations you’ll get a taste of poetry as a contemplative gateway. Poetry has played that role for me as a contemplative practice; seeing reality from an angle that I had not yet noticed. Clear enough to see and yet cloudy enough to draw me closer, to engage all of my faculties in this new perception of reality. This practice of poetry drops me into the depth of my self, into the depth of Mystery.
In this trailer Chris Dombrowski reads, ‘The Hunt’ from his latest collection Ragged Anthem and Jericho Brown reads, “Of My Fury” from his latest collection The Tradition
This final episode of the Life of a Day series is all about you. It is about offering a reframing of your day with a new way of seeing, a new way of showing up as a contemplative in the world.
“The church is near, but the road is icy.
The bar is far away, but I will walk carefully.”
— Russian proverb
I raise this frosty pint in your direction for this fifth installment of the Life of the Day series here on Contemplify where I'll be exploring my interpretation of the divine hour called ‘Compline’.
‘There are two ways to wash the dishes. The first is to wash the dishes in order to have clean dishes and the second is to wash the dishes in order to wash the dishes.’ - Thich Nhat Hanh
My intention here is to be present at hand to the dish in my hand. Perhaps we’ll strike gold today and I’ll communicate some semblance of that in this fourth installment of the Life of the Day series here on Contemplify.
“Few people know how to take a walk. The qualifications are endurance, plain clothes, old shoes, an eye for nature, good humor, vast curiosity, good speech, good silence and nothing too much.”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
This is the third jaunt of the Life of the Day series here on Contemplify.
My old pal Thomas Merton wrote, ‘[Contemplation] can be suggested by words, by symbols, but in the very moment of trying to indicate what it knows the contemplative mind takes back what it has said, and denies what it has affirmed.’
So...how do I talk about contemplation then? Briefly.
My intention here is to grasp at words that give shape to the formless abiding, even if only for a moment. If we are lucky here today, I’ll communicate some semblance of that in this second installment of the Life of the Day series here on Contemplify.
My intention here is to kick off the Life of a Day series in grand style, with coffee. This is the first installment of the Life of the Day series here on Contemplify, which is the reimagining of the Divine Office into my own personal reflective interpretations as a contemplative in the world. The intention is to mark each of the Hours but in a form very different from their regular practice behind monastery walls. In other words, this is what a contemplative rhythm looks like in my particular life.
How does contemplation appear in the life of your day? I've heard from many of you that this question lingers as you listen to the contemplative echo calling you in your daily life. My hope is that this series will help you answer that question for yourself.
This episode came to life a month before my newborn son. Inspired by friends, poets and writers I mused over the words to offer my son as he packed up his belongings from the dark warmth of the womb and worked his way into the shivering light of humanity. Finally, I put ink to paper. Once complete, the following letter laid in waiting alongside the clutter of discarded receipts and grocery lists. The sacred and profane cohabiting on my night stand.
Weeks later, my son was born. Upon his entrance into this world, the world’s response was immediate and in kind. Thunder clapped and rain poured in the desert. It’s strange to be here. The Mystery never leaves you alone.
Here is that letter to my newborn son.
"One of the foremost outsider artists in modern folk."
- The New Yorker
The first time I ever heard the music of Dan Reeder was when someone sent me a link to the video of ‘The Work Song’ (NSFW). Once I heard it, I had to find out who this guy was. I found out that his story is even more interesting than that song. I’ve been trying to set up this conversation with Dan for years, it took the kindness of his record label Oh Boy Records to put us in touch. Dan Reeder has a mind I enjoy being in conversation with, he looks at the world in unique angles (though he would never say that about himself).
Dan Reeder is an American musician and artist working and living in Germany. He has 3 albums and most recently an EP, Nobody Wants to Be You. You can find a book of his artwork entitled, Art Pussies Fear This Book. In our conversation we talk about his life as an artist, how he got connected with John Prine, how his perspective as an artist has shifted over the years and much more.
You can learn more about Dan Reeder's work at danreeder.com
You can follow Dan on social media on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and Spotify.
"Phileena writes here with such simple clarity—and easy readability—because she knows she does not need to prove, convict, or defend anything. Mindful Silence contains not just her wisdom but the spiritual wisdom of the ages that is again standing the test of time and showing itself in the fruits of incarnational holiness. It is the great tradition of action and contemplation again showing itself."
-Richard Rohr, OFM
Eleven years ago I was a work intern at the Center for Action and Contemplation. A season of life that would unknowingly tether me to the contemplative journey. As a work intern, I lived in community with 6 other interns. If that weren’t enough, we were also the guest house for retreatants. One evening as we were settling into our dinner, there was a knock on our door. I hustled over to welcome our unknown guest, who happened to be Phileena Heuertz. Over the course of the meal we would come to learn about Phileena’s work with folks living in poverty and on the margins. She had just completed the pilgrimage, Camino de Santiago, and regaled us with stories of that experience. It was over the course of that meal that I first recognized the depth of Phileena’s being and presence.
I’m grateful for my friendship with Phileena and the ways our paths have crossed over the years. Phileena has written a book that will surely find its place in the new contemplative canon, Mindful Silence: The Heart of Christian Contemplation. In Mindful Silence she weaves her story, contemplative themes and teachers alongside practices, with the invitation always at hand to take another step into greater healing and wholeness by embodying the contemplative way. In our conversation we sink into the themes of Mindful Silence, how her dog Basil has been a contemplative guide, the passing of one of her mentors Fr. Thomas Keating, and how on a pilgrimage to Assisi, Italy Phileena had an unexpected experience that continues to impart wisdom into her journey.
Phileena is a founding partner alongside her husband Chris of Gravity: A Center for Contemplative Activism. A spiritual director, retreat leader, writer, yoga teacher and exactly the type of person you want to find yourself in conversation with. Head over to mindfulsilence.org to learn about Phileena’s book. Get a copy for yourself and a friend. This is the type of book that is resonates when read alone and relished when read alongside fellow travelers.
You can learn more about Phileena Heuertz’s work at mindfulsilence.org, gravitycenter.com and phileena.com
You can follow Phileena on social media on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram.
Theodore Richards latest work’s A Letter to My Daughters: Remembering the Lost Dimension and the Texture of Life.
Theodore Richards is a philosopher, poet and novelist. He has won numerous awards for his writing, most recently winning the Nautilus Book Award for his book The Great Re-imagining: Spirituality in an Age of Apocalypse. As the founder of The Chicago Wisdom Project, editor of the online magazine Re-imagining: Education, Culture, World, and a board member of Homebound Publications, his work is dedicated to re-imagining education and creating new narratives about our place in the world.
You can learn more about Theodore Richards at theodorerichards.com, on Facebook, and Twitter.
I love the kinship one can feel with a poet, author, or musician. The right song or poem can track you down and settle into the liturgy of your life. I count myself lucky to have had that experience too many times to count. I try to keep my ears open enough so artistic expressions can tunnel their way from my ears down to my heart and gut. It was a lovely New Mexican Fall day when one of my favorite poets suggested I listen to the song ‘Sand Hills’. I tracked song the down, put my headphones on, and followed the trails of the melody into the mysterious interior landscape mirrored by lyrical vapors traversing the natural landscape. That was my first taste of Luke Redfield.
Luke Redfield is an American folk singer who hails from my home state of Minnesota and now calls Austin, Texas home. He has crossed the country in true troubadour fashion, honing his craft along the way. As his website perfectly states it,
Luke integrates elements of classic folk, indie rock, and alt-country, his soulful songwriting explores the human condition through themes of love and landscape, adventure and inquiry—inviting all who listen to join in the dance of life.
