Interstitium
This article was written for The Contemplative Society June 2026 Newsletter Western medicine has recently “discovered” the interstitium, the interconnected connective tissue in human bodies; in fact, they now believe that our interstitial tissue actually acts as a third circulation system. “Discovered” is a joke: these tissues have always been there. But westerners considered them …
Contemplative in the Kootenays
Contemplative in the Kootenays is a monthly in-person gathering for the purpose of meditation, study, and community. We meet monthly on a Saturday from 10 am to 3 pm. Our next gathering is Saturday April 25th, in New Denver. For information about how to get here, contact Therese descamp@widespot.ca. We start the day with meditation–if …
Approaching Easter
I am writing this just ten days before Good Friday, a dozen days before Easter. I feel compelled to speak of these central feasts of the church in relationship with the world around us. It feels odd to call Good Friday a central feast, doesn’t it? Most of us feel like the resurrection is the …
Wide Spot: Story-thinking
When I was a kid, we lived within blocks of two different libraries. The city library was an imposing edifice of stone and stained glass and silence; the county library a big, well-lit room in the redbrick county office building. While its architecture was uninspiring, that county library was a treasure trove, a warren of …
Contemplative in the Kootenays
Contemplative in the Kootenays is a monthly in-person gathering for the purpose of meditation, study, and community. We meet monthly on a Saturday from 10 am to 3 pm. In February 2026, we’ll be meeting on Saturday the 28th, in New Denver. For information about how to get here, contact Therese descamp@widespot.ca. We start the …
No Stranger Danger
Many years ago, I had an old Volvo named Goldy who had an unfortunate tendency to stop dead in her tracks for no discernible reason. We had just moved to a new city. I needed a desk, and had found one for sale, way out in the sticks. On my way there, traveling along a …
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. …
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 …
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: …