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.  Visit Contemplify.com for the shownotes on this episode

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. Visit Contemplify.com for the shownotes on this episode

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. Visit contemplify.com

Ruminations on divine union and the contemplative uprisings available in each moment. Visit contemplify.com to sign up for the Contemplify NonRequired Reading List

Exploring the subtle sacraments that animate our lives and the process of quieting the mind in words and silence. Visit contemplify.com to sign up for the Contemplify NonRequired Reading List

“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  visit Contemplify.com for drink pairing and other goodies

"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...