Luke and I talk about our shared Minnesotan roots, how hearing Bob Dylan’s ‘Like a Rolling Stone’ was turnkey moment in his life, what it means to be human, how Walt Whitman hoodwinked Ralph Waldo Emerson and so much more. Luke Redfield has a new EP titled “Love is All Around” being launched into the world on September 21st, you can buy this EP through Luke’s bandcamp site or go to LukeRedfieldmusic.com. The songs I’ve heard are a treasure. my daughter is already singing along with them.
With that, here is my conversation with Luke Redfield.
"In Distant Neighbors, both Berry and Snyder come across as honest and open-hearted explorers. There is an overall sense that they possess a deep and questing wisdom, hard earned through land work, travel, writing, and spiritual exploration. There is no rushing, no hectoring, and no grand gestures between these two, just an ever-deepening inquiry into what makes a good life and how to live it, even in the depths of the machine age."
- Orion Magazine
Chad Wriglesworth is a professor (at St. Jerome’s University), literary critic, book editor and writer. What most strikes me about Chad is his love of words. You will hear in our conversation how he lights up on the poetic turn of phrase, or a word that is precise enough to communicate exactly what is intended. Chad compiled and edited the letters for Distant Neighbors: The Selected Letters of Wendell Berry and Gary Snyder. This book is riveting and I begged it not to end. The tone, tenor and rhythm of the letters are the manifestations from the lives of Wendell Berry and Gary Snyder. If you are a fan of this podcast, you are no stranger to hearing about Wendell Berry; Kentucky agrarian, poet, novelist, essayist, to name just a few of his attributes. Gary Snyder is also a man of letters from the same generation and equally as counter-culture but from another slant. Snyder is a poet, Zen Buddhist, essayist and leans into a more hunter-gatherer philosophical stance.
Both Berry and Snyder have shaped the direction of my contemplative approach to not knowing, encouraging the way of ignorance (when ignorance is properly defined) and the practice of the wild. Chad Wriglesworth distills the essence of the selected letters so well in this conversation; he’s attentive, useful, poetic, and relishes the conviviality of the conversation.
To learn more about Chad's work, follow this link.
“Tessa said something that completely change my path and my life. She said that 'falling in love with life was the first step on the a mystical path.'"
- Adam Bucko
I first met Tessa Bielecki as I was exiting a port-a-potty. Let me explain. A few years back, I was at an arts and spirituality festival. As I departed a port-a-potty, I made a crack about it being a cramped prayer cell (or some such nonsense) to the woman next in line, and she let out an infectious belly laugh while held the grimy door open. Looking back, this was the right way to meet Tessa. See Tessa Bielecki is a contemplative on the roads of the world. She is familiar with the ditches, the biways and the old desert roads that take you to the end of what you know. And she’s gracious enough to share her wisdom of these roads with us today.
Tessa Bielecki has written a number of books, I recommend them all, and most heartily Holy Daring: The Earthy Mysticism of St. Teresa, the Wild Woman of Avila. Tessa dipped into a contemplative way of being early in her life and has followed that thread all the way up to the present moment. She been a part of many groundbreaking contemplative initiatives, and I’ll highlight one now. The Desert Foundation was founded by Tessa with her pal Fr. David Denny ‘an informal circle of friends exploring the spirit of the desert, its landscape and soulscape, with a special focus on peace and reconciliation among the Abrahamic traditions: Jews, Christians, and Muslims.’ You’ll get a mighty wash of that spirit of the desert in our conversation today, which holds the bearings for a rhythm of life that incorporates contemplative practices, the insights gleaned from re-reading formational books in your life, why the stories of Ernest Shackleton might just be the marker for transforming a season of life and so much more.
To learn more about Tessa's work, visit desertfound.org.
Famed contemplative hermit Thomas Merton wrote in his journal in the mid 1960s, ‘Should a hermit like Bob Dylan? He means at least as much to me as some of the new liturgy, perhaps in some ways more. I want to know the guy. I want him to come here, and I want him to see one of my poems.’(p. 107) And after hearing Dylan’s album Blonde on Blonde, Merton pronounced, “One does not get ‘curious’ about Dylan. You are either all in it or all out of it. I am in his new stuff.” (p.2)
Robert Hudson has written a book that seems tailor made to my interests, it’s call The Monk’s Record Player: Thomas Merton, Bob Dylan, and the Perilous Summer of 1966. This book is for every Merton fanatic, Dylanphile, and those whose ears perk up at the calling of the artist as a contemplative vocation. A master wordsmith, a recognized Bob Dylan scholar and a member of the International Thomas Merton Society -- Robert Hudson is the perfect person to have written this book. In our conversations we’ll unpack Bob Dylan’s meteoric impact on Thomas Merton, wonder about Dylan’s awareness of Merton, share a playlist of songs to go along with this book and so much more. I’ve been waiting for a book like this my whole life, and Hudson breathes poetic life into the retelling of the intersection of Bob Dylan, Thomas Merton and the summer of 1966.
The first time I hung out with songwriter extraordinaire Del Barber was back in 2005 when he drove me from Calgary, Alberta to Winnipeg, Manitoba. I fell asleep almost immediately after he turned the ignition, waking hours later confused and unsure which Canadian prairies we were in the middle of. Del told me I snored. I apologized. He said he didn’t mind. The only other conversation I remember from that drive was about the sacredness of wine in various religious traditions. This would be the first of many long stretches on the highway together. This was back in the days when I believed ol Robert Keen that ‘the road goes on forever and the party never ends’.
In 2015 when I heard one of my favorite songwriters, Del Barber, was going to be playing the fabled SXSW music festival in Austin, Texas--I knew I had to be there. So, I called up my pal Del Barber to see if he would have any time to bounce around Austin between shows if I made the drive from Albuquerque. He said he would, and even secured me a free pass to the festival. With spirits high, I told my wife about my upcoming travels plans to go hear Del play. Coolly, she responded, ‘that would be fine--if you want to miss the birth of our first child.’
Del Barber writes songs that walk around with you, tells stories about your past or is it your future, he pulls back the curtain on the mystery of being human for few minutes while you catch your breath. Del Barber is a Juno award nominee and winner of other music awards that are likely propping open a porch door somewhere. It’s not that Del wouldn’t be grateful for the prestige, he would be and probably is, but he’s just too grounded to make a fuss over such accolades.
In our conversation today, Del and I cover the music and books that shape him, why it’s even more important to live out a dream once you are a parent, how when we were first friends I gave him a test to see if he would understood the wise words of Greg Brown, his connection with the prairie and city landscapes, and his upcoming 5th studio album ‘Easy Keeper’.
‘Easy Keeper’ is the first album that he’s reached out to his community of fans to help raise the resources to fund a record. Since I am a card-carrying member of that community of fans, I urge you to pledge some of your hard-earned dollars to support an independent artist such as Del Barber and so you can get your own copy of his upcoming album ‘Easy Keeper’. When the album drops, you’ll thank me. So there are a couple of ways you can get your mitts on a copy of ‘Easy Keeper’, by going over to Del's Kickstarter or by going to the show notes for this episode at Contemplify.com.
Follow Del Barber on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter and DelBarber.com.
“This bold recovery of a long-forgotten path to prayer, expertly situated in its historical context and made accessible for modern-day believers, makes for absolutely fascinating reading--for the devout and doubtful alike."
- James Martin, SJ, author of Jesus: A Pilgrimage
Imagine a wheel, a wheel with nesting concentric circles within it. Each circle holding the sacred text and ancient contemplative practice of a devoted community of monks. This sounds a lot like something pulled from Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter, but actually I am describing a book, and contemplative practice, called The Prayer Wheel: A Daily Guide to Renewing Your Faith with a Rediscovered Spiritual Practice.
