Anamchara: An Offering

I’ve had this inspiration for some time, and have finally come to a way of implementing it.

I feel at my best when I am able to speak with people with mutual sincerity and earnestness about the things that matter most to us — about the things of the soul.

There is little enough of this in a world where although we are increasingly “together,” we are increasingly alone in our deepest feeling and our deepest concern — for our lives, for those we love, and for the world.

The fundamental alchemy of the soul is opening ourselves at the depths to ourselves, and to the others we meet. In the vale of soul-making that this world is, soul-making happens above all in relationship. In communion. In friendship. With the Mystery inside us, and the Mystery outside us.

There are so many modes and frequencies of this entrance into deeper communion. Although I love many of them, my own, as I can admit to myself after more than half a lifetime, is a word from the heart, spoken and heard. It isn’t enough on its own — it must be received and held in the body. But it is essential.

I live on the edges of tradition, often moving about in it as one who knows it well enough to feel at home and still preserve his freedom. I have lived in many traditional worlds, and if that is a language you speak, I can speak it also, perhaps while encouraging you to find a space for movement within the tradition you inhabit. If you believe yourself to be outside any tradition, as a seeker, I can encourage you and help you to view them all with an open heart and a clear eye, while still pursuing the fundamental insights of your soul that are rays of the manifold grace of God. Who knows — perhaps you will find a home after all, one day.

Perhaps I have this to offer to you. And if you think I might, I invite you to become a paid subscriber to this publication. My paid subscribers will get an email with my snail-mail address. As often as you write me a physical letter (I would love a handwritten one, if your handwriting is clear!), touching on the life of your soul in the world, I will respond in kind, listening and offering you the response of my heart with clarity and sincerity.

I would like to listen, and to be an anamchara, a friend of your soul.