Stephanie Cochrane lives in New Orleans, where she makes a good effort in any given week to notice the people around her—particularly those working in service roles. It's a way to help others feel visible, she says.

Thrumming beneath the surface is another deep concern of her heart, which is talking honestly about the challenges of church and faith. As someone who has been in churches where things went wrong or where behavior needed to meet a certain standard, she knows God's people don't do the best job representing God.

And when pain happens or questions come—when the people closest to us die, sometimes by their very own hand—these things have no neat or tidy answers. Stephanie cares that people find the freedom to talk about these things with each other. She also wants them to know the person of Jesus in that place.

In this conversation, we explore:

* The practice of seeing those in service roles as real, whole people

* What can happen to faith when a loved one takes their life

* The value of honest but not cynical conversations about faith and church

* Why the two extremes of deep grief aren't healthy places to stay

* The ripple effect each life can have on innumerable other lives

* The courage it takes to go first and how our worst fears in doing so aren't likely to be realized

Connect with Stephanie on her website and on Instagram at @stephaniehcochrane.

Connect with Christianne on Instagram at @christiannesquires or by subscribing to the Light Notes email list.

And consider applying to be a guest on the show! Fill out the guest application form here.

Annette Franklin and her husband, Tim, have always known a life of hospitality. It marked their marriage from its earliest days. But in recent years, that intention of hospitality has taken a more formal shape. They purchased a renovated a colonial-style home, called The House, near Middlebury College in Vermont, so as to make their home and presence easily accessible and readily available to college students—particularly those in the international community—and other marginalized populations in their town.

In this episode, we discuss:

* How this life of hospitality came to be a way of life for Annette and Tim

* What it was like to find, purchase, and renovate a home for this specific purpose

* What the students in their lives really want (hint: it's not big plans or clever programming)

* The hardest part about caring for college-aged students

* How you can offer different forms of hospitality in your own community too

I love the way Annette and Tim have found a way to be "love with skin on" to those in their community who are likely to be missing home at any given time.

Learn more by visiting The House website, and connect with Annette on Instagram at @annetteinvt.

Connect with Christianne on Instagram at @christiannesquires or by subscribing to the Light Notes email list.

And consider applying to be a guest on the show! Fill out the guest application form here.

Melissa Monroe has always cared about the human spirit dwelling in all of us, and she has been walking, even from a young age, toward a life that integrates the healing work of body, heart, mind, and spirit. Whether it's through healing Pilates, breathwork, Ayurvedic medicine, or poetry, Melissa brings her light to bear on the wholeness available to us all.

In this episode, we range over topics like:

* What it means to be a healer

* How our life experiences and values shape us for the work we choose

* What a "furious year of writing" helped Melissa reclaim about herself

* The struggle in finding the people our work is meant to serve

* The perplexities social media brings into our lives

I love how deep and wide Melissa's work has the potential to reach into each person's life she works with.

Connect with Melissa on her website and on Instagram at @melissa_rootedwholeness. Her poetry collection, Zen in the City, releases in spring 2020.

Connect with Christianne on Instagram at @christiannesquires or by subscribing to the Light Notes email list.

And consider applying to be a guest on the show! Fill out the guest application form here.

On today's episode of Bear the Light, we get to hear from Jen Willhoite of @cobbleworks. This woman is a wonder. She has a deep heart and creative gifts to the hundredth power.

We discuss the particular light she brings into the world through the illustrated stories she creates and shares on her Instagram page (one of whom is the beloved character she calls "a little potato person"), but the conversation goes so many wonderful places.

In this episode, we talk about:

* How Jen came to start drawing her little illustrated stories

* How honesty and conversation have always marked her relationship with the holy

* The limitations of language when it comes to talking about God and naming God

* How life is an ongoing experience of becoming

* And so much more, truly!

I hope you'll give it a listen and share how it touches you. Jen, thank you for the wonderful light that you are and the sparkling, deep, wide-ranging conversation I was privileged to share with you.

Connect with Jen on Instagram at @cobbleworks.

Connect with Christianne on Instagram at @christiannesquires or by subscribing to the Light Notes email list.

And consider applying to be a guest on the show! Fill out the guest application form here.

Anne Brock shares generously online about her experience of learning to live a good, full life in the midst of infertility, and she invites other women whose lives have been changed by that diagnosis to gather and do the same. In this conversation, we talk about how the path beyond an infertility diagnosis can go in different directions for different women and that there is no one path that fits every woman the same. For Anne, it's about leaning into what kind of life is possible once "childfree not by choice" becomes one's reality.

If you or someone you know has been given an infertility diagnosis, this episode is particularly for you and them.
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But if infertility is *not* your reality, this episode is *still* for you. And that's because this conversation shines a light on something so many women experience, helping all of us collectively understand it more and grow in our awareness of what it can look like for light to be brought into this space.
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In this conversation, Anne and I talk about:
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* What it's like to share publicly about such a personal subject
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* The difference between journaling and blogging
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* The various paths available to women diagnosed with infertility and why all paths are not created equal for all women
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* The hope that this kind of light—learning to live a good, full life in the midst of infertility—can bring to a reality that otherwise feels quite dark
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I hope Anne's story and leadership in this area touches you. If you know someone who could be particularly encouraged by this episode, I invite you to share it with them. Thank you, Anne, for a terrific conversation and for bearing the light with such brilliance. 🌟

Connect with Anne on her website and on Instagram at @livinginthemidst.

Connect with Christianne on Instagram at @christiannesquires or by subscribing to the Light Notes email list.

And consider applying to be a guest on the show! Fill out the guest application form here.

Noelle Rollins and her husband and two gigantic Newfoundland dogs live lightly in the desert of SoCal—when they're not tooling around the United States in their 15-foot teardrop trailer or scooting off to Europe or some other far-flung destination. Noelle has always been a bit unconventional, but the path to getting here, to this particular life, has been slow and intentional.

We range deep and wide into things like:

* Living an unconventional life of frequent travel and living lightly

* Asking deep, thoughtful questions of your life

* Making big changes with wisdom and responsibility

* Living with intention and in accordance with your values within your family

* Paying attention to the deep longings and desires of your heart—and how this isn’t selfish

I’m inspired by the intentional way Noelle and her husband live. And even though not all of us—or even many of us!—are called to the same unconventional lifestyle of travel and living lightly that they are, Noelle’s way of living into her particular light becomes an illumined gateway for the rest of us to consider how we’re living into ours.

Connect with Noelle on her website and on Instagram at @noelle_faithsetfree.

Connect with Christianne on Instagram at @christiannesquires or by subscribing to the Light Notes email list. 

In this introductory episode, get to know your host, Christianne Squires, and the vision behind the show. You're invited to sign up for the Light Notes email and to apply to be a guest on the show.

Connect with Christianne on Instagram