Quarantined Qontemplative

Daily(ish) Posts on Kindling the Examined Life for Contemplatives in a Quarantined World

“All of humanity’s problems stem from a person’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.”
– Blaise Pascal

Apr 21

QUARANTINED QONTEMPLATIVE SWITCH. Hey ya’ll, this has been a rad experiment, I am shifting this type of posting to a page called “Musings” on Contemplify. It is less timebound and will rotate wildly as the musings strike. Check it out as it will update regularly at contemplify.com/musings.

Apr 18

TENDING TO THE SPIRITUAL INTERIOR OF LANGUAGE WITH LIA PURPURA. 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.

Listen below (check out the shownotes here), on Apple Podcasts or wherever get your podcasts.

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Apr 13

AN UNBROKEN GRACE. I imagine creatures, the Mexican grey wolf and narwhal in particular, dropping their heads in a reverent bow whenever the name Barry Lopez is uttered. A respectful gesture for his presence and repaired human attention. I will go into greater detail in April’s NonRequired Reading List, but “An Unbroken Grace” by Fred Bahnson (there’s that name again) is the homage to the Barry Lopez that I have been waiting for. Treat yourself to reading about a life well-lived here.

Apr 12

YOUR WORLD, BETTER. I found this quite inspiring. A senior fellow at the Center for Global Development, Charles Kenny, has written a book for middle schoolers. He is giving it away for free as PDF or a minimal fee on Kindle or paperback. All proceeds go to UNICEF. What would happen if more books were written with this level of intention for impact? Read about it below directing from Kenny’s site.

“Your World, Better: Global Progress and What You Can Do About It is a book written for the smart and engaged middle school student.  It looks at how America and the World has changed since the reader’s parents and grandparents were young: what has happened to health and wealth, homes, school and work, rights and democracy, war and the environment, happiness and depression.   It talks about the things that have gotten better, the sometimes-intensifying challenges that remain, and what readers can do about them. 

Your World Better is optimistic, but it doesn’t shy away from the considerable problems we face: from inequality through discrimination and depression to climate change and infectious threats.  It is meant to encourage kids to help make the world better themselves: tip them from a sense of powerlessness toward action, not into complacency” from charleskenny.com.

Apr 6

NO-PATH BACK TO GOD. I have been playing in Meister Eckhart’s sandbox again. The sandcastles one can create, return to nothing, and recreate is good fun. All while never leaving ground of the sandbox. Eckhart chants away while dreaming, building, returning, and recreating sandcastles. His baritone lavishes lyrics like this:

“Leave place, leave time,
Avoid even image!
Go forth without a way
On the narrow path,
Then you will find the desert track.”
(The Mystical Thought of Meister Eckhart, p.114)

Apr 5

TENT SONG. When an artist gets under your skin their lyrics can soak to the bone. Scott Ballew has been doing such a number on me since his album came out February. A unique blend of countryish folk music, confident tin can vocals, and lyrical yarns infused with experiential wisdom. Scott, also comfortable behind the camera, brings his song “Tent Song” to life in the film below. I am betting that this song is a gateway for you to rest of his album, Talking to Mountains.

Apr 4

EASTER! One of my favorite weekly emails comes from my pal Mark Longhurst who writes at Ordinary Mystic. Here is a segment of his Easter reflection (go here to read the whole piece).

“It’s easy not to recognize the Risen Christ.For those who value the life of the mind, and I consider myself in this camp, it’s easy to use reason as a way of keeping distance from the Resurrection. Progressive rationalists often dismiss Resurrection as a fairy tale, a myth to be “demythologized” or something impossible to be rejected. But the temptation towards intellectual dismissal itself impedes our vision of God. If we encounter the Resurrection only at the level of historical criticism or scientific speculation of what can and cannot happen to dead bodies, we miss the point. It’s an urbane cynicism that is all too common. An emotional skepticism of Easter’s buoyant beauty often sets in. So few of us fall in love as Mary or the beloved disciple did.”

Read the whole piece here.

Apr 3

HOLY SATURDAY. This tune seems appropriate for invading hell.

Apr 2

HUMAN ONE. Alana Levandoski is a force of nature. Alana draws from contemplative wisdom, perspectives, and practices and offers them through radiant songs and chant. In her most recent song, “Human One”, Alana meditates on the relationship between Mary Magdalene and Jesus, “This journey of seeing Easter through Mary Magdalene’s eyes has caused a spiritual free fall for me… and now nothing less than tender, merciful, love – held fast to what seems irreconcilable – will do.” Watch the song below and you can revisit my conversation with her on Contemplify here.

Apr 1

NONREQUIRED. Maundy Thursday is upon us. May it be a day of remembrance and movement in love for each of you. Yesterday, I sent out the NonRequired Reading. You can read the intro below, the full shebang here, and sign up to get the next one here.

