MEND Season 3 - Episode 57

Finding your WHY with Amy Day

“He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.” 
― Friedrich Nietzsche

Thank you for your forbearance during this last, little unscheduled absence. As you’ll hear inside the episode, I’ve been needing some time to rest. To renew. To step away and remember the bigger picture behind all this busy-ness of Life. The WHY of this project and of all I’ve chosen to step into.

So, now. Back. Behind the mic and the laptop.

Ready to step into the next iteration of this project and to share with you…

*some of the talk I gave awhile back ago at the local Unitarian Universalist Fellowship - on TRUST. On trusting the role you have to play in the larger web of this Life. No matter how small. On honoring and steadfastly weaving the unique thread that you carry. On stepping in - All In - armed with intention, skill & vision - to the work, projects, relationships & even play - to which you are called. And Why it matters.

Just me - talking briefly about the work of engaged spirituality. And the reminder that we never truly know at the outset what the end result of our actions will be. The seeds we plant may be humble. Simply providing a lush path for others to step onto. Some of them may bloom in a mighty and prolific way. But we need to keep planting. Keep tilling. Keep scattering seeds. And it is not to us to determine how they will grow.

And if you find yourself in a quagmire, as I was not too long ago - lacking energy, lacking momentum, vision, JOY. Come back to your own great WHY. The vision that fuels all the tiny what’s and how’s and when’s inside your everyday. How do they line up? And are the actions of your daily life - really & truly - feeding into the bigger picture you seek?

……….

To find out more about the things/links/communities/resources mentioned on today’s show, visit:

• TheWorkofTheseHands.com - for coaching, yoga, and a little virtual hug from yours’ truly.

• HUUF - the Humboldt Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, where I gave the talk and where the work of Engaged Spirituality really shows up.

MEND Season 3 - Episode 56

Any One of Us with Caterina Kein & Vanessa Vrtiak

Awhile back ago, you may remember, I got to speak to my good friend - poet & mother - Therese Fitzmaurice - who is one half of the spoken word collective “A Reason to Listen”, a grass-roots, Humboldt grown poetry collective.  

This month, I had the great pleasure of sitting down with the other half of this force for good in the Universe - ms. Vanessa Vrtiak.  Vanessa is a poet, social worker, and activist. She has self published 5 books of poetry, and is co-founder of A Reason to Listen. She has a MA in Public Sociology, and her thesis is titled: Reintegration in a Rural Community: Strengths, Barriers, and Recommendations for Reentry in Humboldt County.

In the weeks to come, Vanessa will be directing a play here locally on the North Coast.  Her 6th one in total, penned by the prodigious Eve Ensler - this one entitled - Any One Of Us - Words from Women in Prison.  

This play is a a collection of stories from formerly and currently incarcerated women from across the nation whose aim is toward healing, understanding, and change with the goal of using their writing and voices to impact policy, laws and treatment of incarcerated women. Together these writings reveal the deep connection between women in prison and the violence that often brings them there.

I sat down to speak with both Vanessa - and the lovely and articulate Caterina Kein - who has a background in criminal justice and works as part of the philanthropy program at St. Joseph’s hospital in Eureka, CA - and is also one of the actors for this production.  

Together, we spent about an hour talking about the sytemic issues women face both in and outside the system.  The culturall biases and hurdles they face when they go to re-enter society.

And - perhaps - most importantly - what we can do - inside our small, daily actions - to shine a light - and shift the landscape inside this portion of the world.  

We talked about the bridge between Art & Action.

And overcoming & dismantling the narratives we’ve inherited & creating new ones not only for ourselves - but for those who have been caught inside, penalized and degraded by a system - whose aim on paper is said to be that of Rehabilitation.  

But in actuality, can often be anything but.

I urge you to sit with these wise women.

To take a moment to invite their stories to land isnide your heart.

I invite you to carve out an evening to go see this play and to sit inside the brave space that they’ve created for us all to collectively share for the night.

It is inside these spaces we glimpse what is possible.

It is inside these moments, we catch a spark of what can be.  

We open ourselves to new possibilities.

We allow ourselves to be broken open so that something new can be born.

I want to thank these two powerful women for sitting and talking with me for an hour - and for the wonderful work they are doing in our local world.

May these words inspire and hearten you.  

May they do what Art does best - namely - create a catalyst for change first inside your own heart - that fans from there - out into the waking world.  

MEND Season 3 - Episode 48

Yoga for the Revolution with Carrie Ingoglia

Happy Voting Day!!!!!

