Contemplify

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Philosophy
**Contemplify**

The Contemplify podcast kindles the examined life for contemplatives in the world. Through artful musings & conversations with scholars, creatives, and master teachers each episode delivers a subtly intoxicating* exchange on the contemplative lifestyle with practical takeaways to emulate in daily life.

Host, Paul Swanson, is a husband, father and contemplative educator at the Center for Action and Contemplation and co-host of Another Name for Every Thing with Richard Rohr**.

*Contemplify is best served with a pint in hand. Please listen responsibly.

** All shenanigans, tom foolery and bally-hoo posted on Contemplify are my own. Contemplify is not representative of the Center for Action and Contemplation or Richard Rohr on any matter.

Latest Episodes:

Sitting on the Present Moment Jan 24, 2023

Show notes

A musing on the present moment of awareness that holds everything.

Engaged Contemplation in a Heartbreaking World with Fr. Adam Bucko Nov 27, 2022

Show notes

Father Adam Bucko has been a committed voice in the movement for the renewal of Christian Contemplative Spirituality and the growing New Monastic movement. He has taught engaged contemplative spirituality in Europe and the United States and has authored Let Your Heartbreak be Your Guide: Lessons in Engaged Contemplation, and co-authored Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Vision for a New Generation (with Matthew Fox), and The New Monasticism: An Interspiritual Manifesto for Contemplative Living (with Rory McEntee). His work has been has been featured by ABC News, CBS, NBC, Harper's Magazine, New York Daily News, and Sojourner Magazine and he currently serves as a director of the Center for Spiritual Imagination and the Cathedral of the Incarnation serving Brooklyn, Queens, and Long Island in New York.

Follow Adam on social media: Twitter | Instagram

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Heathen Nov 09, 2022

Show notes

Musing from November 9th, 2022 inspired by by reading Chris Dombrowski's The River You Touch

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Vitality Out of Emptiness with Fr. David Denny Oct 21, 2022

Show notes

Fr. David Denny is a lifelong seeker whose commitment to the unfolding mystery of life has brought him to explore the deserts of place and soul. In 1975 Fr Dave entered the Spiritual Life Institute, a contemplative monastic community rooted in the Carmelite tradition. And in 2005, he left that community to co-found the Desert Foundation with Tessa Bielecki. A writer, a poet, retreat master and teacher, Fr. Dave now hangs his hat in Tucson, Arizona.

In our conversation, Fr. Dave and I talk about the roundabouts, the striking insights, the totality of the journey of his life that lead him to be an urban hermit. Fr. David Denny has co-authored Seasons of Glad Songs: A Christmas Anthology, Desert Voices: The Edge Effect and is a part of the collection The Nature of Desert Nature edited by Gary Nabhan.

Visit Fr. Dave's website: sandandsky.org

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The River You Touch with Chris Dombrowski Oct 02, 2022

Show notes

I have been waiting years to have this conversation with author, poet, and fly-fishing guide Chris Dombrowski. There is a kinship I feel with Chris's lens on life. He is a top-shelf writer to boot.

The River You Touch: Making a Life on Moving Water comes out October 11th, 2022. I have read it and pre-ordered multiple copies for friends and family. If you are a longtime listener, you know I do not ever do a hard sell. Buy this book for yourself. And another for any friend who seeks to live a mindful and creative life in the throes of responsibility to family, self, community, and a little plot of land on the planet. Published by the fine folks at Milkweed Editions, they will ship The River You Touch for free when your order from milkweed.org before October 11th, 2022.

Alright, I am getting off my soapbox.

Chris Dombrowski is a poet, author, teacher, and fly-fishing guide. His nonfiction debut, Body of Water: A Sage, A Seeker, and the World's Most Alluring Fish (Milkweed Editions, 2016), was hailed in The New York Times Book Review and drew comparisons to Gary Snyder and John McPhee in the Wall Street Journal; and Orion magazine called it "a spiritual memoir in the tradition of Annie Dillard's Pilgrim at Tinker Creek". I loved Body of Water and I think Dombrowski's latest book, The River You Touch is even better. It runs its hands through the currents of place, vocation, creativity, and community. In our conversation Chris and I talk about parenting, the calling of a place, poetry of children, accepting the complex humanity of mentors, and the intricacies of sparkling water.

