Ties That Bind: Janet Handy on the Good, the Bad, and the Cosmic of Belonging

10/16/22 • 50 min

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Don't we all want to belong? Don't we miss it, and yearn for it, when we don't? Out here, on the other side of church land, belonging to a community is what seekers miss most about their religious pasts. But not all community is good community, and not every community lasts. In this conversation with Janet Handy, we explore the range of possibilities for human belonging. In the end, we may be more a part of things than we realize.
Resources
Jan's book, The Secret Tribe, on Amazon: https://www.amazon.ca/Secret-Tribe-Memoir-Resilience-ebook/dp/B07DQ9TGVB/ref=sr_1_1?crid=VHN64HIKU2MO&keywords=The+Secret+Tribe&qid=1663371759&s=books&sprefix=the+secret+tribe%2Cstripbooks%2C182&sr=1-1

Personal Links
My web site (where you can sign up for my blog): https://www.brianepearson.ca
My email address: [email protected]
Series Music Credit
"Into the Mystic" by Van Morrison, performed by Colin James, from the album, Limelight, 2005; licensed under SOCAN 2022

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Previous Episode

Singing the Lord's Song in a Strange Land: Richard Osler on Poetry as Prayer

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Out here, on the other side of church land, how do we give voice to the deepest longings of our hearts? Might poetry help us? Reading poems, might they become our sacred texts; writing them, our personal prayers? Poet Richard Osler believes that poetry delivers us to the deep and holy places of our own souls, places of healing, of inspiration, and of profound Mystery. In this conversation, Richard reintroduces us to the power of poetry ... which, he warns, is not for sissies.
Episode Links
Richard's web site & blog: http://www.recoveringwords.com/site/
Resources mentioned in this episode (and a few others):
Roger Housden, ed, Ten Poems to Last a Lifetime
_____________________, Ten Poems to Set You Free
Also, by the same editor:
Ten Poems to Open Your Heart
Ten poems to Change Your Life
Risking Everything: 110 Poems of Love and Revelation
Garrison Keillor, ed., Good Poems
______________________, Good Poems for Hard Times

Next Episode

Sacred Rites: Sarah Kerr on the Transformative Power of Ritual

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When it comes to change in our lives, our rational minds can carry us only so far. Our bodies take us further. But rituals connect body and mind to Soul, creating transformative experiences that help us move through life's most significant passages.
Sarah Kerr, death doula and ritual healing practitioner, speaks to me about the power of rituals, their constituent parts, and what difference rituals make to how we live our lives. It could be that the cosmos is counting on us to become agents of transformative change, in other words, ritualists.
Episode Links
Sarah's Courses and Services: https://sacreddeathcare.com