WEEKLY PODCAST | In Between.143

Today we revisit and reflect on the Enneagram experience with Suzanne Stabile. I could not attend the workshop on Saturday, but I loved listening to her “interview” with Bill Sunday. What a witty, open, engaging person who seems to have (literally) all of our numbers!!! I thought it would feel both exhilarating and terrifying to sit directly across from her the way Bill did. The enneagram stirs us up - in both positive and complex ways. I suppose this is not unlike any “self-knowing” process. Learning about ourselves, we feel the urgency to hide and to be seen. Putting words to it can feel very validating and liberating. I bought the audio version of Suzanne’s book, The Path Between Us to read up on what I missed out on!

The moral of this podcast is: If you don’t do your personal work, you won’t become the person you were born to be.

Thank goodness Bill has given us a path inward.

SUNDAY LECTURE | Metaphor Be With You

ORDINARY LIFE - Thoughts and Ideas to Help You Live a Happier Life

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Summary of Ordinary Life for September 24, 2023

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Dear Ones -

I called the talk I offered in Ordinary Life this week

Metaphor Be With You

Jesus offered a genius zen-like teaching in the phrase in what we know as The Lord’s Prayer” when he said, is essence, “Use an intimate word when speaking to God and don’t speak God’s name.” It is a teaching akin to “what is the sound of one hand clapping.” Language matters and much of the “religious language” we use doesn’t connect with where and how we live our lives. I suggest we need a “language of meaning.” This way of speaking will require a familiarity with metaphor, will be connected to the current understanding of our physical world, will be relational, and must be of this world and not some other.

That’s a brief summary of this week’s time in Ordinary Life.

The audio version of the talk has some significant differences from the text I spoke from. You can find the text of the talk, the presentation slides and the audio version of the talk using the links below.

Our podcast, “In Between,” can be accessed through the Ordinary Life web site.

If you would like to know how to make a contribution to Ordinary Life, click here for video instructions. Be well and much love,

Bill Kerley

In order to read or to download the text of the talk, click here.

In order to view or download the presentation slides, click here.

In order to view or download the announcement slides, click here.

To listen to or download the audio recording of today’s talk, use that audio player below.

To watch the video of today’s talk, use the YouTube link below.

WEEKLY PODCAST | In Between.142

Today was indeed a day that we had no agenda, and somehow, we manage to fill the time allotted. Talking with Bill from week to week is like mining a treasure trove. He brings forth good stuff. I mentioned last Sunday that we prepare for teaching in part by talking for an hour a day. (We also both read for at least an hour a day and write/create slideshows for about 2-4 hours a week. Preparing a single talk can take about 12-15 hours!) A lot of what we talked about in preparation was our dreams, and today, we reflect on that. Neither one of us spoke directly about our dreams in class, but they informed much of what we did.

Dreams are numinous, a doorway into the unconscious. And in waking life, we have liminal moments in which the unconscious is “talking to” the conscious mind. Things in “the real world” directly relate to something trying to make itself known in the inner world. Bill gives the example of throwing away his keys just after a profound dream altered the course of his life. The keys represented a kind of nudge: Are you paying attention? Are you ready to let go of control of what you know? Our lived realities, then, are constructed by the dialogue between our conscious and unconscious minds.

Movie recommendations, both on Amazon Prime:

  1. “A Million Miles Away”

  2. “Puncture”