Hey friends!

Season 3 episode 5, which is part two of this conversation exploring Ava DuVernay’s film Origin, has been a long time in coming! If you already listened to part one some time ago, may we recommend that you revisit it again before exploring this concluding episode? Both parts can serve as an introduction to the film, but they will make even more sense if you see the film first. 

To provide a little additional historical context, this whole conversation was recorded prior to the election in America. All over the world, the divisions we all face underline the importance of listening to personal stories told with care and honesty. It is for this reason, that we recommend Origin, and the book on which it is based, Isabel Wilkerson’s Caste, to you. Brittany and I are so thankful for the voice of our special guest, our Michael Jordan, who never played for the Chicago Bulls, but is a superstar for us! 

We hope you will collect a group of your own friends to watch the film and listen together for what it says to your lives. Our aim, as always, is to turn as many people as we can, towards and for one another. 

You can find other life-opening articles on our website at:

https://nexusonline.org/

Episode 4 of Opening Life Podcast is a conversation about a movie about a book. It’s also about the book’s author, Pulitzer Prize winning novelist, Isabel Wilkerson. The film, by director Ava DuVernay is called Origin. It’s a sensitive and powerful telling of Isabel’s journey writing the book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. The translucent soundtrack is by Kris Bowers, whose music-writing credits include the film Green Book, and the second season of Bridgerton.

As is our custom in our podcast, we feature the music prominently. This conversation between our guest Michael Jordan (a great soul but not a basketball player!) Brittany, and Kyle could serve as an excellent preparation for seeing the film, or as a conversation catalyst for those who have already seen the film or read the book. Both Origin and Caste are not to be missed. They are windows into one of humankind’s most enduring and life-diminishing practices. 

You can find other life-opening articles on our website at nexusonline.org

Opening Life Season 3, Episode 3

The Meaning in Metal

Dear friends, we hope this conversation between Kyle, Brittany and musician Tim Yearsley opens new avenues of understanding for you. In Nexus we believe every human story expands and deepens our sense of reality. The music you’ll hear says what is has to say with enormous conviction and feeling, and we think that’s a good thing! 

As always, we’d love to hear your thoughts about our conversation, and what it stirred inside of you. 

JKG

The Beyond Grace website is at:

https://www.beyond-grace.co.uk/

Beyond Grace is:

Andy Walmsley - vocals/bass

Tim Yearsley - guitar/vocals

Chris Morley - guitar

Ed Gorrod - drums

*****

The Burning Season (words and music by Beyond Grace)

On YouTube:

https://youtu.be/-4QvLXFIDWU?si=Th8ip-i8B4YMCzO6

Lyrics:

Welcome to the new dark ages!

Where cowards live like kings, while children rot in cages

Condemned to suffer for the crime of being born

And politicians preach, that only they can save us

From their mistakes and all the consequences of their failures

Wielding words like weapons in an endless culture war

Every accusation a confession of their true intentions

Banning books and burning pages

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing

Something to be feared, and something to be hated

This is how the new dark age begins

And when the lights go out, we shall not see them lit again

A new age of darkness has now descended on us

Like a swarm of locusts, bringing famine and disease

A vicious cycle we seem doomed to repeat

Banning books and burning pages

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing

Something to be feared, and something to be hated

This is how the new dark age begins

And in our darkest hour, we'll turn against each other

We'd rather set the world on fire, than ever face the truth

So beware the death of reason

Herald of the burning season

Banning books and burning pages

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing

Something to be feared, and something to be hated

This is how the new dark age begins

*****

Here Comes the Flood (words and music by Peter Gabriel)

On YouTube:

https://youtu.be/W7D4kinS_p8?si=gGUG_D0sa4aZvsWj

Lyrics:

When the night shows

The signals grow on radios

All the strange things

They come and go as early warnings

Stranded starfish have no place to hide

Still waiting for the swollen Easter tide

There's no point in direction

We cannot even choose a side

I took the old track

The hollow shoulder across the waters

On the tall cliffs

They were getting older, sons and daughters

The jaded underworld was riding high

Waves of steel hurled metal at the sky

And as the nail sunk in the cloud

The rain was warm and soaked the crowd

Lord, here comes the flood

We'll say goodbye to flesh and blood

If again the seas are silent, in any still alive

It'll be those who gave their island to survive

Drink up, dreamers, you’re running dry

When the flood calls

You have no home, you have no walls

In the thunder crash

You’re a thousand miles within a flash

Don't be afraid to cry at what you see

The actors gone, there’s only you and me

And if we break before the dawn

They'll use up what we used to be

Lord, here comes the flood

We'll say goodbye to flesh and blood

If again the seas are silent, in any still alive

It'll be those who gave their island to survive

Drink up dreamers, you’re running dry

Lord, here comes the flood

We'll say goodbye to flesh and blood

If again the seas are silent, in any still alive

It'll be those who gave their island to survive

Drink up dreamers, you’re running dry

Drink up dreamers, you’re running dry

*****

Another helpful resource for understanding the meaning of metal, mentioned by Tim in our conversation:

Metal: A Headbangers Journey

On YouTube:

https://youtu.be/chIeyxbVf_4?si=b8HzFX5XO_5MDswJ

Peace!

