Although the hunt for more solitude was a pattern in Merton’s life, the sense of “arrival” was palpable for him in rat-infested toolshed
Category Archives: Creativity
New Podcast: Contemplating Now
NEW PODCAST ALERT 🚨 I’m Very excited to begin bringing you conversations with scholars, mystics, and activists, as we explore the undeniable intersection of contemplation + social justice. Contemplation has been a part of my life since I was a child taking long walks to pause and process. In 2011, after reading Thomas Merton’s NewContinue reading “New Podcast: Contemplating Now”
One Leaf: An End of Year Blessing
Wherever you are at the end of this year, maybe you need to stay, maybe you need to let go, but I urge you to carry forth the resilience you have proven. I ask that you remember the grief you have waded and the awakenings you have come to know.
“Now I will Disappear”
The fullness of liberation lies with the fullness of voices. And so long as I participate in perpetuating the domination of cis-white-male voices in spiritual leadership, I perpetuate slower movement toward the fullness of liberation for all people (shoutout to Womanist methodology).
Mysticism is a Riot
For today’s contemplative, looking only to the Desert Mothers and Fathers for examples of contemplation and mysticism is to dismiss half of what these things are. We must not fail to also look to yesterday and today’s Black and Brown contemplatives who have “turned the ‘inward journey’ into a communal experience.”
A Prayer for White People (including myself)
May we participate in the revolution, a revolution that doesn’t need us but will define us.
Zoom Diaries: A Week’s Lesson in Finding Voice
Last week, I had the opportunity to be with a group of friends from all over the country. With each of us in a different state, we gathered at 9 in the morning until about 5 each night to discuss what it means to find our call, know our voice, and live into the creativityContinue reading “Zoom Diaries: A Week’s Lesson in Finding Voice”
Things are Different: Grieve, Slow Down, Pay Attention, Stay Tender.
Things are Different: Grieve Our lives will be forever changed. The grief and loss we now face will forever change us. They already have changed us. They will continue to change us. As long as I keep letting it in, grief is tenderizing me in ways my body had yet to feel. Loss is softeningContinue reading “Things are Different: Grieve, Slow Down, Pay Attention, Stay Tender.”
A Monkish Friendship: Fr. Charles Cummings, OCSO (1940-2020)
“The monastic night watch is good practice in the art of waiting, as we patiently look for the coming of dawn. Monks and nuns wait in the dark, longing for the light of dawn but unable to hasten its coming. No one can force the dawn or bring it about in any way. It dawnsContinue reading “A Monkish Friendship: Fr. Charles Cummings, OCSO (1940-2020)”
New Year, Same Past
There is the place in my life, paradoxically, where mystery is conceived and the best of myself is birthed. It never seems to be a place of great joy, but it is a place of great truth.
