Enlighten: Uplift & Inspire

My guest today is Stephen Selman. Stephen is a musician, educator, amateur astronomer and entrepreneur. He studied guitar and songwriting at Berklee College of Music in Boston, appreciating not only the other musicians he befriended there, but how the confidence to create was instilled in him. Stephen embraces the philosophy of his work place, Brooklyn Music Factory, which believes that music is for everybody, music is FUN, and music is a social art form that is best enjoyed with others. Stephen has taught guitar and ensembles at Brooklyn Music Factory for the last 8 years, and recently took on the title of “Director of Big Music Games”. He created an app that kick starts the universal language of music, making it accessible to young children. He has loved that this exciting app project has stretched him, allowed him to collaborate with music teachers around the country, while integrating his love of computers with his passion for music! Stephen recalls a camping trip on a beach in Cape Cod, 10 years ago, watching Orion rise out of the ocean, that ignited his fascination with astronomy. As a member of the Amateur Astronomers Association of NY, Stephen happily star gazes throughout NYC. He describes the ingredients he values in his grounded, healthy, loving relationship with his wife, Kat Selman, who was a recent guest of mine. We discuss his courage to explore diverse interests, expand his identity, follow his curiosity, and the inspiration he finds in people who take risks.  Check out the show notes for links to Stephen’s new app Big Music Games. Enjoy the podcast! Links: Brooklyn Music Factory (Instagram) Brooklyn Music Factory (Web Site) Big Music Games Amateur Astronomers Association of NY

My guest today is Laura Rodgers. I met Laura in yoga classes 6 years ago, yet learned in this conversation that she had been a dancer, studied yoga for 25 years, is a newly devoted vegan, and a passionate philanthropist. Beyond health and environmental reasons, Laura explains her recent shift to becoming a vegan; she cares deeply about  not harming any sentient beings. Laura describes her injury while a dance major at  Sarah Lawrence, as a blessing, which then led her to study psychology at NYU and complete her masters in Social Work at Yeshiva University. She credits her 7-day-soul-searching, healing retreat she attended 10 years ago through the Hoffman Process as a life-changing, transformative experience. Laura shares openly about being in recovery, her deep love and admiration for her 18 year old, her reconciliation and renewed connection with her second husband, someone she divorced over a decade ago, but who has recently become very important in her life. She humbly admits that life and love don’t fit into a neat little box, and is happy to be open to life’s unfolding mysteries.   Laura has devoted herself to various non-profit organizations she strongly believes in, making generous financial contributions as well as serving on leadership councils, advisory boards, and organizing fundraising campaigns for the arts, integrative health and wellness, and animal sanctuaries. Enjoy the podcast! Links: Hoffman Process Roundabout Theater Gentle Barn Insight Meditation Society Graff Center (Integrative Health Center within Englewood Hospital) New York Insight Dharma Voices for Animals Keno Farm Sanctuary in Brooklyn

My guest today is Douglass DeCandia. Doug is a conscientious farmer, restorative justice activist and a gifted poet, who happens to be my first cousin once removed. Doug describes growing food as an act of providing nutrition, for people to live more fully physically, emotionally and spiritually. He is also dedicated to using restorative and regenerative agricultural methods that help heal what we have done to the land. Doug cares deeply about providing food for those who are systemically discriminated against because of who they are, where they live and where they are from. Doug is the  Sustainable Food Growing Coordinator for the Westchester (New York) Food Bank (recently renamed “Feeding Westchester”), where he has expanded vegetable gardens in a residential treatment school, a school for the deaf,  2 juvenile detention centers, and at the Westchester land trust.  I am so inspired by Doug’s wisdom, sensitivity and the integrity in which he walks upon our precious earth. I call Doug, my modern day Wendell Berry.  Enjoy the podcast! Links: Check out Doug’s poetry on http://diggersdig.blogspot.com/ https://feedingwestchester.org/ https://patch.com/new-york/tarrytown/inmates-help-food-bank-feed-hungry http://intoxikate.com/food-bank-for-westchester-launches-gardening-101-series/ http://bedford2020.org/vegout/locallook/dougdecandia.html http://www.gracelinks.org/blog/1080/our-heroes-doug-decandia-of-the-food-bank-for-westchester https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2014/04/14/community-gardens-grow-food-poor/7723745/ http://www.bionutrient.org/site/news/good-dirt-growing-better-food-bedford

My guest today is Dana Forbes. Professionally Dana is a Gestalt therapist and co- facilitator of Intuition Groups for psychotherapists. Personally I know that Dana practices a soulful therapy that has Spirit at the center of his work. In fact, I think of Dana as a modern day theologian, one who sees God in everything, embodies mysticism, and understands the web of connectedness.

Dana shares highlights of his spiritual journey, from his rich memories of working hard, in the sun, on a boat in Block Island, to being ‘hounded’ by the God of Christianity, to heeding a call to the priesthood, starting a monastery in RI, to rejecting the dogma of Catholicism and leaving the monastery, to struggling to define what it meant to follow his bliss, to eventually becoming a psycho/spiritual therapist.

Dana delights in telling stories of synchronicity, mystery and his wondrous, uncanny encounters with that which is beyond the physical realm. He has felt the profound, palpable presence of God running through his body. His openness and receptivity to that unconditional Love allows Dana to see God in everyone and everything. Enjoy the podcast!

My guest today is Kathryn Selman (also known as Kat). I had the honor of officiating Kathryn’s wedding last summer at a beautiful barn, called Gratitude and Grace, 2 attributes that capture Kathryn and her husband, Stephen. Kat is a vocalist, singer-songwriter, music educator and most recently a marketing director for the Brooklyn Music Factory. Kat gracefully blends jazz, Brazilian and pop, into her compositions, and is about to release her first album. Ross Pederson, my guest last week, produced, mixed and played drums on Kathryn’s record, along with being musical director in the studio. She is so grateful to Ross for helping shape the record. Kathryn is a self taught ukulele and mandolin player, and recently picked up the electric bass, which she now plays in an all female punk band called Ladybits!    In addition to music, Kathryn loves learning, as she cultivates her many interests, gifts and passions. She invests time and energy in crafts, nature, innovative projects, nutrition, travel and social justice activism. Come hear and support Kathryn at her record release show on Sunday July 15th 5-6pm at Rockwood Music Hall in NYC. Enjoy the podcast! Links:

Bandcamp www.katselmanmusic.com www.ukulelecat.com Plastic Ocean Project

Instagram: @katselman     @ukulelecatforkids     @ladybitsband