My heart was deeply moved by this quiet, heartful conversation with Cole Arthur Riley, creator and curator of Black Liturgies (a project of The Center for Dignity and Contemplation), and author of the books This Here Flesh and the upcoming Black Liturgies: Prayers, Poems, and Meditations for Staying Human. Cole shares her soulful work daily on Instagram.
In our conversation we share about our kindred childhood experiences with silence, solitude, and finding our written and spoken voices. Together, we find commonality in the spiritual nature of our work and the use of language in soul service, and in how self-examination becomes more critical for us as we address systemic violence, oppression, and atrocities in the world. We also discuss the medicinal utility of addressing the root of human suffering, violence, and supremacy, rather than emphasizing surface-level social group categorizations. Our conversation is at once very personal and very timely as we face and address the continuing reality of human crisis and faith as our way home.
Sacred Conversations are periodic episodes of my podcast in which I reach out to people whose work and life inspire me, and we simply have an old fashioned phone conversation. No video. No scripted, transactional, extractive, one-sided interview dynamic. Just two people with a care and curiosity for each other’s journey, asking each other soulful questions, and enjoying the ancient, mutually healing art of listening deeply. Again, not an interview. A spiritual communion. The idea is for us to relax and enjoy an organic conversation, like over tea or breaking bread, and get to know each other along the way.
My books are available at jaiyajohn.com (thank you for purchasing directly from the author) and at booksellers worldwide. Audiobooks, eBooks, book specials, sleep stories, audio talks, apparel, and piano music are exclusively at my website. Thank you for posting your copies of my books on Instagram, tagging #jaiyajohn, encouraging others to purchase, posting readings of your favorite passages, and sharing online book reviews. My whole heart cries Grateful. jaiyajohn.com...
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