“The hermit life is cool.”– Thomas Merton Here There Are Woods, Foxes 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 …
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Old Growth Forest
“The death of the forest is the end of our life.” — Dorothy Stang Old Growth Forest A musing on contemplative practice as planting an old growth forest. Breathe it in, breathe it out, let it grow.
Solitude at the Center of All Beauty with Fenton Johnson
“I love Fenton Johnson’s sensibility. It’s a joy and a balm to see the world through his eyes―and to rediscover solitude as our deepest and most powerful source of creativity and spirituality, even for people who are coupled.” — Susan Cain, author of Quiet and Quiet Power Solitude at the Center of All Beauty with Fenton Johnson 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 …