Quarantined Qontemplative

Dec 31

AULD LANG SYNE. My beloved shared this one with me. Powerful visual, audio, and soul tripper of a video in reflection of 2020. Words from the producers of the video are below. Check out the video below and the full piece here.

“Should 2020 be forgotten? 

As always, the first moments of the upcoming new year will be spent singing “Auld Lang Syne,” which opens by asking how one should respond to memories of the past: to remember or erase? 

Folks will soon gather to celebrate, many in surgical masks, eager to leave this year behind with a song whose melody is known more than its meaning. But then what? Where does the collective trauma of 2020 go, despite the optimism that better days are magically ahead?  

It’s in this historic moment of reckoning with the past that we measure the weight of our journey together. And in Birmingham, Alabama, a place that dismantled its Confederate monument this summer, a group of Black community singers reimagine “Auld Lang Syne.” The traditional Scottish poem, usually associated with booze and beads, is paired with archival imagery from the year and recorded in a church that refused to seat any Black visitors during the city’s Civil Rights Movement. 

Now, in a strange New Year’s season of quiet refrain, the song honors a time of progress and struggle that deserves to not be forgotten any time soon. 

To preserve these memories with a cup of kindness.”

Dec 28

AN ELDER PASSES. Barry Lopez passed away this week. He walked on ground touched by few humans, felt the breeze on places wild, forgotten, or barren. He collected stories and musings that breached the walls of wisdom and washed over his readers. I am lucky to consider myself one of them. Rest In Peace, good man. Your work and legacy (not that you thought much about it) is carried on in the fires of attention of all us touched by your life. You can read the obituary of Barry Lopez here. And check out this mighty interview with Barry Lopez from Contemplify favorite Fred Bahnson.

Dec 24

CHRISTMAS EVE & HEARTBREAK. It is the morning of Christmas Eve in my household and I am stirring over a sermon. Fr. Adam Bucko’s sermon from the third Sunday of Advent drops into the nexus of embodied action and the mystical heart. Those us who call ourselves Christians often act like Jesus was just playing around or softening the blows of a distant absolute. Fr. Bucko brings a story and teaching to participate in the way of Jesus this Advent and Christmas. Below is a taste, but do read the whole thing, ‘Let Your Heartbreak Be Your Guide’ here,

“…the Christian message is called the good news. It is good news because it is an announcement of joy to all people, especially those among us who feel hurt and broken and who feel like they don’t belong. The season of Advent is about waiting for the coming of this good news. It is a time of preparation when we are invited to sit with everything in our lives that has not yet been touched and transformed by and into this good news. We sit with it in expectation, taking account of our joys and sorrows, looking at what’s wrong and what’s right with our world, learning to trust that God intends our wholeness, learning to trust that even this darkness of the pandemic, that we’ve been sitting in since March, may somehow be pregnant with light.”

Dec 20

ADVENT OUTPOST. I’m closing this 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.

Dec 19

WAVES OVER HUMILITY. Theopan the Recluse has become a compadre who saddles up next to me each day and gases up the tank. Not much, just enough to carry me forward. Here is today’s fuel,

“Wherever humility goes, all inner disquiet ceases and outward adversities do not produce alarming impressions. Just as a wave which meets no impediment rolls across the boundless sea without noise or crashing, so outer and inner sorrows do not strike a humble soul, but rush by, as it were, on the surface, without leaving a trace.” (p. 283, Thoughts for Each Day of the Year).

Dec 18

KEVIN DANN. For the most part, I love the work of the guests on Contemplfiy. In fact, that became an internal requirement for me — I must beam with gratitude, wonder, or whimsy for what a guest is offering in their work or who they are as person. They must uniquely embody a contemplative in world who has kindled the examination of my life. Which is why I love to point to the work of past guests, I am still tickled by their presence in the world. Kevin Dann was one such guest. Check out Kevin Dann’s unique Kickstarter that is honoring the bootstrapping creative hive itself.

Read more about it here!

Dec 17

DARKNESS AS THE DANCE OF LIGHT. “Darkness is not the absence of light we’ve been so forced to believe. It is the very dance of light–it is rapturous contemplation of herself, in poetic adoration of her own contours and sensuous nuances. And we will never see this except we join her, unless we marvel at her rapid steps, unless we get caught up with her in her festive charade of realness, in her chaotic performance, in her heady spin, in full embrace of her extravagant sweaty waltz–for when we do, we will realize that shadows are merely the spaces she has tenderly left for us to place our feet.” (These Wilds Beyond Our Fences by Bayo Akomolafe, p. 212)

Dec 15

SING ME A SONG. The meeting point of technology and spirituality and the multiple vectors that spring from that union fascinate me. I am very curious to see that thread in this documentary coming out in January. Many of us wonder about it, sometimes it takes a mirror to see what our face actually looks like.

