Calendar

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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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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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 2 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: 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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Wide Spot: Fireweed

I have been thinking that we may have reached the chronic, as opposed to acute, stage of our forest fire saga. For many of us, evacuation orders and alerts are rescinded, at least for now. For others, there’s at least a system to check on livestock and land. People are making plans to sustain a …

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Wide Spot: Aim High

One predictable result of a good retreat is the scramble at the end when people start asking, “How can we keep this great community going?” Then follows a frenzied exchange of emails and phone numbers.  Equally predictable is that any community formed simply for its own continuance inevitably falls apart. I find this depressing. I …

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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