Hey there friends,
I’m foraying into a new medium – podcasts!
In my work at Spiritual Directors International (SDI) – I’m now recording and hosting a weekly podcast called SDI Encounters.
It’s about our work at SDI. SDI is a learning community for people who identify as spiritual companions.
What’s a spiritual companion? Simply, it’s someone who listens to others, on a deep level. A spiritual director is a vocation, particularly rooted in the Catholic tradition, who listens to people on an individual basis, helping them discern for themselves the workings of the Divine in their lives. We consider spiritual companionship to be part-and-parcel with this, but on a broader level that embraces this deep relationship across faith tradition (or having no particular religious background).
The podcast itself is about spiritual direction, spiritual companionship, contemplative practices, spirituality in general, InterFaith dialog, and everything in-between.
How did I become a host of this show?
I myself am not a spiritual director. But, I know for myself I need spiritual direction. I am that seeker who needs a good listener. I need companions who will, with grace and care, hear the jumbled ramblings of my consciousness and help me discern the gentle quiet behind all of that. I need people in my life who will walk beside me as I am ever leaning, within my limited and corporeal capacities, into this shared mystery of life we all participate in and with. I suppose this is the archetype that I bring to hosting this show – not as the trained spiritual director, but as the person who needs spiritual direction, which I believe is all of us.
Art, walking, contemplative practice – these are ways in which I explore this mystery and find meaning, embedded within the ordinary and the breath of this present moment. There is a broad community of people in the world who have their own practices and explorations and experiences. Within this community are the listeners – the people who are trained in spiritual direction, and know how to listen to your story and seek to help you excavate deeper realities and deeper truths within. Not to dictate or determine a path for you, but to help you suss out for yourself your own unique path. It is a fascinating, enriching community, one I am continually learning from and one that has a myriad of stories and paths, and yet within the myriad of experiences is a shared resonance.
This podcast is about those stories and those paths, and hopefully that resonance.
I hope you’ll give it a listen and subscribe. Please let me know what you think – podcast@sdiworld.org
SDI Encounters is on our website – https://www.sdiworld.org/podcasts
On Podbean – https://sdiencounters.podbean.com/
On Spotify – https://open.spotify.com/show/2ufeZhwf9z6WuBi5pZEeNn
On Apple Podcasts – https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/sdi-encounters/id1451231142?mt=2
…and probably other places where you listen to a podcast!