Preparing for a Pilgrimage to Patmos, Greece with Krista Tippett and Pádraig Ó Tuama

A Wonder Project!

From June 22 to July 8, my partner Stephen and I will travel to and from Patmos, Greece, to attend a salon with Krista Tippett, Pádraig Ó Tuama, and musicians Joe Henry, Allison Russell, and JT Nero.

WONDER!!

Patmos is an Aegean island in the Dodecanese island group where St. John the Theologian is said to have written the Book of Revelation. It’s also where Thomas Merton’s best friend Robert Lax made a hermitage and spent the end of his life as a mystic poet. Lax wrote the brilliant The Circus of the Sun, an illumination of his encounters with an Italian traveling circus. I’ve followed Merton, Lax, and those who were part of a brilliant art and theology hub in the 20th century.

It’s a wonder to me that my initiation into seminary in 1979 was to perform in an original theater piece on The Book of Revelation, OmegAlpha, written by Professor Wayne Rood. Dancing the roles of Babylon and The White Horse, my first theokinetic challenge was to enter in and ensoul the apocalyptic, prophetic vision of a radical 1st-century mystic/poet.

WONDER!!

Greece. The Book of Revelations. Robert Lax. Krista Tippett. Pádraig Ó Tuama. Greek Goddesses and a 10-day Journey into the Common Good, an extended conversation that asks: how can we speak to each other in a way that moves us all, individually and collectively, to growth, learning, creativity, and change?

An irresistible quest. Stephen and I were pulled, so I applied for a scholarship, even though I rarely sign up to travel unless I am called to teach and some gentle person offers to transport me. Neither personal finances nor the cost to Earth warrant extravagant travel. As James Roberts in his Into the Deep Woods Substack says,

…most of the people I’ve met on my travels, the residents, rarely go more than a few miles from their birthplace. We Westerners arrive in our homelands, breeze around like we own the place, then go home with our cameras and smartphones loaded with images to show at dinner parties or on our Instagram accounts. As far as I can tell, all we contribute to the world while traveling is a small amount of foreign currency and a lot of carbon dioxide. As the thinker I value above most, Steven Jenkinson, says. “If you want to help these places, stay home.” But some forms of travel are wonder projects.

A WONDER PROJECT?

It's a wonder to be celebrating 45 years of marriage this year and entering my 70th decade in May when I turn 69.

It’s a wonder to be four years out of my role as cofounder of InterPlay, ending my first year on substack and finishing my first year of publically opening the treasure chest I call The Art of Ensoulment: A Playbook on How to Create from Body and Soul.

It’s a wonder, as I wrote in the application, to dream that I could

publicly transmit the grace that will arise from being in embodied connection with gifted and sensitive leaders at the salon. To join and serve group members in supportive ways which could include my expertise in guiding brief, improvised stories, movements, and songs that elicit and reveal wisdom that wants to arise.

My finanical need is based in the reality that I am a pioneer and entrepreneur by necessity, not by choice. I teach people to embody and ensoul life in a way that feels organic and natural. As I do, I address systemic diseases and injustice by reigniting our creative birthrights, having discovered that sacred play leads us back to our lost spiritual intelligence and morality. As a dancing, white theologian, I bring a unique and discounted point of view. In my Protestant lineage people don't dance to think, pray, or discern, yet health often depends on being ensouled in the dance of life. I see the dance of life continuously rise among black, indigenous, and global majorities.

The good I do is on behalf of a Greater Good. In gratitude, I continue to train, honor, and credential mystics, artists, and healers as we navigate the Motherboard of Imagination in our times.

Meanwhile, the finanical impacts of my path result from one of my harder initiations. I answered a call to renounce my ordination. By the time Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans I was enraged. I’d witnessed racism run through my liberal Christian lineage in the ways we discount the dance of life in body and soul in indigenous, formerly enslaved people, and in our dominant systems. While I maintain a loving connection to churched people, I no longer hold vows. Without institutional support, I found my way onto the entrepreneurial path as a dancing teacher, mystic and artist.

Much of what I create is due to the generosity of my friends.

The Good Journeys organizers offered us a partial scholarship. Now to pay the mounting credit card bill!

Would you like to follow the Patmos journey? I’ll be sharing anecdotes and images from the journey with paid subscribers!

In addition, I am prepping upcoming substacks for all readers on
1) Sensitivity to Evil,
2) Three depth-charged initiations that lead me to say, “I take my whiteness upon myself as a condition of my liberation,”
3) Wisdom Teachings from the Dying to Live Cabaret,
4) What I’ve learned from Dancing in Cathedrals,
plus my Cure-ations, monthly gatherings of beauty, and ensouled wisdom.

Financial support is needed at the moment. I’d be grateful if you could subscribe for a year or a few months. Deep Bows.

The Dying to Live Cabaret Is On!

I don't know about you, but I'm grieving loved ones, identities, former abilities, whole eras that I've held dear. My partner Stephen, a retired hospice chaplain, started his dance with grief at age twelve when his mom died of breast cancer. That’s why Stephen and I are hosting,

The Dying to Live Cabaret
This Friday, May 3, 4-6 pm Pacific

And I am over the moon thrilled about Sheila Collin's new book, The Art of Grieving. It's about how the arts and art-making help us grieve and live our best lives now. Sheila is a brilliant and too experienced grief advocate. She knows that

"Loss is inevitable, yet too often we bury our grief, pretending we’re OK when we’re not. Instead, learn the magical ways art transforms grieving! (No art skills required.)"

Because I expect to be grieving more, not less, in the future, I need artful places to welcome grief. Come, and we’ll gently honor our grief and gratitude for life. In the first hour, we'll humbly bow to our current relationship with death and dying. Sheila will share from her book! In the second hour, witness or sign up to share a spontaneous or prepared story, song, dance, poem, reading, or image on behalf of anything you're mourning. We'll conclude with a dance on behalf of Life. 

Link here to join the cabaret. Donations are welcome but not required.