This week we’re stepping into a new series at C3 called Quiet Practices for Loud Times and Brad Ruggles leads us off with his talk, "Silence."

Cait West, author of Rift: A Memoir of Breaking Away from Christian Patriarchy, shares her own prespective.

Michael Dewilde returns as Core Teacher this week. Accompanying Michael will be a few GVSU students, who have agreed to share their perspectives on the topic, “The Purpose of the University in an Era of AI, Animosity, and Anxiety.”

Michael Dewilde provides an interesting reflection on people, society, and its norms.

Our own Beth Buelow presents her talk on, "What's Mine? Thoughts, on Saying, Doing, and Caring.

Our own C3 member Tod Wyn fills in for Brad Ruggles this week and delivers his talk about the courage of giving up.

We arrive at Winter Solstice, the longest night and shortest day of the year. In a season when many of us feel the weight of less light and, at times, the heaviness of depression. Instead, we’ll explore what it means to walk together into the dark and to meet winter with honesty, gentleness, and open hearts.

This is the season of darkness - the days are getting shorter.  We are invited into the quiet of the dark. We explore how we can find light in the darkness - and how we can do that individually, as well as together. There are tools that assist us in tending the light, and Ruth will guide us to consider what we want to carry with us in the dark.

We pick up where the snowstorm left us and land the plane on our Memento Mori series with a talk called “The Good Death.” For centuries, many cultures have had their own sense of what makes a “good death” and how to prepare for it.

Liz Freedman, who is earning her End of Life Doula certification, adds to our series by talking about grief, death and dying.