Contemplify

Sister Joan Chittister is a member of the Benedictine Sisters, played a huge hand in developing the Charter of Compassion, was president of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious., director of Benetvision, founder of Monasteries of the Heart, passionately advocated on behalf of peace, human rights, women’s issues, and church renewal, written over 60 books, and has a bird named Lady Hildegard. The focus of our conversation today is Joan’s book, The Monastic Heart: 50 Simple Practices for a Contemplative and Fulfilling Life. Check out the show notes at contemplify.com

J. Drew Lanham is an Alumni Distinguished Professor of Wildlife Ecology, Master Teacher, and Certified Wildlife Biologist at Clemson University . He's the author of The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man's Love Affair with Nature and the collection of poetry and meditations, Sparrow Envy: Field Guide to Birds and Lesser Beasts, which is the focus of our conversation today. And I just gotta share this self-descriptive line by Drew, “I am a wondering wander in love with nature and all the sensuality that falls softly in raindrops, rises riotously with each dawn chorus and whispers goodnight with Whip-poor-wills at dusk.” Drew is my favorite type of guest. A multi-hyphenated creature of the wilds; an academic, poet, writer, seer, teacher, prophet, justice seeker, and changemaker in culture. Drew’s generosity of spirit is evident in his pen and in our conversation. You will get a taste of his poetry today, and then purchase yourself a copy of Sparrow Envy. Check J. Drew Lanham’s work at jdlanham.wixsite.com/bl

Gary Nabhan (aka Brother Coyote) is an Ecumenical Franciscan Brother, a first generation Lebanese-American, seed saver, agro-ecologist, ethnobotanist, agrarian activist, and author. A former MacArthur Fellow, he has been called the "father of the local food movement" by Time. He currently holds the W.K. Kellogg Chair in Food & Water Security for the Borderlands. Gary has engaged with farmers and refugee farmworkers in Lebanon, Egypt, Palestine, and Oman. Nabhan keeps orchards, gardens and greenhouses at his home in Patagonia, Arizona, then fishes and forages from an old adobe house on the shores of the Sea of Cortez in Mexico. The focus of our conversation today is Gary’s book, Jesus for Farmers and Fishers: Justice for All Those Marginalized by Our Food System. Check out Gary Nabhan’s work at garynabhan.com. Visit Contemplify at contemplify.com

On the cusp of season 2, I was ruminating on how I might introduce the tonality of this series of conversations. The September musing jumped to mind. In this musing, I reflected one some words to live by according to Ralph Waldo Emerson  And there was one Emerson line that stuck to my ribs. No matter how hard I scraped, it would not leave me alone.  "Nothing great is ever accomplished without enthusiasm." Not cheerleader or car salesman enthusiasm. But enthusiasm as the fire within, the fire blazing the passions of being and becoming. In the resonance of this enthusiasm I learned that The greek roots of Enthusiasm mean being inspired by a god or as an incarnate possession. The muse of enthusiasm sings and inspires this season of Contemplify. Each guest this season tends a contemplative fire, offering kinship and perspective. I raise glass around the fire to each of these resplendent souls. Over the course of our conversations we highlight the overrated and underrated notes of contemplative life, and ask quest

September 2021 Musing on Ralph Waldo Emerson's philosophy of life. Season 2 of Contemplify is getting warmed up on the stove. I'll let you know when it is ready to be served. Visit contemplify.com

This marks the 100th episode of Contemplify. We celebrate the triple digit with a musing and an announcement.

A contemplative musing on machines, lifeblood, and facing the facts of life.  Visit contemplify.com for more shenanigans  

Scott Ballew is songwriter from Austin, Texas. He earns his keep as the Head of Films and Commercials at YETI, producing and directing films that inspire a life well-lived. During the pandemic, Scott dusted off his guitar and got to writing songs, polishing them, and then to his own surprise, releasing an album out into the wild. Scott Ballew’s first album is called Talking to Mountains. In our conversation we talk about the genesis of his album, the relationship between sobriety and creativity, the entanglement of humor and sadness, how legendary Texan songwriter Terry Allen helped form Scott’s artistic backbone, the perennial life questions that have been peppering him throughout his entire life and a good deal more. You can listen to Scott Ballew’s album Talking to Mountains on all the streaming services or head over to leisurerodeo.com to get your mitts on a cassette or an LP. And you read that right, that’s leisurerodeo.com.

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.

Jeffrey Foucault is a top shelf songwriter. Foucault has a slew of albums worth your collection and his latest album, 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.  Our conversation holds the tenor of two respectful Midwesterners holding court while a storm blows in. A storm was coming to blanket Jeffrey’s place with feet of snow while I was sitting easy in the desert with pints of coffee peppering him with questions about literary influences like Jim Harrison and Barry Lopez, crafting an album, humor, Greg Brown, Chris Dombrowksi, fishing, and why poetry belongs in bars. These themes and much more built a trellis of conversation to cover us from the winter storm and desert heat. Doesn’t get much better than this for m

Andrew Krivak is the author of three novels: The Signal Flame (2017), a Chautauqua Prize finalist, and The Sojourn (2011), a National Book Award finalist and winner of both the Chautauqua Prize and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize for fiction, and his latest novel, The Bear. In our conversation you hear of Andrew’s formation as a Jesuit, our dwelling in the depth dimension of now, how his novel The Bear relates to that dimension and is also a manifesto against interiority, and so much more. Friends, I read The Bear and found it to be an incredibly moving novel about place, presence, courage and strength in uncertain times. And let’s face it, all times are uncertain. I have bought, loaned, recommended The Bear to countless people. After this conversation you will understand why. Visit Contemplify.com to learn more.

Fred Bahnson is an immersion journalist of the soul and one of my favorite public contemplative intellectuals. If you’ve been hanging out around Contemplify, you have likely heard his name or seen links to his work. And I am sure that won’t be changing anytime soon. His most recent piece appears in Harper’s Magazine and is called ‘The Gate of Heaven is Everywhere’. It charts the contemplative turning in our times with gusto, charm, and sustained attention to the deep roots of the Christian contemplative tradition. Check it out, you’ll dig it.  Much of our conversation plunges into Fred’s book, Soil and Sacrament which is a record of a pilgrimage of depth across the topsoil of sundry landscapes. Bahnson traverses through community gardens (Christian & Jewish), a Bennedictine monastery, and communal subsistence farming in Mexico. Within these pages, The incarnational questions I always walk around with in the back pocket of my heart echo throughout - how then shall I live? How then shall we live? 

Beverly Lanzetta is a profound teacher who invites her readers and students to engage in the fullness of Mystery each day through the cultivation of practice and rhythm. I was elated to get my mitts on her latest book A New Silence: Spiritual Practices and Formation for the Monk Within. Our conversation flows out of this work, we talk about contemplation rhythms, parenting, the archetype of the monk, the via feminia and so much more. Reflecting on A New Silence makes up the bulk of our conversation today, but I want to really emphasize how A New Silence provides many exercises and practical ways of moving into a monastic way of life. A New Silence is for any seeker who hears the call to a contemplative path in their own context.

I’m closing this Advent Series 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. Visit Contemplify.com

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.  Check out Chris Dombrowski’s work at cdombrowski.com Check out Jonathon Stalls’ work at intrinsicpaths.com Visit Contemplify.com

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 Pray

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