Holy crow it is Holy Week. In my home tradition the seven days of this week are wrapped in holiness around the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. If Lent were a meal, Holy Week would be the nuts to Ash Wednesday’s soup. At the time of the ashy soup, I was coming to terms with my drive for success. Not suit-and-tie success or make-it-rain success, but accomplishment through accumulation of completed tasks. Burning through a to-do list success. Productivity and efficiency even look righteous if held up to the light in a certain way. Dissociation from the moment was the grease to keep my efficient machine humming. My own success fever broke when my eyes shuttered in protest from the strain of staring into the light, looking for that righteous angle.

Read the rest of the March NonRequired Reading List here.

Mar 30

BURIAL. Holy Week is a ripe time to think of burials, funerals, wakes and all death related rites. Last month I recommended Lia Purpura’s poetry and the loose lips of her poetry which tipped me off about her essays. I am in love Lia’s attentive lens on the world is full of love and detail. Purpura does not walk around the gory mess of humans or world, in fact, she honors their existence through sentences that sing. And she does so with burials in her essay “Imagining Burial” here or get a taste of its lush opening below.

“Consider the holy work of buzzards—roadside in the summer heat, hunched over bodies steaming in cold, picking and tearing back to bone, savoring all that would otherwise rot. Floating on thermals, grounded in cut fields, buzzards are hybrids of elegance and utility, doing the labor unloved by others, the work of right endings, which is in itself a form of creation. To be made an enticement, an attractive morsel, smeared with yak butter and left on a mountaintop picked back to bone, in the way of Tibetan sky burial—I’d go for that if given the chance.

Hard to come by as an option in Baltimore.

Still, systems of regeneration abound.” (Emergence Magazine)

Mar 29

PLAINSONG DAILY OFFICE. Good folks, I hope post finds the sun warming your ears during Holy Week. My new favorite podcast is a piece of handmade spiritual harmonics perfectly paired with Holy Week. A practice with wrinkles well worn. The podcast is called Plainsong Daily Office and below is brief description of the podcast. I join digital forces each morning and evening to chant (when I can) and observe the Daily Office. I find the simplicity a holy marker in morning and evening. You can learn more at allangelsabbey.org.

“Plainsong chant has been part of my spiritual practice for the past fifteen years. Its an anglicized style of Gregorian chant with roots in the Jewish cantorial tradition, a precursor of the polyphonic renaissance, and long recommended by monastics for it’s ability to train the passions and direct the soul towards God in praise. In the Episcopal tradition, many use plainsong to chant the Daily Office, the services of psalmody, readings and prayer which mark the hours of each day with attention and devotion to God through Jesus by the power of the Spirit. In the menu above you will find links for a primer on how to chant and observe the Daily Office, in addition to Forward Movement’s Order of Service for any given moment of any given day, the latest and past broadcasts that I’ve recorded of the prayers, as well as meditations and other songs. May God’s peace be with you.”

Mar 19 – 28

SPRING BREAK. My eldest offspring is on spring break. So, I follow her lead and am wandering about town, museums, sandy hikes, bicycle rides, and silly songs. These joyful outings are paired with the news of the agony of murderous violence in Atlanta and Boulder. Life never folds easy.

See you on the other side of this break.

May this season of Lent trouble any static pools.

Mar 18

SUNDAY NIGHT SUPPER. In this quarantine I miss breaking bread with a full table of kinfolks. I read about the passing of Jim Haynes, a legend of the open table. His social energy far surpasses my own, but I can get onboard with his spirited engagement in the power of a shared meal.

“Jim had operated open-house policy at his home every Sunday evening for more than 40 years. Absolutely anyone was welcome to come for an informal dinner, all you had to do was phone or email and he would add your name to the list. No questions asked. Just put a donation in an envelope when you arrive.

There would be a buzz in the air, as people of various nationalities – locals, immigrants, travellers – milled around the small, open-plan space. A pot of hearty food bubbled on the hob and servings would be dished out on to a trestle table, so you could help yourself and continue to mingle. It was for good reason that Jim was nicknamed the “godfather of social networking”. He led the way in connecting strangers, long before we outsourced it all to Silicon Valley.” Read the whole story here.

Mar 17

SPIRITUAL NARCISSISM. If only humility were as triumphant as a social media post of self-populating spiritual superiority. Humility has others obligations at hand, carrying water and chopping water. Popular culture can not see past the black mirror. It blocks out the humble road ahead and reflects back the pining, obsessive face. Be wary of the charlatans quick to praise their spiritual enlightenment. Read “The Science of Spiritual Narcissism” for a more damning look at the linkage between self-esteem, communal delusion, narcissism, and spiritual superiority.

“Our results illustrate that the self-enhancement motive is powerful and deeply ingrained so that it can hijack methods intended to transcend the ego and instead, adopt them to its own service…. The road to spiritual enlightenment may yield the exact same mundane distortions that are all too familiar in social psychology, such as self-enhancement, illusory superiority, closed-mindedness, and hedonism (clinging to positive experiences) under the guise of alleged ‘higher’ values.” (from Scientific American article)

Mar 16

MADAM SECRETARY. Thrilled that Deb Haaland, member of the Laguna Pueblo here in New Mexico, will be sworn in as secretary of the Interior.

