Calendar

Wide Spot Dinner: Reclaiming Our Place

How do we reclaim our place, whether on an annual basis as the seasons shift, or in the greater world when we are unseated, unsure, unheard? We’ll talk about the rituals and grounding practices we use and learn from each other. Dinner by donation. Sponsored by Fireweed Hub and Turner Zion United Church of Canada. …

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Wide Spot Dinner: The Gift of Darkness

In the dead of winter, after the celebrating is over, as the cold grabs our bones and we just want to burrow under the covers–come join us for dinner to explore the gift of darkness. We’ll talk about literal darkness, the darkness of current events, and our own inner darkness–and finding the gifts in all …

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Wide Spot: Savor

Her daughter had terminal cancer. “I’m grieving,” she said. Then she said, “I’m also savoring.” There are a lot of conversations about grief and loss lately. The child losing her struggle with mental illness; the limp suddenly revealed as bone cancer; the partner just diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. These are personal places of powerlessness and sorrow: …

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Wide Spot: Moral Ambition

I’ve been recently reading Moral Ambition, by Rutger Bregman. Bregman writes about history, economics, philosophy, and goodness in public life. He’s so passionate about the last that he has formed a foundation to train and support those who wish to have social impact. Bregman highlights one surprising research finding about altruistic behavior: empathy does not cause …

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Wide Spot: Women in Black

There were twenty-odd women and one man, dressed in black, standing by the side of the highway in silence.  In our hands or around our necks were signs detailing the numbers dead in Gaza, in Israel, in the Ukraine, Syria, Sudan. Signs about starvation. Signs about war in general. Signs about what religions say about …

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Wide Spot: Belonging

When I was younger, I hated going to parties. I never felt comfortable: I didn’t do small talk well, and I felt awkward just standing there. My most common feeling was that I didn’t belong.  Ask any teenage girl if you want to know how painful it is not to belong. Book clubs, FB groups, …

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Contemplative in the Kootenays

Saturday, June 28, we will meet from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the little barn at 1305 Denver Siding Road. Our schedule for the day? Meditation, sacred reading and discussion, walking meditation, reflection, open communion. Please wear comfy clothes, bring a journal and your lunch, and if you need special sitting gear, bring that …

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Writing as Three-Centred Practice: A Conversation with Author Therese DesCamp

The Contemplative Society presents “Writing as Three Centered Practice, with Therese DesCamp Saturday 31 May 2025 10am to 11:30am PACIFIC TIME. Join Therese DesCamp for a 90-minute conversation focused on the implications, obligations and revelations experienced by contemplatives who write. DesCamp, who’s been meditating and writing for 35 years, will speak about the role of …

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Wide Spot: Witness

Every night at 8 p.m., after the war began, Pope Francis called Holy Family Church in Gaza. Every night until he drew his last breath, Francis faithfully picked up the phone and checked in. I haven’t been able to get this picture out of my head. Actually, what I haven’t been able to get out …

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Wide Spot: All Shall Be Well

Many of my friends put some pithy quotation across the bottom of their emails. The extracts vary from “I have a photographic memory; unfortunately it was never fully developed” to a definition of liminal space. But one quote occurs repeatedly. Originating with medieval mystic Julian of Norwich, it reads, “All shall be well, and all …

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