My guest today is David Van Biema. David and I explore a lot of terrain in this conversation. First we dive into the origins of why David became a religious writer (a story that reminded me of the film ‘O, Brother Where Art Thou?’, his discovery of the Prayer Wheel at an art gallery in New York, and how the Prayer Wheel can be a devotional practice for those in the Christian Tradition, plus much, much more.
David is the author of Mother Teresa: the Life and Works of a Modern Saint and co-author of The Prayer Wheel: A Daily Guide to Renewing Your Faith with a Rediscovered Spiritual Practice. Van Biema worked at Time magazine from 1993 until 2008, the last 10 years as chief religion writer. He is currently writing Speaking to God: A Cultural History of the Psalms.
You can learn more about David Van Biema and download an image of the the Prayer Wheel here. You can join the The Prayer Wheel discussion book on Facebook here.
‘What I wear is pants. What I do is live. How I pray is breathe.’ These 3 sentences come from my self-adopted contemplative grandfather, Thomas Merton.They ring so true for me that they were the basis for my thesis paper in graduate school.
Why?
Well, for me, they represent an embodied response to one of my essential life questions - how does contemplation intersect with day-to-day life?
So there is this contemplative rhythm in some monasteries of the Christian tradition called the Divine Office...or the Liturgy of the Hours. Today’s episode is going to be the first of a series I’ll be doing on the reimagining of the Divine Office into my own personal reflective interpretations as a contemplative in the world. The intention is to mark each of the Hours but in a form very different from their regular practice behind monastery walls. In other words, this is what a contemplative rhythm looks like in my particular life.
“Quoting the ancient I Ching, [Gail] writes about “coming to rest in motion.” She should know: a world traveler and social activist, Gail brings the steady calm she finds in the mountains to her work at peacemaking in a troubled world. ”
- Elizabeth Lesser cofounder Omega Institute
I feel like an absurd lover torn between two beloveds. But rather than being drawn to different people, I’m torn between landscapes. My primary loves are the lakes and trees of Minnesota, but I have also deeply fallen for the desert mountains and mesas of New Mexico. And still if I drift into memories, I recall other landscapes that pierced my heart. When it comes to landscapes, Gail Straub is my people.
Gail Straub is the author of The Ashokan Way: Landscape's Path into Consciousness. In the book and in our conversation Gail shares her wisdom on the dance of landscape and consciousness, her friendship with poet-philosopher (and one of my personal heroes) John O’Donohue, the role the Ashokan reservoir has played in her social activism, and her growth into a wisdom elder. The contemplative gift of The Ashokan Way is that Gail is a generative model of how to attune to a practice that requires focused and embodied attention to develop an intimacy with something larger than yourself.
Gail Straub, co-founder and Executive Director of Empowerment Institute, is one of the world’s leading authorities on women’s empowerment. As part of this focus, she co-founded IMAGINE: A Global Initiative for the Empowerment of Women to help women heal from violence, build strong lives, and contribute to their community. This initiative applies the Institute’s empowerment methodology to the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goal “to promote gender equality and empower women.” IMAGINE initiatives are under way in Afghanistan, Brazil, India, Jordan, Kenya, Nigeria, Sudan and South Africa.These are just some of Gail’s accolades. I am not going to list them all because after this conversation you should head over to her website, empowermentinstitute.net to learn more and possibly support her work.
I have only purchased one app for my phone. I find cell phones to be a necessary nuisance, helpful enough that I keep one, annoying enough that I keep it on silent. I don’t bemoan or resent anyone who has finally found love with their device. I get it. I just find it terribly distracting to the notes of life that I want to pay attention to. Then a friend forwarded me an article on a mobile app called WeCroak. I immediately realized I had been introduced to the perfect app.
The gist is this, after handing over a buck to WeCroak, you download the app and then five times a day you receive the following notification:
Don’t forget, you’re going to die.
Five times a day. The only other feature beyond this mortal reminder is that when you tap on the reminder, a quote appears from a poet, philosopher, author, etc, such as:
‘Let me respectfully remind you: Life and Death are of supreme importance. Time swiftly passes by and opportunity is lost. On this night, the days of our life are decreased by one. Each of us should strive to awaken. Awaken! Take heed! Do not squander your life.’ (Evening Gatha)
My guest today is one of the creators of the WeCroak app, Hansa Bergwall. Hansa runs a PR agency and is a poet. Our conversation runs the gamut of from Hansa’s inspiration for WeCroak to quotes from RuPaul and Stoic Philosophers on death and impermanence, why I find this app to be most helpful in work meetings, and we try to crack the code why most of the users of WeCroak are under 35.
You can learn more about WeCroak at wecroak.com and follow Hansa on Twitter (@buzznature).
Stephen Murphy-Shigematsu (スティーヴン・マーフィ重松) is a subtle and winsome teacher. I had the privilege of being in the student seat last fall at a conference where he was teaching. The first words I remember him speaking were in reference to the Japanese word ‘ma’, which he translated as the space that is the space between things. Inviting each attendee to take on the practice of listening by feeling and holding the spoken words before responding. I remember letting out a big sigh of relief (and of celebration) and recognizing that he was not a typical presenter seeking to bombard listeners, but to create space. It takes a subtle artist to create space within another person, Murphy-Shigematsu is such a person. He expands the meaning of mindfulness into the embodiment of heartfulness, and structures his latest book, From Mindfulness to Heartfulness: Transforming Self and Society with Compassion in such a way to ground the reader in the basic elements of heartfulness and ways to cultivate heartfulness from which compassion action can spring forth.
Frank Ostaseski knows death. Not in a metaphorical or figurative way, but through concrete presence. Frank has held hands, laughed with, cried with and learned from those who were welcomed in the doors of the Zen Hospice Project during their final days on the planet. As you will soon find out, he honors them through magnanimous storytelling and wisdom from the depths of experience. Frank is a sought-after Buddhist teacher who co-founded the Zen Hospice Project in 1987 and founder of the Metta Institute in 2005 to train countless healthcare clinicians and caregivers and building a national network of educators, advocates and guides for those facing life-threatening illness. If that weren’t enough, he’s been highlighted by Oprah Winfrey, Bill Moyers and H.H. the Dalai Lama. And Frank was gracious enough to share his teachings and presence with us on Contemplify. Using his life-altering book, The Five Invitations: Discovering What Death Can Teach Us About Living Fully, as a launchpad we delve into Frank’s story, his mentor Stephen Levine, the power of the five invitations themselves, how those facing death became his greatest teachers, what he learned from the monsters in his son’s closest and so much more. Buy the book, read this book (if you’re in a book club, consider delving into it and using these discussion questions).
You can learn more about Frank at fiveinvitations.com or follow him on Twitter (@fostaseski) or Facebook (@frankostaseski).
Michael Perry is a roughneck contemplative. A term that I am hoping he will half smirk at in self-recognition from his deer stand. We got together to talk about his latest book, Montaigne in Barn Boots: An Amateur Ambles Through Philosophy, a book that mind you, made me deeply reflect on my own life and laugh out loud while reading in crowded public spaces. A combination that doesn’t happen as often as I would like. So I wondered, what would a conversation with Michael Perry be like? Perry falls into the category of conversation partner that I admire, one who can belay between foolish laughter to gut-punch vulnerability in the span of a couple minutes.
