Trigger warning: This episode includes a brief discussion of suicide and suicidal thoughts.
What is happening within us beneath the noise, activity, and demands of everyday life?
In this episode of Living from the Heart, Rod sits down with Doug Webber at his cabin on Bowen Island, overlooking the ocean and surrounded by the sounds of nature and planes and helicopters!
Their conversation begins with the idea of “inscape,” a word Doug encountered through the poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins. It becomes a doorway into a deeply personal conversation about Doug’s experience with severe depression, the people who helped carry him through it, and the importance of community when we cannot navigate our way forward on our own.
Doug also reflects on his changing relationship with Christianity, his discovery of contemplative spirituality, and the ways poetry, nature, silence, centering prayer, and vulnerable community have shaped his spiritual life.
Together, Rod and Doug explore what it means to move beyond simply thinking about God and toward experiencing the presence of God in ordinary life. They discuss mountains and forests, the digital world, spiritual practices, and Doug’s current question: How can the awareness we experience in prayer become part of the way we live throughout the rest of the day?
If you or someone you know is struggling, in Canada you can call or text 988 to reach the Suicide Crisis Helpline, available 24 hours a day.
Links:
The last SoulStream Living from the Heart podcast on SubStack: Attention, Communion, and Personhood: A Conversation with Felicia Wu Song
