Calendar

Wide Spot: Despair

For me, it starts in the gut: it registers that I’m feeling anxious or even nauseous since reading that news article. For someone else, it starts in the head: noticing there is an endless loop of some distressing event playing in their mind. For yet another, it is felt in the heart: a weight on …

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Hands Like Roots: Nakusp Book Reading, April 30

Please join me in Nakusp for the launch of Hands Like Roots: Notes on an Entangled Contemplative Path. We will meet at the Nakusp Public Library on Wednesday, April 30, at 4 p.m. There will be readings from the book, a time of question and answer, and yes, there will be books for sale!

Hands Like Roots: Book Launch April 23

Join me at 7 pm on Wednesday, April 23, for the first official launch of Hands Like Roots: Notes on an Entangled Contemplative Life. The launch will be at Knox Hall in New Denver, and I will read from the book, talk about the process of writing the essays, and answer questions. And yes, there will be …

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Contemplative in the Kootenays

Strengthen your capacity to stand strong amidst the raging winds of contemporary chaos. Come spend the day in New Denver with others who love silence, prayer and community, and who are committed to loving as God loves. Contemplative in the Kootenays meets on Saturday, March 22, 2025. We will sit in Centering Prayer together; ponder …

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Wide Spot: Anchored

In the book Unshakeable by trauma therapist Jo Ann Rosen, there’s a discussion of anchors, those simple practices that return us to awareness. Rosen speaks about anchors because trauma responses bypass all our good skills. We forget what we know and react instinctively. Instinctive reaction may be the perfect response when a rattlesnake is rattling, but it’s …

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Wide Spot: Integrity

Margaret Wheatly, in her book “Who Do We Choose to Be?” argues that our culture is at the end of its time. Every civilization, she says, goes through a predictable cycle. Wheatley places us firmly in the “decadent” phase, which is the last step before chaos and dissolution. Wealth, celebrity, and entertainment are central; compassion, …

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Wide Spot: Daily Bread

There are some big things facing us these days: “us” collectively as in the human race, and “us” as in my little family. Some of those collective big things are so big—global climate change, vicious politics—that I have no idea how to repair, heal, or change them. Sure, I know how to complain; I also …

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Wide Spot: Some Assembly Required

I have been reassembling our freezers, moving turkey and frozen wontons and homemade soup from the inside freezer to the newly empty outside freezer. It’s empty because friends have been able to go home: their frozen chickens, applesauce and tomato paste have gone home, too. I am also re-assembling my office. Strewn across desk and …

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Contemplative in the Kootenays, October 5, 2024

Contemplative in the Kootenays meets (mostly!) monthly in New Denver. This day-long event (10 am to 3 pm) is open to contemplatives across the Kootenays; most of us practice Centering Prayer, but not everyone. Most of us are Christian, but not everyone. Most of us come regularly, but not everyone! This month we’ll be exploring …

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Canadians can send an e-transfer to descamp@widespot.ca. Everyone else, I take cheques of all nationalities.
Box 452, New Denver, BC, V0G 1S0, Canada