Buy this book. You will reread it and gift it to those who understand that "in a life properly lived, you are a river"*.

Visit Chris's website at cdombrowski.com to keep tabs on his work in the world Follow Chris on social media: @dombrowski_chris

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Inarticulate as Watercolors, Brazen as Graffiti Sep 17, 2022

Show notes

Musing from September 16, 2022

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Nine Poems from Coffin Honey by Todd Davis Aug 31, 2022

Show notes

I asked Todd Davis if he could read some of his poems from his latest collection called Coffin Honey. And he generously said yes. Take a beath, find a comfortable seat, preferably out of doors and let the poetry of Todd Davis seep in through your pores and raise forth the best of you.

**Before we get started, I want to note that in this episode of poems from Todd Davis include content about sexual assault and self mutilation. If that sounds like poetry you are not comfortable listening to, we sure understand. Take care of yourself.**

All of the poems included here are from Todd's latest book of poems, Coffin Honey.

Visit Todd's website at todddavispoet.com to comb through and order all of his work of poetry.

Enjoy the work of Todd Davis.

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A Revelatory Elegy of Unknowing with Todd Davis (author of Coffin Honey) Aug 30, 2022

Show notes

The poems of Todd Davis sharpen a reader's spirit and focus, on the bloodstained teeth breaking apart the day-to-day doldrums and on the mythic imagination necessary to bear witness to this daunting moment in our species, on our planet.

Todd Davis and I spoke back in 2019 about his book Native Species and he has read his poems in the last two years on the Contemplify Backporch Advent Outpost series. Today we focus on Todd's latest book of poems, Coffin Honey. We step into the rich imagery of characters, landscape, and emotion vibrating off the pages of his work. We also do not shy away from the thick smoke of trauma, poetry as a survival skill, the cost of risking participation in crafting such poems, and much more.

**Before we get started, I want to note that in this episode with Todd Davis we converse about sexual assault and self mutilation, in both personal and mythic stories. If that sounds like a conversation you are not comfortable listening to, we sure understand. Take care of yourself.**

Visit Todd's website at todddavispoet.com to slip through the doors of his poetry.

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Contemplative Gleanings from the Hermits of Big Sur with Paula Huston Aug 16, 2022

Show notes

Paula Huston has written a book, The Hermits of the Big Sur, that charts the history of the New Camaldoli Hermitage. A history born amidst Vatican II and World War II with even deeper contemplatives roots back to the 11th century in the mountains of Italy. Paula follows the ragtag set of novices who become the elders of the community, those who wandered to follow other calls, and those hermits who it their life's work to be enfolded by Mystery. Paula Huston is more than author, but oblate of New Camaldoli Hermitage aka a non-monastic member of the community. She shares with us the gifts her contemplative rhythm has brought to her days, the virtues of working an olive press and writer's pen, and gleanings from being in friendship with the monks over these decades.

Visit paulahuston.com to keep tabs on her works of beauty.

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Bill Porter (Red Pine) on Zen and Taoist Masters, Mountain Hermits, & the Life of a Translator Aug 02, 2022

Show notes

(My audio starts shaky, but gets better after 8 minutes) Bill Porter, aka Red Pine, calls the hermit life, "graduate school for the spiritually inclined." Bill Porter is a translator of Buddhist and Taoist mountain poets that uncross your third eye and waft the scent of a fine scotch.

What can I say about Bill Porter that he won't say better about himself? I first stumbled on his book Road to Heaven: Encounters with Chinese Hermits while on retreat. His adventures and chitchats with hermits beckoned me to discover more about this hermit tradition and the man captivated by trekking into the mountains in search of monks living off the map. Bill is credited with an uptick of interest in the hermit life in China.

Stateside Bill Porter is best known under his translator name of Red Pine, translating the work of Cold Mountain, Stonehouse, Lao Tzu and others over at the granddaddy of beautiful publishing Copper Canyon. We talk about this and more.

To visit Bill Porter, well if you bump into him in his hometown. To find his work online go his publisher Copper Canyon at coppercanyonpress.org.

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