As a music lover, for me to hear the connection between Mike Perry, The Blind Boys of Alabama, Justin Vernon and Phil Cook made me giddy. To learn that Justin Vernon and Phil Cook were once a part of Perry’s band was more than my ears could take. And this is just the tip of the conversation. Mike and I delve into how a kidney stone got him interested in the philosophy of Michel de Montaigne, why one might hesitate when they write an entire chapter about shame, the known and unknown seasons of marriage, and multitude of moments where Perry makes me snicker like a schoolboy. So pick up this book, Montaigne in Barn Boots, if you also like to philosophically bob and weave between laughter, tears and sighs of recognition. Or perhaps just like the term, roughneck contemplative.
You can learn more about Mike at sneezingcow.com (yep, you read that right) or follow him on Twitter (@Sneezing Cow) or Instagram (@Sneezing Cow).
You know that old story of a successful criminal defense lawyer who quits practicing law to start a bean to bar chocolate factory? Yeah...it’s a new story for me too. But that is the story of Shawn Askinosie. Shawn is a remarkable human being. Not because Oprah Magazine named him “One of 15 Guys Who Are Saving the World” or because Forbes named his small batch, award winning chocolate factory, Askinosie Chocolate ‘One of the 25 Best Small Companies in America’ (both of which are true by the way). It’s because Shawn holds a contemplative vision for his life and business to create a more just and loving world.
Askinosie Chocolate is a direct trade business that profit shares with their partners, the cocoa farmers, from around the world. Shawn and his team are recasting how a profitable business can operate in the world with integrity, passion and humility. In this conversation you will get a taste for Shawn’s values as he shares about his experience as a Family Brother at Assumption Abbey, how he recognizes the relationship between joy and sorrow, the lasting impact of his 6th grade teacher, why he wanted Askinosie Chocolate to be direct trade, profit sharing and open book management from its inception,... and what the hell he means by the phrase, ‘It not about the chocolate, it’s about the chocolate.
This is just a taste of Shawn’s deeply empowering book, Meaningful Work: A Quest to Do Great Business, Find Your Calling, and Feed Your Soul. You can buy the book, Meaningful Work, wherever beautiful books are sold.
To learn more about Shawn visit (and order chocolate) at askinosie.com.
“The Sunday Letters are always a thoughtful and welcome stop during my week. You get a moment to pause, to consider and to reflect … and Jana often leaves you with a question to keep you thinking long after you’ve finished reading. I love these letters and find myself forwarding them regularly to friends and family.”
- Reader, The Sunday Letters
Have you ever wanted to be a writer? Maybe the type of writer with an acute eye for detail that maintains a deep connection with your readers. This is how I would describe the curator and writer of The Sunday Letters, Jana Marie. The Sunday Letters is a weekly newsletter on contemplative thinking. I don’t know about you, but Sundays continue to hold the air of naps, spiritual questions, and Swedish pancakes.This is how Jana describes Sundays - ‘In their characteristically gentle way, Sundays present us with what is so often a much-needed opportunity for stillness. A time to reconnect and re-center, they allow us the space to check in with both ourselves and others.’ It is from this still space that The Sunday Letters have been written by Jana these past 3 years. She has readers spanning the globe, one of which is this lowly podcast host.
In this exchange you were learn how Jana dropped out of business school to discover a path that felt more akin to her way of being in the world, how the Stoic philosopher Seneca has been shaping her view of reality, and how The Sunday Letters came to be in the world.
You can sign up for The Sunday Letters at thesundayletters.com.
Learn more about Jana Marie at jmarie.ca or find her on Instagram @janajm.
Thich Nhat Hahn is a world renowned Zen Master, author of more than a 100 books and in my opinion, a winsome meditative stroller. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr nominated him for a Nobel Peace Prize in 1967. Then in 1982, Thich Nhat Hahn founded a community called Plum Village in the south of France. In 2008, a young man was ordained a monk at Plum Village. The young man’s brother is a filmmaker, Max Pugh, who was in attendance reflected upon this experience of bearing witness to his brother’s ordination as a Buddhist monk.
Later, Max Pugh would Direct and Produce the film Walk With Me: A Journey Into Mindfulness Featuring Thich Nhat Hahn. Max has crafted a remarkably meditative film about the Plum Village that his brother joined. In our conversation, Max shares how he was asked to make a rock and roll road documentary about Plum Village without the sex and drugs, how the ringing of chimes can break the unconscious noise, and what Thich Nhat Hahn taught him about being a parent. You can learn more about Max at maxpugh.com, walkwithmefilm.com or on Instagram @maxpugh1
Ali Kirkpatrick is a writer, speaker, retreat leader, part-time university instructor and business owner. But if i was going to name her post in the world it would be as an ambassador of love.
Ali is taking over reins as host for Contemplify for 5 episodes in this miniseries called, Practice Without Preaching: Creating a Family Spirituality. The central beauty of this mini-series is that it holds the potential for you to reflect, question, celebrate and imagine how your family explores the spiritual terrain. Like all authentic explorations you might be challenged by what you discover...rest assured that Ali is a trustworthy guide and fellow traveler.
This is episode 5 of Practice Without Preaching: Creating a Family Spirituality.
Ali Kirkpatrick is a writer, speaker, retreat leader, part-time university instructor and business owner. But if i was going to name her post in the world it would be as an ambassador of love.
Ali is taking over reins as host for Contemplify for 5 episodes in this miniseries called, Practice Without Preaching: Creating a Family Spirituality. The central beauty of this mini-series is that it holds the potential for you to reflect, question, celebrate and imagine how your family explores the spiritual terrain. Like all authentic explorations you might be challenged by what you discover...rest assured that Ali is a trustworthy guide and fellow traveler.
This is episode 4 of Practice Without Preaching: Creating a Family Spirituality.
Ali Kirkpatrick is a writer, speaker, retreat leader, part-time university instructor and business owner. But if i was going to name her post in the world it would be as an ambassador of love.
Ali is taking over reins as host for Contemplify for 5 episodes in this miniseries called, Practice Without Preaching: Creating a Family Spirituality. The central beauty of this mini-series is that it holds the potential for you to reflect, question, celebrate and imagine how your family explores the spiritual terrain. Like all authentic explorations you might be challenged by what you discover...rest assured that Ali is a trustworthy guide and fellow traveler.
This is episode 3 of Practice Without Preaching: Creating a Family Spirituality.
Ali Kirkpatrick is a writer, speaker, retreat leader, part-time university instructor and business owner. But if i was going to name her post in the world it would be as an ambassador of love.
Ali is taking over reins as host for Contemplify for 5 episodes in this miniseries called, Practice Without Preaching: Creating a Family Spirituality. The central beauty of this mini-series is that it holds the potential for you to reflect, question, celebrate and imagine how your family explores the spiritual terrain. Like all authentic explorations you might be challenged by what you discover...rest assured that Ali is a trustworthy guide and fellow traveler.
This is episode 2 of Practice Without Preaching: Creating a Family Spirituality.
Ali Kirkpatrick is a writer, speaker, retreat leader, part-time university instructor and business owner. But if i was going to name her post in the world it would be as an ambassador of love.
Ali is taking over reins as host for Contemplify for 5 episodes in this miniseries called, Practice Without Preaching: Creating a Family Spirituality. The central beauty of this mini-series is that it holds the potential for you to reflect, question, celebrate and imagine how your family explores the spiritual terrain. Like all authentic explorations you might be challenged by what you discover...rest assured that Ali is a trustworthy guide and fellow traveler.
This is episode 1 of Practice Without Preaching: Creating a Family Spirituality.
Ali Kirkpatrick is a writer, speaker, retreat leader, part-time university instructor and business owner. But if i was going to name her post in the world it would be as an ambassador of love.
