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”

SUNDAY LECTURE | Being Defeated By Ever Greater Things

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

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Summary of Ordinary Life for September 17, 2023

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Dear Ones -

Registration for the Suzanne Stabile event is closed. We are working on a way to register for only livestream attendees. To be clear: everyone who has registered so far, whether for in person or livestream, will get an e-mail the morning of the event that can be used for livestream attendance. Stay tuned.

This week Dr. Holly Hudley and I co-taught a class we called -

Being Defeated by Ever Greater Things

The title comes from a poem by Rilke who was introduced to me by Robert Johnson. Johnson used Rilke as an example of someone who learned to live with his wounds heroically. The things we need to be defeated by are: the fear of losing, the illusion of a separate self, and the notion of “stupid compassion.”

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

To read or download the text version of the talk, click here.

To view or download the presentation slides, click here.

To view or download the announcement slides, click here.

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

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

WEEKLY PODCAST | In Between.141

There is no way around it: we (Bill and Holly) are nested in some sorrow. Sure, there are some delights like poetry, connection, dreams that tether us to joy and wonder, but we come to you today in full transparency with our deeper sorrow.

We are also tempted to rush into hope and healing, but these are only accessible when we can accept sorrow and darkness. The world so wants us to be happy and sells it to us in a million different ways, but I think happiness is more profound than something we can buy. It must be grown, cultivated, and nurtured — even in the dark.

Here are some beautiful inspirations to sit with if you find yourself in the dark:

1. “The Red Seeds” oracle cards by Linda Hill, based on her work with Marion Woodman.

2. “How to Belong Be Alone” by Padraig O’Tuama, accompanied by a short video.

See you Sunday. Thanks for listening.

Image from “How to Be Alone,” animation by Leo G. Franchi