If you’ve listened long enough to this show, you know I am a semi-proud member of the woo club.

I’ve drunk the wheat-grass-flavored koolaid and donned the galaxy-themed stretchy pants and played joyous, studious & deeply-driven rounds of solo Twister on my little sticky mat.  

For better or worse, I am a self-identified yogi.

But, as you also may know, I tend to want to throw up some caveats and barriers between me and that crowd.  

Yogis as white, affluent, cis-gendered folks who achieve enlightenment through bettering their handstands.  

Nope.  Not it.

Yogis who, when confronted with the atrocity of gun-violence or police brutality or the proposed erasure of non-binary peoples, prefer to do a little slow-motion disco on their sticky mats, send light & love, and let some other, less spiritual being do the dirty work of confronting this icky bit of humanity.  

Please don’t toss me in this bin.

Yogis who think it’s enough just to concentrate on elevating their own vibration as a way to make the world a better place.

Yogis who use practice as a way to retreat from the world and it’s problems rather than a way to arm ourselves to confront them.

Yogis who use spirituality as just one more consumer product they can buy, soak up, and then toss by the wayside as it suits them, spraying themselves in its’ ephermal mist and never letting its’ harder teachings penetrate the skin.

As you can see, I’ve got some beef with the current mainstream yoga culture, as it were.  

So, it’s always a delight and a surprise when I come across someone who is using the practice to move counter to the culture.

Who is not so fixated on the perfect handstand, but, rather on using the physical practice to perfect their character, learn how to sit with the uncomfortable and confront injustice both inside themselves and in the world.

These are the types of conversations I love to have.

So, I was thrilled to have this talk with Carrie Ingoglia, an Ayurvedic Yoga Teacher, who is the writer and producer of the podcast Yoga For the Revolution. I say more about this inside the intro of the talk, so listen up for more details about that.

Carrie and I talked about carrying the practice beyond the mat, learning how to be uncomfortable and some of the people we look to in this world of the spiritual who are also doing real-world good, as well.  

Far from a conversation with two polished, lifelong devotees & activists, what you are about to listen to is a real-life chat between two, heartfelt, imperfect women who are wanting to do better.  Who are not always certain of what the next step is, but are willing to move into the gap, nonetheless.

Like the physical practice, it is always an invitation.  To get quiet. To see where we are moving out of alignment - with our hearts, our beliefs and our calling.  And to take steps - humble, daily, faltering ones - to move out into a better way forward.

For more on Carrie, her podcast and the other great work that she does, make sure to check the show notes.  And, as always, if this chat has touched you in any way, and you want to add to the conversation, please make sure to leave a rating and review in iTunes.  

And, of course, if you haven’t already, get out there and cast your ballot.  

It’s not the be-all-end-all, of course for righting the wrongs of our culture.  

Voting doesn’t buy us a free pass to go back to whatever-ing the other 364 days of the year, right?

But it’s a start.

MEND Season 2 - Episode 43

Spiritual Capital

with Carolyn Baker

Everyday we are faced with the evidence of global collapse…ecosystems around the world are dying or shifting rapidly, the number of people in the world far outnumbers what the earth can support, extreme weather is becoming a regular occurrence, ice caps are melting faster than previously feared, animal and plant species are dying off daily and we humans are becoming more insistent on our technologies, our machines, our tearing away at the flesh of the earth.  

Many of us feel the pain and anguish of this deeply and often ask ourselves,

How are we to cope?

Where do we pull our resources and our energy and take a stand?

What is our work in these times?

The grief so often can be overwhelming.

There is, however, a light in the dark night of our collective soul.

Carolyn Baker is a former psychotherapist and prolific author on the subjects of resiliency, spirituality, activism and how we as humans find our way in the murky and terrifying waters of global collapse.  Through the avenues of webinars, podcasts live workshops, books, articles, one-on-one life coaching and more, she assists people in “preparing for the dire consequences of the collapse of industrial civilization and abrupt climate change.” Her long list of books, along with links to articles, programs, speaking events, upcoming classes and information on the work that she does, can be found on her website carolynbaker.net. 

Carolyn observes that every person walking around today is traumatized and overwhelmed by the catastrophes, the destruction, the impending doom of our world.  But she urges us to allow that grief of this to be the power of our activism.  We may not be able to avert the affects of climate change or destruction by nuclear war, but we can do our shadow work, deepen our connections to each other and to the earth…we can, and should, be of service, build bridges of humanity, create and cultivate joy in our lives…and open up to the divine… this is what we are called to do.