Over the past couple of years my friendship with Ali has grown, and so has my awe and respect for her passion to cultivate tools, experiences and resources for families seeking to live out an authentic spirituality. In our conversation today, you will get a sense of who Ali Kirkpatrick is and her infectiously generous spirit, the thoughtful questions and embodied practices that form her spirituality, the path that lead her family to find another spiritual community, and the specific lessons she has learned from her kids and husband, and of course why I asked her to consider creating a mini-series for Contemplify specifically focused on family spirituality.
It is my distinct pleasure to share this conversation with Ali Kirkpatrick in this episode and then I’ll get out of the way as Ali takes the reins as host for the remaining 5 episodes over the next 5 days of this mini-series called, Practice Without Preaching: Creating a Family Spirituality. The central beauty of this mini-series is that it holds the potential for you to reflect, question, celebrate and imagine how your family explores the spiritual terrain. Like all authentic explorations you might be challenged by what you discover...rest assured that Ali is a trustworthy guide and fellow traveler.
My guest today is Teresa Pasquale Mateus, a trauma specialist, contemplative practice teacher, author and co-founder of Mystic Soul Project, an organization that engages in a People of Color (POC) - Centered Approach to Action/Activism and Contemplation/Mysticism. Teresa has written two books, Sacred Wounds: A Path to Healing from Spiritual Trauma and Mending Broken: A Personal Journey Through the Stages of Trauma & Recovery. We cover a lot of ground in our conversation. Teresa shares how the discovery of contemplative practices were integral to her healing process, the significance of language on the spiritual path, her work as a trauma specialist with combat veterans, at Standing Rock and Charlottesville. And lastly, something that I particularly thrilled about, Teresa shares with us about her latest endeavor, Mystic Soul Project and the buzz around the Mystic Soul Conference, a POC-Centered gathering of voices, practices and dialogue on contemplation, action and healing.
If you are a regular listener to the Contemplify podcast, you might be scratching your head and wondering why I am pairing a drink with this conversation. Let me explain. My pal Mark Longhurst runs the top-notch website OrdinaryMystic.net reached out to me some time ago inquiring if I’d ever consider being interviewed on Contemplify so my fellow contemplatives could get a better sense of who I am. I agreed on the condition that Mark be the one to take interviewer reins. So today I am in the hot seat. My guest today...is me and Mark Longhurst is behind the microphone.
If you have ever wondered who is this fella that shovels the path to the Contemplify basecamp then this will be a good snapshot. Mark opens the space for me to share my own contemplative journey, answer my favorite interview questions, my fascination (which is the kind way of saying obsession) with a Norwegian author, and to land on my top 3 dream guests.
Learn more about Mark Longhurst at OrdinaryMystic.net and Paul Swanson here at Contemplify.com
"Written with charming simplicity and wry humor, Midlife is a philosophically rich source of what might be called 'the higher life hacks' – reflective ways of dissolving the sense of emptiness and regret that tends to hit each of us with the onset of middle age. A work of disarming wisdom."
- Jim Holt (author of Why Does the World Exist?)
Have you ever asked yourself, what would my life have been like if I’d gone down another career path? Or wished you could release some past grudge that sits on your shoulder like a squaking parrot? The Contemplify conversation today revolves around questions of meaning, purpose and regret. My guest today is Kieran Setiya, professor of philosophy at MIT. Our conversation today revolves around his latest book, Midlife: A Philosophical Guide, which outlines a helpful framework for wrestling with existential questions.
Kieran Setiya is a philosopher who enjoys witty banter as much as delving into the depths of foundational life questions. In our conversation we dive into the waters of the stereotypes of philosophers, the rules for midlife crisis prevention, what we can learn from John Stuart Mill’s nervous breakdown, and what superman can teach us about the afterlife. What makes Kieran’s book Midlife sing is his curiosity and succinct wordsmithing that gleefully ushers you along through the difficult internal terrain. Which you will get a taste of in this conversation. Midlife is for any of you in the early stages, the thrush, or retrospect of the midlife years. Midlife creates a framework for the dizzying existential questions that arrive from new angles as the years accumulate.
Learn more about Kieran Setiya a ksetiya.net.
“Who touches this touches a man. Incredibly moving, risk-taking, original, and deep. I was in tears a number of times while reading it. Magnificent.”
- Barry Spacks
Teddy Macker is a guileless poet who incarnates the beauty and struggle of both the internal and external landscapes of this world we share. I would be lying if I didn’t say that one of my new life goals is buy Teddy a Lagunitas IPA and shoot the bull on all of life’s matter late into the evening. Macker is quick to laugh, invoke the wisdom of elders, and see the truth in and lurking behind boulders and cottonwood trees. His book of poetry, This World, is masterful.
Like Barry Spacks' words regarding (mentioned above) This World, tears will find you as you saunter through Macker’s poetry, and you will find yourself returning to it time and again. In this conversation, Teddy and I talk about Barry Spacks’ impact on him, how he holds the sacred and the sensual hand in hand, we bond over our mutual love for the music of Greg Brown, and of course, we are privileged with Teddy reading us some of his poems from This World.
You can learn more about Teddy by reading This World. (Please excuse the number of links to purchase This World, I am just such a big admirer of this book and man that I think everyone should have a copy. Buy yours here.)
“Mark, reading the poetry of Teddy Macker who I will interview on Monday. His poetry stops time. Equal parts Wendell Berry, Gary Snyder, St. Francis and yet completely his own man. I can't recommend enough him. His 'poem for my daughter' was my gateway, and the tears haven't stopped since. I've put a copy of his book, This World, in the mail for you. Best read in the still of night when the boys are in bed and a taste of whisky is not far from your lips.”
What you just heard was a text I sent my brother before I interviewed the orchardist, college lecturer and poet, Teddy Macker.
This mini-episode is just a taste of Teddy’s poetry. My full interview with Teddy Macker will be released tomorrow (and it includes more poems too). So for now, sit back, sip on something slowly and let Teddy’s words wash over you. Here is Teddy Macker reading ‘A Poem for My Daughter’ from his book, This World.
The winding road of life leads you to beautiful vistas and the shallows of hardship. Tracy Cochran shares her experiences of the vistas and the shallows in our conversation. We touch on the practices that enliven us, vulnerability as a superpower and how she got involved in her work at Parabola Magazine. One thing that particularly struck me about Tracy, was her incredible capacity for deep listening. After hearing our conversation, you will bear witness to the depth that she shares in her words, written or spoken.
Tracy Cochran is the editorial director of Parabola magazine, a magazine holds the sweet spot of being the meeting ground for all of the world’s great spiritual traditions, as they illuminate the central questions of human existence. Tracy’s articles have appeared in all of the best publications, she teaches mindfulness meditation and mindful writing classes.
You can learn more about Tracy and her work at tracycochran.org and parabola.org.
“Cal Newport is a clear voice in a sea of noise, bringing science and passion in equal measure. We don’t need more clicks, more cats, and more emojis. We need brave work, work that happens when we refuse to avert our eyes.”
- Seth Godin
Where is your attention right now? Do you find your attention span shrinking in the era of sound bites and clickbait headlines? Do you turn towards social media when a moment of boredom arises? Cal Newport has written a book that will upturn your perception of how you ‘should’ be engaging in this era of constant connection. His book is called Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World. Be forewarned, our conversation and his book will likely reshape your relationship with social media, personal habits and rituals and your overall approach to the work day. Thanks to Cal’s book, I have reimagined my tasks lists for the workday, creating rituals for focus, and walk around the social media sinkhole of attention. And Cal has one of my all-time favorites lines so far on the Contemplify podcast...
We do need more brave work, and Cal has questioned assumptions and charted a path for a focused approach to life. In our conversation, Cal shares the importance of Deep Work for personal and societal improvement in life and at work, the rituals of his day that create the most ample space of Deep Work, how is New York Times Op-Ed piece on social media caused such a stir (and backlash) and gives an example of what one comedian friend of his accomplished after they quit Twitter and devoted that time to Deep Work. You might find yourself making some major digital shifts after listening to this conversation.
