A note from Carl:
Greetings friends,
Let us begin this newsletter with a blessing from Jaiya John:
“Let us see how deeply we can hold each other today. In all our suffering and joy and empathy. In the decidedness of action. In the bread of servitude. In the chapel of our tears and sanctuary of our sacrifice. May we fortify the temple and shrine and mosque of our mercy. May we declare bankrupt the merchancy of violence and the obsolescence of oppression. Our mourning offers itself to us as miracle, that we may dare a new world. Our morning offers itself to us as a clarified canvas for change. We will not choose massacre as our God. Not anywhere that it flares. Behold our Love eruption. You and I, we are settling the bills of our ancestors. The toll is terrible. Our endowment is of might and mountains. They have left us their centuries of Grace. Huddle now by the fire. Hold each other close. Let us see how preciously we can exist today in the demanding sunlight of the Beauty Way.”
– Jaiya John
Let us see how preciously we can exist today in the demanding sunlight of the beauty way. Yes.
In this newsletter, I invite us to reflect together on practice. For those of you who have been around me and Erin for a while, you know that practice is a central part of our work, our relationship, our community, our lives. When we first met by the shiny, fire-engine red coffee roaster at Oasis Cafe in Salt Lake City in 1996, our first conversation centered around our passion for practice and the lineages we shared.
We are delighted to share three new podcasts we have recently recorded around Practices of Presence, Practices of Depth and Soul and Practices of Reconnection and Remembrance and why they matter. We hope you are as lit up by these themes are we are, and we always love to hear from you on reflections, insights, questions that come from listening.
I really can’t imagine meeting these times without practice as a ballast. A dedicated time each day to tune to what is most essential. As Suzuki Roshi said, “The most important thing is to remember the most important thing.”
We are living in these mythic times where the most precious resource of our attention is being actively harvested by well-paid humans who research what most effectively hooks us. Clicks, dings, notifications, reels and doomscrolling, that evoke outrage and political polarizations. And just to be clear, these times are indeed outrageous. Screens are often the last thing we see before bed and one of the first things we see in the morning. Including in our busy lives practices of presence, practices of depth and soul, and practices of reconnection and remembrance feels so essential.
I often reflect on the reports of the birds, mammals, and insects who fled the danger zone before the devastating tsunami of 2004 struck land in Southeast Asia. Many of us feel in our animal bodies the tsunami of change that will be unfolding in the next decades – including AI, climate unravelling, endless wars – the list goes on and on. In this interconnected world, I’m not sure there is any place to flee to, or any higher ground that will be untouched. But we can practice. We can deepen the skills and capacities that we aspire to embody in this world, now and in the future. We can reconnect every day to what is most important. I love the invitation from Brother David Steindl-Rast to approach this day as though it were our first day of being alive or our last day of being alive. If this was your first day or your last day, how do you want to live?
May you find deep support in the practices and relationships that offer you essential ballast and remembrance.
We are so excited to begin Refugia in a couple weeks! If you feel a call to join us, we encourage you to watch the video of the info call we had here, or feel free to drop a note if you have questions around whether or not it is a fit. We’d love to share this journey with you.
What to do with the stress, grief, and overwhelm of these times?
Immerse yourself in the healing waters of deep learning, embodied practice, and soulful community, so you can step into full participation with life and become the medicine these times are asking for.
Join Refugia. Steward Refugia. Become Refugia.
Refugia is for you if:
You care deeply about the state of the world and want to live your life as an act of love.
You’re ready to defect from the many ways domination causes harm in your body, mind, relationships, and the collective, and instead step into a more life-giving way of being.
You long to feel a sense of dignity and belonging – at home in your body, your community, your relationships, your work, the natural world, and the deep time story.
You want to deepen your presence and potency as you reclaim your attention and your soul from an overculture that would have you disembodied, stressed, dissatisfied, and distracted.
You’re seeking like-hearted community with people who share your commitment to loving the world in their own unique ways. You don’t want to be told there is “one right way” to show up and respond. You long for a respectful container of diverse, authentic, caring adults.
You want to nurture an authentic practice of embodying your unique soul medicine and your ever-evolving answer to what Mary Oliver called the only question: How to love this world?
Wishing you well,
Carl
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