Reduced to the Scale of Our Competence

David James Duncan is the author of the classic novels The River Why and The Brothers K, the story collection River Teeth, the nonfiction collection and National Book Award finalist, My Story as Told by Water, the best-selling collection of “churchless sermons," God Laughs & Plays. And lest we forget his latest, and what some have called his magnum opus, Sun House. Sun House has a reserved shelf space on my heart for the rest of my days. A winged book with scraped knee mountain poetics, spiritual charisma bathed in creek water, and characters that I am still in conversation with to this day. In our wide-ranging conversation we talk about Sun House, Meister Eckhart and the Beguines, his band of spiritual rednecks, and so much more. Visit David James Duncan at davidjamesduncan.com Visit Contemplify.com

Season Five Trailer Contemplify.com

A musing on time, eternality, and childeren

A musing on limitations

A musing on wild things and ingesting God

Each solstice and equinox Contemplify offers a public Lo-Fi & Hushed contemplative practice session for both free and supporting subscribers of the Non-Required Reading List. For those interested, go tell it on the mountain… The third week of Advent salted on joy. Not because of the circumstances, but despite them. The work remains to create the conditions for the gift of joy to emerge. The candlelight had built around the Advent wreath and solstice was breaking into a light jog. The arms of Advent and winter solstice were outstretched, reaching towards embrace. We were so close to completing the circle. Our own sweet darkness yields in a protected and patient trust. Let us welcome the gift. Wendell Berry’s “To Know the Dark” was the vessel for the Winter Solstice Lo-Fi & Hushed Practice Session. You can follow the link to peek at the entire poem. Welcome this dark knowing into practice. May we show up with expectation under its seamless cloak. Advent rejoices within the crackles of reality. Let us slow our pace to hear this joyful song. visit contemplify.com

"Oshida’s life and legacy is an experience of the spiritual senses knowing the mystical voice. Biblical in sources and Buddhist in form, reading this book took me as a reader to the great pause of silence." — Sister Meg Funk, OSB   Lucien Miller received his PhD in comparative literature from Berkely and taught Comparative Literature and Chinese at the University of Massachusetts. He is a deacon, spiritual director, and author.  Lucien and I talk about his book, Jesus in the Hands of Buddha: The Life and Legacy of Shigeto Vincent Oshida, OP. Fr. Oshida taught with a clarity born of mystical devotion, bent towards right action, flowing from community.  Lucien regales me with stories about Fr. Oshida; his memorable first visit traveling to Takamori Hermitage that landed him in jail, Fr. Oshida’s elemental fire-mass, the foundational difference between word-idea and word-event, and much more. Visit Contemplify.com for shownotes

"You do not have to be good. You do not have to walk on your knees For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting. You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves." — 'Wild Geese' by Mary Oliver   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, and feels like shares the impact on her life. This conversation is a reminder that in times of anguish, joy, or suffering, practices keep our heart pumping and our internal hearth fired. Visit Carmen at carmenbutcher.com | IG: @cab_phd | Visit Contemplify.com Looking for a live practice with a dispersed community? A few options... Lo-Fi & Hushed Contemplative practice every Wednesday with Contemplify (virtual) Center for Spiritual Imagination (virtual and in-person)

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 has shaped her interest in deserts and solitude. She now divides her time between the lush Finger Lakes Region of New York State and the high desert of Southeastern Arizona. Dr. Haines-Eitzen and I talk about the Mennonite hymnal, learning to listen more deeply to our surroundings, the sounds of the desert monasticism, mediocrity, slow thinking, and practicing the cello in the dark, and much more. Visit Kim Haines-Eitzen at kimhaineseitzen.wordpress.com Visit contemplify.com

"I highly recommend What Makes You Come Alive to churches, religious and educational institutions, and spiritual seekers everywhere who are looking for an inward journey that finds its home in the world of nature, people, and things." — Walter Earl Fluker - Editor and Director of the Howard Thurman Papers Project 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. We talk about the contemplative imagination and depth of Thurman, his trust of the Spirit’s activity, and what he called “Working Papers”. Professor Brown has embodied the teachings of Howard Thurman and breathes them out in her own styling and language. More than once in this conversation, Professor Brown opened a window for me that I had painted shut. That is a rare gift. Visit leritacolemanbrown.com Visit contemplify.com for shownotes, NonRequired Reading List, Lo-Fi & Hushed Contemplative Practices Sessions.