Now for the official bio on Cal Newport is an Associate Professor of Computer Science at Georgetown University. In addition to studying the theoretical foundations of our digital age, Newport also writes about the impact of these technologies on the world of work. His most recent book, Deep Work, argues that focus is the new I.Q. in the modern workplace and that the ability to concentrate without distraction is becoming increasingly valuable. He previously wrote So Good They Can’t Ignore You, a book which debunks the long-held belief that “follow your passion” is good advice, and three popular books of unconventional advice for students. (from calnewport.com)
You can learn more about Cal and his work at calnewport.com.
Barbara Holmes served as president of United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities, as well as professor of ethics and African American religious studies. She was ordained in the Latter Rain Apostolic Holiness Church in Dallas, Texas, and has privilege of call in the United Church of Christ and recognition of ministerial standing in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). In addition to her work with law firms, Holmes has worked with homeless missions, HIV/AIDS ministries, and international ministries in Kenya (the Presbyterian Church of East Africa) and Japan. The author of five books and numerous articles, her most recent publications include: Dreaming (Fortress Press, 2012),Liberation and the Cosmos: Conversations with the Elders (Fortress Press, 2008), and Joy Unspeakable: Contemplative Practices of the Black Church (Augsburg Fortress, 2004). Holmes earned an MS from Southern Connecticut University, an MDiv from Columbia Theological Seminary, a PhD from Vanderbilt University, and a JD from Walter F. George School of Law at Mercer University. (adapted from The Association of Theological Schools' website)
In this episode, Barbara shares about her own contemplative lineage, reflections on the contemplative aspects of the Black Lives Matter movement, the contemplative and social impact of Kendrick Lamar and Beyonce, and her sense of hope in the next generation.
Dr. Amy Oden is a Professor of Early Church History and Spirituality at the Saint Paul School of Theology. In her latest book Right Here, Right Now: The Practice of Christian Mindfulness Amy draws upon the roots and connection points of mindfulness found in the Christian Tradition. In this episode, Amy shares what ‘mindfulness’ means to her, her own practices to cultivate mindfulness, and the brilliance of Jesus using mindfulness metaphors such as ‘asleep’ and ‘awake’ in his teaching (and some practical application points of those metaphors in our current technology saturated state).
Jeff Johnson has surfed distant shores, climbed mountains you’ve never heard of and travelled to corners of the world most people couldn’t place on a map. All of this is impressive, but what is most striking about Johnson is his authenticity. This genuineness comes across in his photography, his film 180 South and his book Bend to Baja. He is not dazzled by the flash of today, but seeks the wisdom of those who are further down the path of life. In our conversation Jeff shares why he gets up early every day, how skateboarding shaped his outlook on life and work, and the inherent value of friends and mentors who inspire you to take stock of how you are living your days.
You may find yourself as I did after this conversation, stepping outside under the night sky with your bare feet on the earth just happy to have another day on this shared planet of ours. You can learn more about Jeff at jeffjohnsonstories.com.
Follow Jeff on Instagram: @jeffjohnson_beyondandback
“The Sacred Enneagram is not a just book about an ancient personality framework with a funny name. It is a roadmap to self-understanding written by one of the great spiritual practitioners of my generation. Read it now and you can thank me later.”
– Jonathan Merritt (Contributing writer for The Atlantic)
How well do you know yourself? Are you able to name your basic desire or fear? The questions that linger around identity and intrinsic drives can be instigation for liberation, but without the right toolkit one may rather stick their head in the sand.
Enneagram teacher Chris Heuertz will help you understand how to utilize the Enneagram to work with these questions with a deeper sense of self-awareness to find your way home to your True Self. He is the author of The Sacred Enneagram: Finding Your Unique Path to Spiritual Growth. For those of you asking, what the hell is the Enneagram anyways? In this episode, Chris will give you a brief and basic overview of the Enneagram as the nine classic archetypes of human character structure, and then furthers the Enneagram conversation by mapping out how the Enneagram can uniquely deepen you on the contemplative path. On multiple occasions in this episode you will hear my own a-ha moments as Chris’ teachings sink in. Also…the Sacred Enneagram drops today! So get your copy wherever beautiful books are sold!
For more information on Chris Heuertz, his Enneagram Workshops and his new book, The Sacred Enneagram, visit sacredenneagram.org or gravitycenter.com. Twitter: @ChrisHeuertz Facebook: @ChrisHeuertz
‘What Richard Foster and Dallas Willard were to my generation – prime tour guides to the spiritual life – I hope and believe Carl McColman will be for the next generation. If you don’t know about him and his work, you should.'
- Brian D. McLaren
Have you ever had a dream that shook you to your core? Or been given a book at the exact time you needed it? I know I have and if either of those ring true for you, you will raise your pint glass and cheer with what your ears are hearing from my guest today, Carl McColman.
Carl McColman is an author, blogger, speaker and Lay Cistercian. Carl also has a contagious laugh. I’m sure you’ll hear my own laughter deepen and extend with each one of Carl’s delightful guffaws. But back to Carl’s work...Carl has written numerous books including Christian Mystics: 108 Seers, Saints and Sages, Befriending Silence, Answering the Contemplative Call and The Big Book of Christian Mysticism. You can also find his writing on Patheos, in The Huffington Post, and Contemplative Journal. In our conversation here, Carl and I dive into the various meanings of the word ‘contemplative’, how a dream at the age of 18 inspired a friend to give him a copy of Evelyn Underhill’s classic book Mysticism, how his image of the Divine changed and deepened in the midst of loss, and the humbling and difficult work of loving our enemies. You can learn more about Carl at carlmccolman.net. Twitter: @CarlMcColman Facebook: @CarlMcColman
‘Christopher Pramuk’s latest work, At Play in Creation, offers a truly stunning introduction to the long-held but often forgotten Wisdom tradition. Priming our theological imaginations with the rich and sensuous language of poetry and with Merton’s poem Hagia Sophia as a guide, Pramuk opens us to the divine music hidden in each of our encounters and allows us to glimpse the unseen Reality whom Merton calls Sophia.'
-- Kathleen Duffy, SSJ
Christopher Pramuk is the author of Sophia: The Hidden Christ of Thomas Merton and Hope Sings, So Beautiful: Graced Encounters Across the Color Line. I highly recommend you locate either one of these books as you also pluck the focus of our conversation today, At Play in Creation: Merton’s Awakening to the Divine Feminine. Chris Pramuk is a theologian, author, scholar and lifelong musician who just joined the faculty at Regis University as chair of Ignatian Thought and Imagination, and associate professor of theology. Chris is the type of professor you wished you had in college. In our conversation Chris shares how he uses Pink Floyd in his teaching, the suffering of God with humanity as we explore the meaning of Sophia-Wisdom, and we conclude our conversation with a story about Chris’ son, Henry, who when he was two and a half exemplified Sophia-Wisdom breaking forth on the shores of Lake Michigan. With that, here is my conversation with Chris Pramuk. You can learn more about Chris at hopesingssobeautiful.org.
Tasha Wahl is the founder and creator of The Butterfly Effect whose mission statement is so lovely I want to share it here...The Butterfly Effect is an underground movement redefining philanthropy one “butterfly” at a time by providing individuals the opportunity to give to a cause close to their heart. Harnessing the power of social media, we create a ripple effect of contagious generosity through our Butterfly Drops and Wahl2Wall installations. We recognize that we can be the change we want to see in the world by facilitating small acts of kindness, encouraging generosity, and promoting creativity. Learn more at butterflyeffectbethechange.com.
