SDI Encounters

EP068 - Meet Ann Lancaster - SDI Production Assistant

We’re using the podcast here to occasionally introduce you to new faces and voices in the SDI Family – we heard from Desiree Casil a couple of weeks ago who is taking over for Membership Services. This week, we get to meet Ann Lancaster, who has come on as SDI’s Production Assistant, helping us with graphic and layout design, helping me in the SDI Laboratories where we are cooking up many new and exciting offerings for spiritual companions.
Ann tells us about her previous work at Microsoft, her experience so far working with SDI, her own spiritual awakening, being a Reiki practitioner, being a mega-fan of a Danish band called Mew, and how she unwinds by playing odd video games.
Learn more about the amazing Ann Lancaster through her various projects:
http://www.annlancaster.com/
https://www.whitelodgeawakening.com/
http://www.mewx.info/

EP067 - Group Spiritual Direction with Diane Millis (and new offering from SDI!)

SDI is announcing a new series of group spiritual direction sessions, facilitated by Diane Millis and Matt Whitney, beginning May 12th 2020. Learn more and register on our store site, sdistore.org. In this Encounters episode, Diane and I (Matt Whitney) talk about how she developed her methods for group spiritual direction, and what you can expect in the group zoom sessions we have upcoming for May 2020.
SDI's Group Spiritual Direction package will include 4 90-minute sessions over zoom, Tuesdays at 9am Pacific. Our time together will include Centering in shared silence, group spiritual companioning in groups of 4, and Collective Reflection and Meditation.
You can expect to gain familiarity and experience practicing a specific approach to Group Spiritual Companioning;
Co-create an occasion for community building in this period of social distancing;
Increase our sense of solidarity and service as spiritual caregivers in these uncertain times.
Diane M. Millis, PhD, is an inspirational speaker, spiritual director, retreat facilitator, and consultant. She is the author of Conversation—The Sacred Art, and Re-Creating A Life: Learning How to Tell Our Most Life-Giving Story, which was named one of the "Best Spiritual Books of 2019" by Spirituality and Practice. She lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota. 
 

EP066 - Meet Desiree Casil - SDI Membership Services

SDI is a member based organization, with over 6000 members worldwide. We have a Membership Services Team that is there to assist our members with anything from renewing a membership to taking a payment to registering for a conference or workshop, or anything else related to your SDI Membership. Desiree Casil is taking over as our new Membership Services Coordinator, and so in this episode of Encounters I had a chat with her about how her training over zoom is going, we do a riveting roleplay in which I pretend to call in as a member with some seriously hardball questions to see how Desiree handles them. In Part 2 we chat about her weekend, some big spiritual questions Desiree is chewing on, and learn a bit about her dog Ava, whose picture is posted in these notes.
You can become a member too, by calling our Office, at 1-425-455-1565, or by going to our online store, sdistore.org.
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I just want to update you on a couple of webinar offerings we have in the next month. First of all, the Remote Spiritual Comapnionship webinar I mentioned in the roleplay is really happening. In fact it is Thursday April 22nd, with Kristen Hobby and Ravi Verma and will offer practical advice and wisdom on how to do spiritual companionship over web conference, phone, email, how to handle scheduling and payment, and some approaches to the kinds of things people are wrestling with during the global pandemic.
The 2nd Webinar I want to mention, this is really exciting, is a four part series with Mirabai Starr, titled Mystic Wisdom in an Uncertain Time, which begins May 8th. Mirabai will be sharing on insights on spiritual companionship through the contexts of St. Teresa of Avila, Ram Dass, Grief and Loss, and The Divine Feminine.
All our webinar offerings can be watched live, and are also recorded so you can watch them at your convenience. You can register for either or both of these webinars by calling our Office at 1-425-455-1565, or by going to our online store, sdistore.org.
 
 

EP065 - Hallmarks of Spiritual Companionship (Listen 14.2 - April 2020, read by SDI Staff)

At SDI we just released our quarterly digital publication of Listen – it includes a written reflection on spiritual companionship by Reverend Seifu Anil Singh-Molares, poetry by well-known members of our SDI community, and original artwork by me. You can find it, download it, and read it from our website, sdiworld.org, under the Media navigation.
In this episode, please enjoy an audio version of the April issue of Listen, read by us at SDI.
 
 

EP064 - The Paradox of Showing Up, and Letting Go, as a Spiritual Companion - Brian Plachta

Brian Plachta is a spiritual director based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Brian joined me for this conversation about spiritual direction and companionship, and he offers very practical advice for on being present to the companion, while not getting in the way or over-directing the companion’s spiritual journey. We begin with talking about the notion of failing someone we’ve been companioning, which relates to an article Brian wrote for Presence Journal, which appeared in the December 2019 issue.
What is at the essence of being a spiritual companion? Perhaps it's simply to walk alongside someone on their spiritual journey as they discern the Divine in their lives. How do we handle it when someone we’ve been walking with goes away, and takes a path that for whatever reason, we can't follow?
You can learn more about Brian's work on his website, http://brianplachta.net/
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Support for this podcast comes from SDI Digital Refuge - a new service from SDI, designed to support you through our enhanced digital offerings. As we face this time of pandemic, we hope that these offerings will offer solace and strength. Learn more at http://sdicompanions.online

BONUS - My Boss is a Zen Priest (and an amazing guitar player!)

If you’ve been listening to this podcast for awhile, or have viewed some of the SDI short videos for our Santa Fe conference, you’ve heard the guitar music in the background. You may not know that the classically trained person playing guitar is our very own Executive Director, Reverend Seifu Anil Singh-Molares, and one day at the SDI Offices he brought in his guitar and we recorded him playing so I could carve it up for our various media offerings. Well, I dug up the original recording of that session, which also has a cameo from Frederica Helmiere who had just joined SDI. So I thought it would be cool, as a bonus podcast, to release the unedited take of Reverend Seifu playing some amazingly beautiful guitar, with a few mistakes which I’m only pointing out because he needs you to know that he knows they’re mistakes. Anyway, enjoy!

