“You do not have to be good.You do not have to walk on your kneesFor a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.You only have to let the soft animal of your bodylove what it loves.” — ‘Wild Geese‘ by Mary Oliver Listen to Carmen’s first conversation with Contemplify on her revolutionary translation of Brother Lawrence here. Carmen Acevedo Butcher, PhD, is an author, teacher, poet, and award-winning translator of spiritual texts. Today Carmen and I talk about the importance of practice; chanting, lectio divina,walking meditation, poetry, drawing, and other customized pecularily particular practices. Carmen models what her practices looks, sounds, …
Tag: Contemplative
Kim Haines-Eitzen on Practicing the Cello in the Dark and Sonorous Deserts
“A meditative blend of history and travelogue . . . brings the soundscape of the desert to life.” ― New Yorker Dr. Kim Haines-Eitzen is a Professor of Religious Studies with specialties in Early Christianity, Early Judaism, and other ancient Mediterranean Religions at Cornell University. Her book Sonorous Desert: What Deep Listening Taught Early Christian Monks—and What It Can Teach Us explores the dynamic relationships between ambient environmental landscapes and the religious imagination, especially in the case of desert monasticism. Dr. Haines-Eitzen was born in Jerusalem and grew up in Nazareth. Exploring the Negev and Sinai deserts in her formative years …
Lerita Coleman Brown on Waiting for a Word in the Heart
Dr. Lerita Coleman Brown is a retreat leader, speaker, spiritual companion, and professor emerita of psychology at Agnes Scott College. Professor Brown frequently speaks on contemplative spirituality and Howard Thurman. She is the author of What Makes You Come Alive: A Spiritual Walk with Howard Thurman and When the Heart Speaks, Listen: Discovering Inner Wisdom. She has been featured in PBS documentaries about Howard Thurman and the Black church. She lives in Stone Mountain, Georgia. In our conversation, Professor Brown and I talk about the life, mysticism, and work of Howard Thurman, as well as his affinity to emperor penguins. …