Opening Life Podcast

Season 3, Episode 2 - Pathmaking

In today’s conversation, Brittany, Kyle, and Nexus co-conspirators Craig and Mary Charnley explore what really happens in life as we search for our path forward, inspired by Spanish poet Antonio Machado’s paradigm-shifting poem,Caminante, No Hay Cammino (Pathmaker, There Is No Path).

The Spanish poem in it’s entirety (followed by an english translation):

Caminante, son tus huellas
el camino y nada más;
Caminante, no hay camino,
se hace camino al andar.
Al andar se hace el camino,
y al volver la vista atrás
se ve la senda que nunca
se ha de volver a pisar.
Caminante, no hay camino
sino estelas en la mar.

Traveler, your footprints
are the only road, nothing else.
Traveler, there is no road;
you make your own path as you walk.
As you walk, you make your own road,
and when you look back
you see the path
you will never travel again.
Traveler, there is no road;
only a ship's wake on the sea.

Antonio Machado

Legendary Spanish singer Joan Manuel Serrat created his own song from Machado’s poem, and through it shaped the perspective of entire generation of Spanish listeners.

We open and close the episode with Serrat’s song, beginning with theoriginal 1969 recording and closing with a live concert version recorded 50 years later in collaboration with Joaquin Sabina, joined by an enthusiastic crowd celebrating the poem and life with their singing.

Serrat’s 1969 version is here:

https://youtu.be/8tHLw8FHlCE?si=HfYD2oMT81k8qlKl

A video of the 2019 performance is here:

https://youtu.be/7dT5ojKvcZk?si=_mc0f_5xuybq0cIy

You can find other life opening articles, on our website at:

https://nexusonline.org

Peace!

Welcome to Season 3, Episode 1 of Opening Life Podcast!

In today’s conversation, poet/playwright/comedian extraordinaire Phil Ginsburg joins Brittany and Kyle for a fun and profound exploration of Phil’s poem “Body Language.”

What do the various parts of our bodies have to say to one another and to us about how to be in the world? That’s our big question.

Phil’s latest collection In Pursuit of the Almost is available here:

⁠https://www.endeavorliterary.com/ginsburg⁠

The music in today’s episode is from the album “Sometimes I Wonder: the Music of Hoagy Carmichael, is available here:

https://caligolarecords.bandcamp.com/album/sometimes-i-wonder-the-music-of-hoagy-carmichael

You can find other life opening articles on our website at:

https://nexusonline.org/

Peace!

Your friends at Nexus

PS. If you would like our help in starting your own Nexus group with your friends, where you live, please contact us at:

[email protected]

Poetry Bob joins Kyle and Brittany to explore David Whyte's foundational poem, A Seeming Stillness. Once again we open the question of how we want to be in this world, with ourselves, and with everyone and everything else. Why do we seem so determined to deny our own vulnerability? We don't have all the answers, but we hope you are helped by our questions.

A Seeming Stillness - by David Whyte

We love the movement in a seeming stillness,

the breath in the body of the loved one sleeping,

the highest leaves in the silent wood,

a great migration in the sky above: the waters of the earth,

the blood in the body, the first, soft, stir in the silence beneath a strident voice,

the internal hands of our mind,

always searching for touch, thoughts seeking other thoughts,

seeking other minds, the great arrival of form

through all our hidden themes.

And this breath, in this body, able just for a moment to give and to take,

to ask and be told, to find and be found,

to bless and be blessed, to hold and be held.

We are all a sun-lit moment come from a long darkness,

what moves us always comes from what is hidden,

what seems to be said so suddenly has lived in the body for a long, long time.

Our life like a breath, then, a give and a take, a bridge, a central movement,

between singing a separate self and learning to be selfless.

Breathe then, as if breathing for the first time,

as if remembering with what difficulty you came into the world,

what strength it took to make that first impossible in-breath,

into a cry to be heard by the world.

Your essence has always been that first vulnerability of being found,

of being heard and of being seen, and from the beginning

the one who has always needed,

and been given, so much invisible help.

This is how you were when you first came into the world,

this is how you were when you took your first breath in that world,

this is how you are now,

all unawares, in your new body and your new life,

this is the raw vulnerability of your every day,

and this is how you will want to be, and be remembered,

when you leave the world.

Kyle, Brittany and aspiring screen writer, Donte Slocum, explore connections between their life stories and the film Field of Dreams, 1989's nostalgic ode to life and baseball, starring Kevin Costner, Ray Liotta, and James Earl Jones. Along the way we explore the soul of sports and the meaning of dreams, unfulfilled and fulfilled, in our winding journeys. Composer James Horner's sweeping film score accompanies us into new horizons.

Brittany and Kyle have drummer Greg Errico, from the legendary band, Sly and the Family Stone, join the podcast. Together they open two classic tunes, listening for what they said to the people that first heard them in the in the late Sixties, and what they say to our lives and world today. Join us for a marvelous musical journey, through the power of melody, lyrics and groove, into the heart of our common experiences as human beings.

In this third and final episode opening Parker Palmer's foundational book, Kyle, Laurel and Brittany explore excerpts that speak to the present chapter of their stories. We continue reaching for the wisdom and encouragement we all need to simply be who we are in this exasperating and beautiful world that we live in.

Kyle and Brittany continue their conversation with Laurel, exploring our need to give space to others and ourselves. Parker Palmer's insights free us to be real and heal.

In this conversation Kyle and Brittany's friend, Laurel, joins the conversation to explore the connections between soul and role, as described by very wise and generous author, Parker Palmer. What does our inner dividedness really cost us? How can we recover the wholeness for which we were all made?

We get the Season 1 gang back together as Kyle, Brittany, Courtney and Robert explore what Ted Lasso Season 2 says to our lives. It seems none of the shows heroes is exempt from crisis and crumbling, which is why we love this story. Nevertheless, among the relational wreckage, seeds of belief in themselves and one another get planted. And we also get to groove along with Ted and friends to some great dance tunes of years past!

Join Brittany, Kyle and Master sitarist, and Toronto resident Chris Hale as they continue their conversation unpacking Mary Oliver’s poem,To Begin With, the Sweet Grass. What does Nature say that we deeply need to hear, amidst the clutter and the chaos of our daily lives?

Chris Hale’s music is available at:

https://christopherhalesitar.bandcamp.com/