EP063 - Walking as Spiritual Companionship (Pilgrimage in Place)

Pilgrimage-in-place, or, Walking as Spiritual Companionship.
For this week’s podcast, I (Matt Whitney) went for a walk with a spiritual companion. That is, my friend Jeanette Banashak went for a walk around her neighborhood in Chicago, and we recorded the conversation we had while Jeanette was walking. Jeanette is a co-founder of the Spiritual Guidance Training Institute, and is pretty knowledgeable on the topic of Pilgrimage, having undertaken multiple pilgrimage journeys around the world to many different holy sites. She is the author of The Mindful Pilgrimage: A 40-Day Pocket Devotional for Pilgrims of Any Faith or None. 
We recorded this conversation last month, and now as I record this today, there’s not a whole lot of travel going on. Our conversation feels prescient now, because we spend some time getting to what the essence of a pilgrimage is. What is supposed to happen on a pilgrimage, and what makes for a successful pilgrimage? Knowing or understanding these things, can a pilgrimage happen on a walk from your home to the grocery store? Or the post office? Or just meandering around your neighborhood?
We used the Five Excellent Practices of Pilgrimage as a framework to address this question, from a book called The Art of Pilgrimage by Phil Cousineau. I hope our conversation inspires you to try this out for yourself.
Go for a walk. Go a different direction. Go somewhere you don’t normally go. Go for the sake of going. Take your phone and call a friend, and chat while you walk. Describe what you are seeing to one-another.

EP062 - Listen to our Discover March Newsletter

Did you catch our March 2020 e-mail newsletter? It's called Discover, and it brings with it all the updates and goings-on at SDI. If perhaps it got buried in your inbox, or perhaps you haven't subscribed yet, never fear because I (Matt Whitney) read aloud our newsletter in this podcast episode - so you can simply listen to our updates! This is a bit of an experiment for those who might want to listen to our monthly updates while walking, cooking, cleaning, or playing in the background of whatever else you have going on. But make sure to listen, or read, because there's a lot going on at SDI as we work hard to provide ways for you to do the urgent work of spiritual companionship, and find nourishment within the SDI community!
Subscribe to Discover - The Monthly Newsletter from SDI
Become a Member of SDI - join our Tree of Life, and support the work of spiritual companionship around the world.
Check out our Livestream portal for Companionship and Town Halls.
 

EP061 - Bonus Podcast - Spiritual Companionship For Urgent Times

Hello to our SDI community. It is March 19th, 2020, and the world is very much in flux right now, with the global coronavirus pandemic, markets crashing, jobs disappearing, and civic life grinding to a halt.
People have been referring to our current situation as “uncertain times” which they most certainly are. But, were times so certain before coronavirus?
Last week, when we heard the Governor of New Mexico declare a state of emergency and make the recommendation to cancel all social gatherings, we at SDI went to work to postpone our Santa Fe Conference, which we are happy to say we’ve completed, and we are going to be offering pretty much the same conference, but now rescheduled for April 22-25, 2021.
So although we will not be gathering in person for the foreseeable future, we’ve been hard at work to bulk up our digital offerings, so that we can offer conversation, community, and resources for spiritual companions.
it is these times today that make the work of companionship more urgent than ever. But as we take steps to isolate and self-quarantine, we’ve got to reimagine the ways we do this work. At the same time, we are presented with something of an opportunity – to be faced with a very uncertain world, and to have our daily rhythms of life utterly dispruted – we have a unique opportunity to go deeper in our spiritual practices. Darkness and unknowing – for who knows what comes next with this pandemic – are forced upon us. It is our contemplative practices that will provide us light and ways of being, and perhaps even living joyfully.
To that end, we’ve launched a new web portal called sdicompanions.online which will be the hub for a series of upcoming Town Halls, livestreams, online gatherings, and facilitated contemplative practices. Our first one is being offered this Saturday, March 21, 2020 at 9am Pacific Time. It will be livestreamed over Youtube, or you can join the Zoom call.
Our Conference is called Spiritual Companionship For Our Times, and this will be the theme of this Town Hall. Our Executive Director, Reverend Seifu Anil Singh-Molares, and myself, will facilitate a panel discussion with a group of spiritual companions, and we invite you to join us. There will be opportunity to submit your questions and comments during this 90 minute online discussion, and we hope this will be a springboard by which we can offer community, contemplative practice, and companionship during these indeed, very uncertain times.
Rev. Seifu and I chatted about these offerings, and the things SDI is working on, to continue to provide spiritual companions and contemplatives with tools, resources, and platforms. SDI’s Community is strong and flourishing and we invite you to continue to help us discern and grow the urgent work of spiritual companionship.

EP060 - My Boss is a Zen Priest - On Silence and Meditation

Here's the latest in a series we are calling My Boss is a Zen Priest. I (Matt Whitney, Creative Director) talk with SDI’s Executive Director, Reverend Seifu Anil Singh-Molares. He’s my manager, he makes the decisions, and he’s also an ordained priest in the Zen Buddhist tradition. We have weekly one-on-one check in meetings, where I tell him about the things I’m working on, and he provides feedback and insight. That feedback and insight often delves into deep dives around spirituality. 
This week we talk about our experiences with meditation, and the encounters one has with Silence.
In the episode, I mention our partnership with Spiritual Paths and Interspiritual Meditation, which you can learn more about here.