Tasha founded the Wahl Foundation with her husband Erik. They are committed to producing positive change in order to create a better world. Together, they helm The Wahl Group (www.theartofvision.com), which challenges corporate America to shift business-as-usual thinking to a more dynamic paradigm of holding the tension between success and significance.
My guest today is the multifaceted Jules Evans and trying to encapsulate Jules in a brief bio is near impossible, but let me start by sharing some his accolades: his first book, Philosophy for Life and Other Dangerous Situations was a Times Book of the Year in 2013 and was integral to the revival of Stoic philosophy that you see happening today, he is a research fellow at the Centre for the History of Emotions, Queen Mary University of London where he researches well-being and ecstatic experiences, while also diving into ways to improve mental health in different countries and cultures. On top of that Jules runs the London Philosophy Club which is the biggest philosophy club in the world. Above all of these pats on the back, Jules Evans is a curious, humble, and damn fine human being. The focus of our conversation is his new book, The Art of Losing Control: A Philosopher’s Search for Ecstatic Experience. This book and this conversation is exactly why Contemplify came into being; what do you do when the status quo is no longer working and you want to go beyond mere egoic satisfaciton? This episode is for all of you feel like the schools of thought in your midst taste like a stale cracker. In our conversation Jules shares about his Near Death Experience, how Stoicism helped him form identity and why he still felt called beyond the Stoic container to experiences of surrender, and why despite all of this deep searching, Jules feels like he wrote a book for people like himself, which he calls the ‘spiritually mediocre’. As always, links from this conversation, Jules’ books and website (philosophyforlife.org) and highlights from this conversation will be available at contemplify.com
Laura Dunn is the documentary filmmaker behind the film The Unforeseen, which took home the Independent Spirit Truer Than Fiction Award and was executive produced by Robert Redford and Terrence Malick. Laura’s latest film, Look & See: A Portrait of Wendell Berry in which she teams up Redford and Malick again, is the focus of this conversation. Put this stunningly beautiful documentary on your watch list. I’ve been an ardent follower of Wendell Berry’s work for years and this film is a glimpse into the groundedness of place, community and family that Berry poetically captures with his typewriter. Look & See is not a romanticized version of the farmer poet, but an invitation to see the hardship, character, struggle, neighborliness and rooted love that makes up the agrarian lifestyle in Henry County, Kentucky. Laura Dunn and her crew made a generous film. I say generous because Look & See freely gave me space to ask the beautiful question - how then shall I live?
Laura and I talk about Wendell and Tanya Berry’s impact on her life, Wendell’s idea of the union of life and art, marriage as a creative partnership, the unspoken farm crisis and its implications for young farmers today, where she finds hope from the Wendell and Tanya Berry and in her community and why are there so many comedians listed in the end credits of Look & See.
Look & See is not only just for those with a deep admiration for the work of Wendell Berry, but for those seeking to live an engaged life with a sense of place, belonging, and interdependence with the land and community they are rooted in. Go to lookandseefilm.com to pre-order the film, to find out which theaters are screening it and how you can host a screening of Look & See. You can learn more about Laura Dunn at lookandseefilm.com/team and get the show notes for this episode at contemplify.com
Hey everyone, welcome to another episode of Contemplify, the basecamp for budding contemplative whose pursuit is to kindle the examined life through conversations with creatives, scholars and practitioners. My guest today is Andrew Hinton, filmmaker and co-director of the sublime Emmy-nominated documentary film, Tashi & the Monk. If you haven’t seen Tashi & the Monk, I can’t recommend it enough. It’s moving, funny, wise and at times heart-breaking. This film follows former Buddhist monk Lobsang (who was trained under the guidance of the Dalai Lama by the by) who created a community of orphaned and neglected kids in the foothills of the Himalayas and a precocious 5-year old, Tashi, who just joined the community and is trying to find her way. I can’t say enough about this film, it brought tears to my eyes and a shot of joy to my soul. Andrew shares the serendipitous story of how he came to meet Lobsang thanks to an email from billionaire Peter Thiel’s foundation, the impact Lobsang and Tashi had on him, and how he got started in filmmaking by interviewing people in the lobby of an apartment building. Andrew Hinton makes beautiful films, and you can see this one, Tashi & the Monk, for free by going to this episode’s shownotes at contemplify.com/andrew. See this film, actually pause what you are doing now and watch it and come back around to this interview later….okay, you’re back, you should also head over to tashiandthemonk.com to find out how you can support this community that Lobsang created and the children bring to life.
Who is there that can make muddy water clear? But if allowed to remain still, it will gradually become clear of itself. Who is there that can secure a state of absolute repose? But let time go on, and the state of repose will gradually arise.'
- Lao Tzu
It’s graduation season. It is all too likely that someone in your circle is graduating from an esteemed institution, be it a university or local high school, or kindergarten. And with graduations comes graduation speakers….politicians, celebrities, authors or that one guy who did that one thing.
I was trying to imagine who I would like to see give a graduation address that would be a bit more off the beaten path, one that would not cater to a limited view of success or climbing the slick ladder of fool hardy self interest.
Bill Murray immediately jumped to mind, Alice Walker came next, then Lao Tzu...
Obviously Lao Tzu has not been taking any personal speaking gigs these last 2500 years. But I was smitten with the idea of it, so… in his stead, I will be sharing what Lao Tzu wrote on the doctrine of inaction, what I imagine was a graduate speech a few millenia ago.
‘This is a magnificent book [The Buddha Walks Into the Office] that just happens to be truly fun to read. Accessible, urgent, and life-changing.’
- Seth Godin
Lodro Rinzler is a practitioner and teacher in the Shambhala Buddhist lineage, the founder of the MNDFL meditation studio (which New York Magazine just named the best place to learn meditation in NYC) and the author of numerous books including; Love Hurts: Buddhist Advice for the Heartbroken, the bestselling book, The Buddha Walks into a Bar..., and the book that is the focus of our conversation, The Buddha Walks into an Office. This episode was sheer delight and will be of significant interest for those seeking to engage a day at the office as place to cultivate fullness of being. We cover such areas as how a conference call can be an opportunity for virtue, how to relate to difficult coworkers and what we can learn from a man named Tilopa who reached full enlightenment in part by assisting a sex worker. Lodro Rinzler is a teacher who is thoughtful as he is funny. You can learn more about Lodro at lodrorinzler.com or connect with social media: Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube. (Also check out this article in the New York Times about MNDFL)
This bonus practice episode invites you to ground your being in contemplating the universe. This practice is from Nancy Ellen Abram's book, A God That Could Be Real (pp. 89 - 90)
‘You will find that your beliefs are enriched by reading Abrams’s [A God That Could Be Real]. I am thrilled that we have the creativity and originality that is exhibited in this book, and I recommend it highly to all, religious or secular, believer or atheist, who are ready to explore honestly their understanding of the divine in our beautiful, expanding universe.’
- Desmond Tutu
Nancy Ellen Abrams is the author of A God That Could Be Real. This episode will be of special interest for those who wrestled with the science vs. religion debate wondering if there was another perspective out there that transcends the typical binary conversation on this debate. In this episode, Abrams unpacks a new vision of God based on an agreed upon cosmology from today’s leading cosmologists. The implications have the potential to lead this generation of humans to become the ‘esteemed ancestors of the future’. You can learn more about Nancy Ellen Abrams work at nancyellenabrams.com or follow her on Twitter @cosmicsociety.
‘You get the sense that this guy practices what he preaches. There’s a confidence and peace that inspires.’