Season 3, Episode 2 - Pathmaking

In today’s conversation, Brittany, Kyle, and Nexus co-conspirators Craig and Mary Charnley explore what really happens in life as we search for our path forward, inspired by Spanish poet Antonio Machado’s paradigm-shifting poem, Caminante, No Hay Cammino (Pathmaker, There Is No Path).

The Spanish poem in it’s entirety (followed by an english translation):

Caminante, son tus huellas
el camino y nada más;
Caminante, no hay camino,
se hace camino al andar.
Al andar se hace el camino,
y al volver la vista atrás
se ve la senda que nunca
se ha de volver a pisar.
Caminante, no hay camino
sino estelas en la mar.

Traveler, your footprints
are the only road, nothing else.
Traveler, there is no road;
you make your own path as you walk.
As you walk, you make your own road,
and when you look back
you see the path
you will never travel again.
Traveler, there is no road;
only a ship's wake on the sea.

Antonio Machado 

Legendary Spanish singer Joan Manuel Serrat created his own song from Machado’s poem, and through it shaped the perspective of entire generation of Spanish listeners. 

We open and close the episode with Serrat’s song, beginning with the  original 1969 recording and closing with a live concert version recorded 50 years later in collaboration with Joaquin Sabina, joined by an enthusiastic crowd celebrating the poem and life with their singing. 

Serrat’s 1969 version is here:

https://youtu.be/8tHLw8FHlCE?si=HfYD2oMT81k8qlKl

A video of the 2019 performance is here:

https://youtu.be/7dT5ojKvcZk?si=_mc0f_5xuybq0cIy

You can find other life opening articles, on our website at:

https://nexusonline.org

Peace!

Welcome to Season 3, Episode 1 of Opening Life Podcast!

In today’s conversation, poet/playwright/comedian extraordinaire Phil Ginsburg joins Brittany and Kyle for a fun and (we hope, for you) profound exploration of Phil’s poem “Body Language.”

What do the various parts of our bodies have to say to one another and to us about how to be in the world? That’s our big question.

Phil’s latest collection In Pursuit of the Almost is available here:

⁠https://www.endeavorliterary.com/ginsburg⁠

The music in today’s episode is from the album “Sometimes I Wonder: the Music of Hoagy Carmichael, is available here:

https://caligolarecords.bandcamp.com/album/sometimes-i-wonder-the-music-of-hoagy-carmichael

You can find other life opening articles on our website at:

https://nexusonline.org/

Peace!

Your friends at Nexus

PS. If you would like our help in starting your own Nexus group with your friends, where you live, please contact us at:

[email protected]

Poetry Bob joins Kyle and Brittany to explore David Whyte's foundational poem, A Seeming Stillness. Once again we open the question of how we want to be in this world, with ourselves, and with everyone and everything else. Why do we seem so determined to deny our own vulnerability? We don't have all the answers, but we hope you are helped by our questions. 

A Seeming Stillness - by David Whyte

We love the movement in a seeming stillness, 

the breath in the body of the loved one sleeping,

the highest leaves in the silent wood, 

a great migration in the sky above: the waters of the earth, 

the blood in the body, the first, soft, stir in the silence beneath a strident voice, 

the internal hands of our mind,

always searching for touch, thoughts seeking other thoughts, 

seeking other minds, the great arrival of form

through all our hidden themes.

And this breath, in this body, able just for a moment to give and to take, 

to ask and be told, to find and be found, 

to bless and be blessed, to hold and be held.

We are all a sun-lit moment come from a long darkness, 

what moves us always comes from what is hidden, 

what seems to be said so suddenly has lived in the body for a long, long time.

Our life like a breath, then, a give and a take, a bridge, a central movement, 

between singing a separate self and learning to be selfless.

Breathe then, as if breathing for the first time, 

as if remembering with what difficulty you came into the world, 

what strength it took to make that first impossible in-breath, 

into a cry to be heard by the world.

Your essence has always been that first vulnerability of being found, 

of being heard and of being seen, and from the beginning

the one who has always needed, 

and been given, so much invisible help.

This is how you were when you first came into the world, 

this is how you were when you took your first breath in that world, 

this is how you are now, 

all unawares, in your new body and your new life, 

this is the raw vulnerability of your every day, 

and this is how you will want to be, and be remembered, 

when you leave the world. 

Kyle, Brittany and aspiring screen writer, Donte Slocum, explore connections between their life stories and the film Field of Dreams, 1989's nostalgic ode to life and baseball, starring Kevin Costner, Ray Liotta, and James Earl Jones. Along the way we explore the soul of sports and the meaning of dreams, unfulfilled and fulfilled, in our winding journeys. Composer James Horner's sweeping film score accompanies us into new horizons. 

Brittany and Kyle have drummer Greg Errico, from the legendary band, Sly and the Family Stone, join the podcast. Together they open two classic tunes, listening for what they said to the people that first heard them in the in the late Sixties, and what they say to our lives and world today. Join us for a marvelous musical journey, through the power of melody, lyrics and groove, into the heart of our common experiences as human beings. 

In this third and final episode opening Parker Palmer's foundational book, Kyle, Laurel and Brittany explore excerpts that speak to the present chapter of their stories. We continue reaching for the wisdom and encouragement we all need to simply be who we are in this exasperating and beautiful world that we live in. 

Kyle and Brittany continue their conversation with Laurel, exploring our need to give space to others and ourselves. Parker Palmer's insights free us to be real and heal.