4/12-Part I & 4/26-Part II: “Weaving Threads of Grief & Joy in Times of Unraveling”
Carolyn Baker, Ph.D. & Terry Chapman, D.Min.
In a culture where grief and gratitude, sorrow and joy are polarized, Carolyn Baker and Terry Chapman offer a non-binary alternative that allows us to safely descend into the waters grief, move through them, distill our process, and come home. From that new threshold, we re-collect our experiences so that as the journey of grief/gratitude/joy continues, we develop the skill of reweaving in the midst of life's unravelings.
“…our corporately-defined culture demands a kind of institutionalized cheerfulness and an obsessive pursuit of happiness in which suffering or the contemplation of suffering is anathema. Grief phobia and grief illiteracy pervade our “flatline” existence in which we are forbidden to feel sorrow, anger, fear, despair, and even joy, and so we are prevented from discovering the healing energies hidden in each. In an apocalyptic situation when everything we love is burning, being culturally forbidden to feel deeply engenders a kind of sterile madness that perpetuates the very forces that are destroying the world.” Radical Regeneration
4/19 & 5/3 The Hearth: Voices from the Community:
”Learnings from the 4/12 & 4/26 Essential Conversations”
About
Carolyn Baker, Ph.D. is the author of Dark Gold: The Human Shadow And The Global Crisis (2016) and Love In The Age Of Ecological Apocalypse: The Relationships We Need To Thrive (2015). With Andrew Harvey, she has co-authored Return To Joy (2016) and Savage Grace: Living Resiliently In The Dark Night Of The Globe (2017), and Saving Animals From Ourselves: Healing The Divine Animal Within (2019). Her previous books include Collapsing Consciously: Transformative Truths For Turbulent Times (2013); Navigating The Coming Chaos: A Handbook For Inner Transition (2011) and Sacred Demise: Walking The Spiritual Path Of Industrial Civilization’s Collapse (2009).
She lives and writes in Boulder, Colorado. A former psychotherapist and professor of psychology and history, Carolyn offers life and leadership coaching as well as spiritual counseling for people who want to live more resiliently in the present as they prepare for the future. Carolyn works closely with Andrew Harvey and other spiritual luminaries to live and promote Sacred Activism---the marriage of effecting change in the world with consciousness transformation. With Andrew Harvey in 2020 she published Radical Regeneration: Birthing The New Human In The Age of Extinction. http://www.carolynbaker.net/
Terry Chapman, D.Min. In the thirty years Terry served as a pastor in the Presbyterian Church (USA) he discovered what truly makes his heart sing: creating and nurturing opportunities for people to discover and express their stories in safe, loving and generative conversations or what he called "holding spaces". He had the privilege and joy of witnessing the transformation that happens when people discover that they are loved and that the Divine, or whatever word they use to point to Ultimate Reality, is an active presence in their lives. He believes that all lasting change is linguistic, embedded in story and all transformation is relational. He is passionate about engaging in conversations that explore life below the surface where people can remember the natural insight, warmth and courage that dwells in each human. He sees this as “essential blessing,” an identity that lies, often buried, under accumulated layers, ranging from numbing distraction to shame.
His training and experience as a pastor, spiritual director, teacher and convener has provided a lens through which he views all of life. His passion is to help people explore questions like: Who am I? Who are my people? And what is my purpose? Terry believes these are questions that are at the "heart of the matter" regardless of the context: a board room, a hospital visit, in church, classroom, leading a retreat, walking with a family through grief, or welcoming a child into the world. Terry is a poet and author. His book "Sabbath Pause" is a collection of meditations and poetry intended to help nurture a more contemplative and creative, less stressful life. He believes his purpose is to help create and nurture opportunities for people to exercise the capacity to be less reactive in a world that is increasingly disruptive.
In addition to being an ordained minister and Certified Spiritual Director Terry is also a Certified Convening Leader and Director of Convening Communities at CPL. Terry earned his doctorate in Christian Spirituality and Spiritual Direction at San Fransisco Theological Seminary. A member of Spiritual Directors International, Terry offers individual and group spiritual direction.
https://centerfpl.com/terry-chapman | https://www.alliesonthejourney.com/
PART II INTERVIEW WITH CAROLYN & TERRY
PART 1 INTERVIEW WITH CAROLYN & TERRY
