Soul + Practice: Raw Conversations & Real Practices with Kathy Escobar & Phyllis Mathis

We love having interesting conversations with our friends, finding hope and healing and resonance in hard places. Mary Rader catalyzed our 12 Steps for Anti-Racism group at The Refuge and we just all got back from our 2nd Civil Rights Learning Trip to Alabama a few weeks ago. In this episode Mary shares more about what happens when we are confronted with truth about our history, white supremacy, and supremacist logic and how it's all a mix of soul work and practice. More on the Truth and Transformation 12 Steps by Melvin Bray at collabyrinthconsulting.com and Equal Justice Institute at eji.org.

For President's Day this year in the US we decided just to ramble a bit about what we're learning about the truth of our history and what that's doing inside of us as we grow and change. It's all a hot mess. Happy $*!^$&!()% Presidents Day!

We love playing with friends and in this episode Ryan Taylor joins us for a fun conversation about the power of simple, unplugged, wild, and free spirituality that looks nothing like what a lot of the shiny we have been sold. Ryan's a mystic, person of presence, spirituality director, author of Awkward Spirituality: The Divinity of Ordinary Life and someone who brings us hope. It's always in the underground.

Yeah, we decided to mix it up this week and just have a light and easy convo about the Oscars. Even though at the time of recording Phyllis had only watched 3 of the movies (ha!) we had a lot to talk about. If you're an avid movie fan, don't be too annoyed with us!

We always love talking about the 4 Gateways (we did 5 episodes on it several seasons ago)--Lover, Magician, Warrior, Sovereign or Feeling, Thinking, Doing, Being. As we enter into a new year, it's a great time to consider how we can nourish our Sovereign and this episode is focused on its 4 Food Groups--Validation, Support, Inspiration, Blessing. Eat as much of that as we can!

We've talked a lot about the lies of white supremacy, Christian supremacy, male supremacy, and a lot of other supremacies over the last few years, but this episode is about one of them that doesn't get much play--"a certain kind of family supremacy." What's baked into our cultures and systems about what's better than others that's seeped into how we feel about ourselves and others? As culture changes, we're trying to let go of old entanglements that get in the way of freedom (and love!).

We love playing with kindreds and in this episode we interview Amber Cantorna-Wylde, author of several books including her most recent--Out of Focus: my story of shame, sexuality, and toxic evangelicalism. An LGBTQ+ advocate and community cultivator, Amber brings so much wisdom, honesty, and challenge to the table and we feel so grateful to have her voice here. More on her work at ambercantornawylde.com.

Sometimes, thinking about the human condition and the reality of suffering in the world is just too overwhelming, especially when the stories we rely on to keep our balance no longer hold up. How do we create lives worth living in the face of suffering, horror, and the very real threats to humanity and our earth right now? And why should we bother? Welcome to this raw conversation about how to be a non-delusional human being in the midst of all the mess.

Oh, the holidays stir up so much for so many. In this last episode of 2023 we process some ways we can all find our way in as healthy of ways as possible as we keep practicing, together.

We loved hanging out and learning from our friend Joanna Douglas, who nurtures soul care and spiritual formation at The Refuge and facilitates workshops, groups, and teams using non-violent communication/mindful communication/compassionate communication tools (along with a lot of others, too!). This episode is filled with so many gems and we are grateful to have it in our archives to come back to as an extremely helpful resource.