Contemplify

A musing on wild things and ingesting God

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. visit contemplify.com

"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. Visit Contemplify.com for shownotes

"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 | Visit Contemplify.com 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 Visit contemplify.com

"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”. Visit contemplify.com

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. Visit contemplify.com for the shownotes.  

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. Visit Contemplify.com

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 Visit contemplify.com

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. Visit contemplify.com 

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.   slide over to contemplify.com

A musing on practice, desire, and its evolutions vist contemplify.com

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   vist contemplify.com

A musing on Bill Holm's "Horizontal Grandeur" pulled from his book of essays, The Music of Failure.

A musing on the present moment of awareness that holds everything. 

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 Visit Contemplify.com

Musing from November 9th, 2022 inspired by by reading Chris Dombrowski's The River You Touch   Visit contemplify.com

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 Visit contemplify.com

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 Visit Contemplify.com

Musing from September 16, 2022 visit contemplify.com

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. Visit contemplify.com

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. Visit contemplify.com

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. Visit contemplify.com

(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.

Musing from May 31, 2022

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 Visit contemplify.com

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 Visit Contemplify.com for more

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 Visit contemplify.com

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. Visit Contemplify.com

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. Visit Contemplify at contemplify.com

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. Visit contemplify.com

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.  Visit contemplify.com for more shenanigans  

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. Visit Contemplify.com to learn more.

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. Visit Contemplify.com