- Modern Sage Magazine
David Michie is a presenter, mindful safari guide and author, best known for his novel series The Dalai Lama’s Cat. In our conversation we focused on the importance of meditation through the lens of his book, Hurry Up and Meditate: Your Starter Kit for Inner Peace and Better Health. You will hear David share how to overcome the usual hurdles to starting a meditation practice, how meditation is like going to the gym, the practical benefits he has seen in his own life thanks to his practice and we conclude our conversation with David unpacking the common philosophical statement ‘Know Thyself’ from a non-conceptual perspective. I think you will enjoy the light-hearted yet wise musings of David Michie. To learn more about David’s work, visit davidmichie.com.
Scott Hartley is venture capitalist and author. In 2016 he was a finalist for the Financial Times and McKinsey & Company's Bracken Bower Prize for the best business book proposal by an author under 35. He has served as a Presidential Innovation Fellow at the White House, a Partner at Mohr Davidow Ventures (MDV), and a Venture Partner at Metamorphic Ventures. Prior to venture capital, Scott worked at Google, Facebook, and Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society. He has been a contributing author at MIT Press, and has written for the Financial Times, Forbes, Inc., Foreign Policy, and the Boston Review. He holds three degrees from Stanford and Columbia, has finished six marathon and Ironman 70.3 triathlons. He is a Term Member at the Council on Foreign Relations, and has visited over 70 countries. You can learn more about Scott's work at fuzzytechie.com and hartleyglobal.com. (from hartleyglobal.com)
In our conversation we touch on Scott’s interest in Stoicism, how many leaders of the tech world have backgrounds in philosophy, how the liberal arts prepares one for the many ethical questions facing innovation today and how his father in his late 60s designed an app for the iPhone without any prior technical training. I’m going to do a giveaway for a copy of Scott’s book, The Fuzzy and the Techie: Why The Liberal Arts will Rule the Digital World. If you want to enter the giveaway for a chance to get Scott’s book, all you have to do is rate and review Contemplify on iTunes and then email me at hello@contemplify.com with your biggest takeaway from this conversation. As always, thanks for listening!
"Henry David Thoreau, by no means the most conventional man of his time, lamented on his death bed, “What demon possessed me that I behaved so well.” He would have taken comfort in Holy Fools. They remind us of a deeper sanity that is sometimes hidden beneath apparent lunacy: the treasure of a God-centered life.”
- Jim Forest (Praying with Icons)
Jim Forest is the author of numerous books, including The Root of War is Fear: Thomas Merton’s Advice to Peacemakers. He serves as International Secretary of the Orthodox Peace Fellowship. In this episode, Jim shares tales about his friendships with Dorothy Day, Thomas Merton, Daniel Berrigan and Thich Nhat Hahn. The gentle straightforward nature of this conversation rallies around a pilgrim way of living in pursuit of embodying love and justice. Jim offers reflective wisdom on marriage, works of mercy, and guidance for those in the earlier stages of life. You can learn more about Jim's work at jimandnancyforest.com.
Russell James Pyle (russelljamespyle.com) is a national touring Musician and Ecopsychologist based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Russell is one of a kind--an ambient folk troubadour, Buddhist, ecopsychologist, flyfisherman, avid hiker, comic book enthusiast, and with deep roots in the Pamunkey tribe. You will find that all of these elements flow through Russell and are expressed articulately through his music. We cover a lot of ground, Russell’s shift into a more contemplative way of being, the appearance of ecopsychology on TV, the joy of hiking alone, how the internal landscape is in relationship to the external and how Russell expresses that through music.
“The thing about Alana [Levandoski] is that she’s gifted. She's not just gifted as a musician, which she is, but she’s gifted as a lyricist...she teased these words, kind of like mantras, highly evocative mantras. She strung them together in a developmental expansion. So it was really a stroke of creative insight. It was really lovely how she brought it together."
- James Finley (via interview with Ordinary Mystic)
After Alana Levandoski attended and graduated from the Living School for Action and Contemplation, Alana experienced a rebirth as an artist, finally opening to a way of integrating her spirituality, her craftsmanship and her lifestyle. Abiding by a monastic rule inspired by her time living with the Benedictines, Alana and her husband Ian have committed to a life of minimalism and sacred simplicity.
Alana released a new album in September 2016. The album is a series of chants and compositions with spoken word in collaboration with contemplative teacher and clinical psychologist James Finley (author of Merton’s Palace of Nowhere). It is called Sanctuary ~ Exploring the Healing Path with Alana Levandoski and James Finley. (adapted from alanalevandoski.com)
Stephen Blackmer is founding executive director of Kairos Earth and chaplain of Church of the Woods. Steve comes to this with 30 years of conservation experience, having founded and built conservation organizations including the Five Rivers Conservation Trust, Northern Forest Alliance and Northern Forest Center. A midlife shift led him to Yale Divinity School and ordination as a priest in the Episcopal Church, carrying the question in his heart and mind: “How can being a priest deepen my work to conserve the Earth? What does the Christian tradition have to offer to this work? How can the Christian tradition be re-understood and re-imagined in a time of need? How can the conservation movement recover its understanding of the Earth as holy ground?” (adapted from kairosearth.org)
�Rev. Dr. Peter Traben Haas is the author of several books, including Centering Prayers: A One Year Daily Companion for Going Deeper into the Love of God. Peter is steeped in the Christian contemplative tradition, passionate about bringing the contemplative mind into church communities and the sheer number of books mentioned in this episode could chart the course for your next year (or two) of reading.
“Though I do not believe that a plant will spring up where no seed has been, I have great faith in a seed. Convince me that you have a seed there, and I am prepared to expect wonders.”
- Henry David Thoreau
Kevin Dann is a historian, naturalist, and troubadour, and author of ten books, including Expect Great Things: The Life and Search of Henry David Thoreau; Bright Colors Falsely Seen: Synaesthesia and the Search for Transcendental Knowledge; Across the Great Border Fault: The Naturalist Myth in America; and Lewis Creek Lost and Found. Dann has taught at Rutgers University, University of Vermont, and the State University of New York. In the spring of 2009, Dann walked from Montreal to Manhattan to commemorate the 400th anniversaries of Hudson’s and Champlain’s voyages, and, having crossed the Brooklyn Bridge, decided to stay here. (adapted from drdann.com)
In this episode, Kevin shares his journey with Thoreau with us, the importance of careful attention to reality, and the two questions he would ask Thoreau if he had the chance. You can learn more about Kevin's work at drdann.com.
“[Charlie] Parr may have been born during the Nixon era, but you can taste the grit of the Dust Bowl in his music.”- Dusted Magazine
In this episode, Charlie shares a reflection on Harlan and Anna Hubbard as they sought a simple life on the river and in the woods. You can learn more about Charlie and his music at charlieparr.com.
Christine Koh is a music and brain scientist turned multimedia creative via channels as a speaker, writer, designer and consultant. She spent a decade in academia, during which time she was awarded prestigious fellowships from the National Institutes of Health to fund her Ph.D. research at Queen’s University and joint-appointment postdoctoral fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, and the Massachusetts Institutes of Technology. Christine was about to become a professor when she decided to hang up her academic spurs in favor of more flexible and independent ventures.
Since leaving academia in 2006, Christine has forged a new career as a lifestyle expert and influencer. The threads that run through her work are quality and simplicity and common descriptors of Christine and her work are "smart, streamlined, and stylish." Christine is the co-author of Minimalist Parenting: Enjoy Modern Family Life More by Doing Less. Christine lives in the Boston area with her husband Jonathan and daughters Laurel and Violet. (from ChristineKoh.com)
In this episode, we explore the importance of families' naming their values, creating ample time for boredom and the significance of self-care being built into your parenting style.