(the buds were what I was looking at when I heard the news)

Mar 15

IMMEDIATE RECOGNITION. The gold standard of personal reflection and examination is being willing to contradict yourself, fumble with the dissonance, apologize if necessary, and soldier on. I love Karl Ove Knausgaard’s batting back on forth on art vs. entertainment, and most pointedly what to do with the art that brings you immediate joy without any work.

Read the essay “Inexhaustible Precision” here.

Mar 14

FORGET THE GRAMMYS. Putting this one up early. This Sunday Jeffrey Foucault and Greg Brown will be sitting down to swap stories and beam it out. It is a rare occurrence to can catch two of America’s finest songwriters sharing a stage. Even if it is a screen. Dig into the info here. Watch free and leave heavy tips. To all members of the Kitchen Music Society of Sorrow and Delight, this one is for you.

Mar 9

DEADSTOCK. Jeffrey Foucault is a top shelf songwriter. Foucault has a slew of albums worth your collection and his latest 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.  You can hear my conversation with Jeffrey Foucault wherever you get your podcasts or below.

Mar 8

SELF-CARE. This paired set of words is paradoxical to me, like a “pretty-burp”. “Self” squeezes the focal point of attention while “care” tends to lean to a kindness from another outside of your self. Do not misunderstand me, this phrase is desperately needed in American culture. The strums of isolation are plucked by easy culture and sold by opportunists. “The self-care industry alone ballooned to $450 billion in 2020, the year we were most vulnerable, from $10 billion in 2014.” (NYT).

Communal-care is less of a buzz word because it relationally expensive and hard to quantify. I do think the contemplative streams in religion, philosophy, and art have some wisdom to share for the effort of library card and a kindred spirit. It ain’t easy, if it was, depression would not have tripled in 2020.

Steady on, good people. I am grateful for your communal care and hope I send out a bit in your direction too.

Mar 5

A PROPER LIFE. “In a life properly lived, you’re a river. You touch things lightly or deeply; you move along because life herself moves, and you can’t stop it; you can’t figure out a banal game plan applicable to all situations; you just have to do with the “beingness” of life, as Rilke would have it….a dam doesn’t stop a river, it just controls the flow. Technically speaking, you can’t stop one at all.” (p. 48, Conversations with Jim Harrison)

Mar 3

MEDITATIONS ON LONGING. Fred Bahnson has dropped the mic again. This time inside his soul to amplify the stirrings of his heart. Bahnson writes poetically, without the acid gush of sentimentality, on the desert practice of building a hermitage in your heart. I think he might be a contemplative wizard. Read or listen to this latest essay, “Keeping the World in Being: Mediations on Longing” at Emergence Magazine.

“When Cassian and his friend Germanus began their contemplative sojourn through Egypt, they stopped first at the cell of Abba Moses, a former highway robber turned monk to whom many of the early desert sayings are attributed. “Every art and discipline is preceded by some objective,” Abba Moses told them. “Our objective is puritas cordis: purity of heart.” Or as he later described it, “a heart kept free of all disturbance.”

After talking late into the night, Cassian and Germanus stretch out on the floor of Abba Moses’s cell, resting their heads on bundles of papyrus, which, Cassian reports, also serve as low seats for the brethren when they gather in assembly. They sleep. At dawn, the three monks arise in the adobe cell and, as I imagine it, resume sitting on their bundles of papyrus. A light breeze enters the lone window. The desert air quivers. Abba Moses coughs, scratches a dry shin. At last he speaks.

“I see you are fired by a very great longing,” Abba Moses says.”

(from Fred Bahnson’s essay, “Keeping the World in Being: Mediations on Longing” at Emergence Magazine.)

Mar 2

CROWD OF THOUGHTS. I find a symmetry between country songs and the sayings of the Desert Mothers and Fathers. This line from Amma Syncletia is on the same wavelength as Lyle Lovett’s “In My Own Mind“.

“There are many who live in the mountains and behave as if they were in the town, and they are wasting their time. It is possible to be a solitary in one’s mind while living in a crowd, and it is possible for one who is a solitary to live in the crowd of his own thoughts.”

– Amma Syncletia
(The Sayings of the Desert Fathers, p.234)

Mar 1

NONREQUIRED. Ineffable crumbs tumble off the mystic table before this desert dog. Ever curious, I taste them and nudge a few bits onto your plate. Compliments of the slow meal of life. Crumbs honest enough to sustain the soul in the middlemarch of the foggy mundane. Prepare to savor tiny, juicy morsels in a kitchen cloyed by nonsense. Join me by bowing your head. Say grace and feel the hunger rumbling in your belly. Place these crumbs on your tongue.

Read the rest of the February NonRequired Reading List here. And sign up to get the next one sent right your inbox here.

(The posts fell by the wayside as technical difficulties crossed wires. No matter, we are back.)