Dec 14

THE GATE OF HEAVEN IS EVERYWHERE. Hot dog folks, I have been eagerly waiting for this article to hit the streets since I first heard about it and here it is. Fred Bahnson has written an article vibrating with the energy of the great contemplative turning in our midst. Read the whole thing. I am sure I will be adding more of this article (and a recent conversation I had with Fred is almost ready to be launched) that highlights Fr. Richard Rohr, Dr. Barbara Holmes, Fr. Adam Bucko, and Alison McCreary. Treasure this piece and if called, join the movement. Read over at Harper’s Magazine.

Dec 11

FLUME. I was so moved by Frank’s rendition of Bon Iver’s ‘Flume’.

Dec 10

MERTON ON RUNNING. I feel Merton close on this snowy New Mexican day. He is hovering over my shoulder, sniffing my coffee mug with a grin. Merton has always felt close to me since I first read him. He has become a mentor from beyond the grave. He shovels the path before me. I have a picture of Merton on my dresser alongside other family members who are a part of that great cloud of witnesses.

These words from Merton bring me solace,

“Not to run from one thought to the next, says Theophane the Recluse, but to give each one time to settle in the heart.

Attention. Concentration of the spirit in the heart.
Vigilance. Concentration of the will in the heart.
Sobriety. Concentration of feeling in the heart.” (p.16, Woods, Shore, Desert)

Dec 9

MERTON DAY. Tomorrow is the anniversary of Thomas Merton’s passing. I just finished his travels notes, Woods, Shore, Desert. His closing words ring out from then to today.

“In our monasticism, we have been content to find our way to a kind of peace, a simple undisturbed thoughtful life. And this is certainly good, but is it good enough?

I, for one, realize that now I need more. Not simply to be quiet, somewhat productive, to pray, to read, to cultivate leisure-otium sanctum! There is a need of effort, deepening, change and transformation. Not that I must undertake a special project of self-transformation or that I must ‘work on myself. In that regard, it would be better to forget it. Just to go for walks, live in peace, let change come quietly and invisibly on the inside.

But I do have a past to break with, an accumulation of inertia, waste, wrong, foolishness, rot, junk, a great need of clarification of mindfulness, or rather of no mind–a return to genuine practice, right effort, need to push on to the great doubt. Need for the Spirit.
Hang on to the clear light!” (p.48)

Dec 8

ADVENT OUTPOST #2. I’ve asked some friends to swing by and offer a few words. In this second Advent outpost, we move throuogh the course of a day, from dawn to dusk. One of my favorite poets, Chris Dombrowski, kicks us off with a dawn poem from his book Ragged Anthem. I have some words on attention for the life of a day. And artist Jonathon Stalls leads us on a sunset walking meditation to round us out. So lace up and stretch those limbs or roll those wheels to this second Advent outpost. 

Dec 6

THERE WILL BE A LIGHT. Tis the season to bring out my favorite Christmas albums out, but first, this song always cheers on Advent for me.

Dec 2

WHAT REMAINS AS EVERYTHING FADES. Not sure why today of all days, this resonated, but the passing away of everything puts gives me pause and sizes my perspective on what endures. From St. Theophan the Recluse,

“Everything carries within itself a destructive power, which does not lie like an undeveloped seed, but is an unceasing activity, and everything flows to its end. The fashion of this world passeth away (I Cor. 7:31). Surely man walkers about like a phantom…He layette up treasure, and knoweth not for whom he shall gather it (Ps. 38:8-9). But we keep rushing around vainly. We are caught up in cares, and there is no end to our cares. We encounter constant lessons around us, but we do everything our own way, as though we were blind and saw nothing.” (p.274, Thoughts for Each Day of the Year, St. Theophan the Recluse).

Dec 1

SOLITUDE AND ISOLATION MAKE DIFFERENT CUTS. The gulf between solitude and isolation is a chasm that not even Evil Knievel could not jump. Solitude is a chosen practice (or path in some cases) to enter deeper into the community of God for the sake of the world by removing one self from the chaos of activity. Isolation feels unchosen and like you are stuck behind a locked door without a key. Connection is sparse and communion is nonexistent. The pandemic has unveiled the difference between solitude and isolation for many. In step Paul Fredette and Karen Karper Fredette. Two guides who are helping folks exchange isolation for solitude. Here is a snippet from a recent article about what they’ve been up to and the practice of solitude,

“Several people pointed out that solitude for them is more a tool than simply a comfortable loneliness. “Solitude is a means,” said John Backman, a writer and “quasi-hermit” who affiliates with both Zen Buddhism and Christianity. “It is a means to draw closer to, immerse oneself in, that or who which is larger than we are, to immerse ourselves in Spirit, as it were.”

But the Fredettes and other hermits believe that anyone could benefit from incorporating some eremitic fundamentals — such as being rooted in place, practicing austerity and committing to a daily schedule that prioritizes prayer or meditation — to help them make sense of their isolation into their lives, regardless of personality type, religiosity, or life circumstances.”

If you can, read the whole article here. (h/t to Poff)