The Wilderness Journal

In troubled times, some people turn to binge watching television shows, some to food, some to drink. Angela turns to poetry. In this episode we explore how poetry and Liturgy intersect because in a technology laden, short attention, sound bite driven world we are often unaware of the deep poetry and lasting peace that Liturgy offers.

The preflight announcement on the plane always instructs us to “put our own mask on first” before helping someone else but how often do we take that advice in the normal day to day? On “self-care” and finding moments to stop and breathe.

What is stirring when we meet our rebel self? And when that rebel self shows up, what wisdom will we find there? On this episode of The Wilderness Journal, Angela explores the familiar landscape of rebellion, its role in conversion and in deepening our journey of faith.

This season of The Nativity, or Advent, is busy for us. Preparation is our watch-word, but too often our attention is co-opted by the commercial side of things– shopping, gatherings, tree trimming. How do we find the space and time we need to truly prepare our hearts for the feast?

As the light of the Nativity comes closer, how does silence fit into the last minute rush for gift buying, baking, caroling and office parties? In this episode of The Wilderness Journal, join host Angela Doll Carlson in the second half of her conversation with author Summer Kinard as they talk about Advent, silence, self care, and Amish/Alien romance novels.

The start of a new year brings us to a point of clarity– a starting point, an ending point. It is in these moments that we can choose hope as we look forward, or regret from looking back. What does the New Year represent to you? “I wish I had” or “I hope I do?”

From the outside, the practice of Orthodoxy seems rigid, complicated and intimidating. In this episode, Angela explores how Orthodoxy cannot be fully understood until it is fully experienced. Like a spiritual Tardis, it’s bigger on the inside.

In this episode of The Wilderness Journal Angela continues her conversation with Summer Kinard, Jamey Bennett and Geoff Thompson about things we wish we had known about Orthodoxy before entering into the faith, including talk of Spiritual Fathers and people made of cheese.

The start of Great Lent begins with preparation. We prepare our refrigerators, freezers and pantry for the fast, emptying it of meat and dairy. But we prepare our hearts as well, emptying it of resentments or grudges, wrongs we have done or wrongs done to us in our community. On navigating Forgiveness Vespers as an introvert.

We’ve all heard about helicopter parents. I’m more of a lawnmower parent. I want to make straight the paths before my kids. I do not want to see them hurt. And of course, that’s natural– no parent wants to see their child injured– but when I make the path so straight and the field so even that they do not seem to engage the “struggle” then I’ve gone too far. How do we teach our children to embrace the struggles of life, to see the beauty and the reward in it?