Reflecting a year removed from a retreat I took myself on, I ponder what it looks like to create retreats for myself in “the real world” and how I can use my natural gifts to enter more deeply into relationship with God, myself, and the world.
Digging Deeper into Social Media
Maybe we’re just living in a world full of limited options for community. Maybe behind our “obsession” with social media is really just an “obsession” with the human community.
We Need to Talk About China
Right now, in Xinjiang, China’s far western province, roughly one million people are being detained in extralegal internment camps (the state calls them “re-education centers”). Those detained are mostly Uyghers, a mostly-Muslim Turkic ethnic group.
So Much More Than Mud Huts
Until I lived there, South Sudan was more of a concept than an actual place. But in the spring of 2018, I got an email from a Jesuit priest who was the Country Director for the Jesuit Refugee Service in South Sudan.
Becoming an Artist, Again
My experiment in regaining a sense of curiosity, creativity, and playfulness not just in the times I set aside to indulge my wannabe artist but, in my life overall.
Guest Post: Advent Birthing
I love the imagery and symbolism of pregnancy and birth during this time of Advent, because it is so rich with meanings and also of course because I love accompanying women as they prepare and work to bring new life into the world.
Travel Diaries
It is often only when I am traveling and “off the clock” that I can remove myself from the to-do list grind and see others consistently.
Listen Up: There’s Power in What You Put in Your Ears (Part 2)
Is it ethical for us to enjoy listening to music from artists who have displayed harmful and oppressive behavior? Should we separate the artist from the art?
The Guest House
Rumi’s “The Guest House” is an invitation to be present to whatever season of life you are in, and to entertain the moment to moment experience of it. As someone who is still learning to acknowledge, accept, and appreciate all emotions, I find Rumi’s words both comforting and challenging.
The Mystery of Mystical Experience
How do we know if we’ve had a true mystical experience? We look at 7 characteristics of mystical experience and try to put language to what is a very complex phenomenon.
Listen Up: There’s Power in What You Put in Your Ears (Part 1)
Music has always been influential and, in turn, political. If our news source can massively influence the way we perceive events, people, and issues, wouldn’t something as prominent as music make just as much of an impact in the digital age?
My Principles
I’m the sort of nerd who likes to articulate my principles. I love being able to recite these words in times of prayer and lean on them in times of stress. My articulations of my principles are largely borrowed from Thich Nhat Hanh’s mindfulness trainings, but I have gone ahead and made some modifications of my own.
Radical Friendship
I’ve recently started to re-examine what Arrupe actually meant by love in his “Fall in Love” prayer. What if we treated our friendships with the same kind of intentional love as other relationships?
Purpose Outside of Production — Is it Possible?
I’ve come to realize this past year that the striking contrast between being a JV and a capitalist actor manifests in the relation of myself to the rest of the world — a cataclysmic shift from freely and generously giving my time to speculating and assessing the monetary estimate of my productivity.
The Wisdom of Emptiness
Although we, as Catholics, make a commitment to the “one, holy, and apostolic church”, I have found a spiritual connection to Buddhism: a relationship that possibly expands and further explains what I value in the Catholic tradition.
