SDI Encounters

Rev. SeiFu and Matt Whitney on Belonging - Part 2

In this week's episode, SDI's Rev. SeiFu and Matt Whitney continue their conversation on what it means to belong to the SDI community, particularly when things get challenging. In our ongoing SDI community dialogue around Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Justice, and Belonging, we’d like to focus more intensively on the Belonging part. SDI has envisioned our community as a Public Square of Spiritual Companionship, in which we gather as spiritual directors and companions from an array of faith traditions and spiritual orientations. Though sometimes this process can be messy and uncomfortable, SDI will always be a place for anyone who shares our passion and commitment to our common calling. The conversation continues from last week's Part 1. 
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SDI Membership is about being a part of a global contemplative movement that contributes to peace, justice, and living in right relationship with all living beings. The SDI learning community is a group of compassionate listeners who are committed to serving others on their spiritual journeys. Everyone is welcome to become a member of SDI, which also supports our work to advocate for the healing contemplative modalities of spiritual direction and companionship. Become a new member or renew your membership on SDI’s secure online store, at sdicompanions.org.

Rev. SeiFu and Matt Whitney on Belonging - Part 1

In this week's episode, SDI's Rev. SeiFu and Matt Whitney discuss what it means to belong to the SDI community, particularly when things get challenging. In our ongoing SDI community dialogue around Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Justice, and Belonging, we’d like to focus more intensively on the Belonging part. SDI has envisioned our community as a Public Square of Spiritual Companionship, in which we gather as spiritual directors and companions from an array of faith traditions and spiritual orientations. Though sometimes this process can be messy and uncomfortable, SDI will always be a place for anyone who shares our passion and commitment to our common calling. The conversation continues next week in Part 2.
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SDI Membership is about being a part of a global contemplative movement that contributes to peace, justice, and living in right relationship with all living beings. The SDI learning community is a group of compassionate listeners who are committed to serving others on their spiritual journeys. Everyone is welcome to become a member of SDI, which also supports our work to advocate for the healing contemplative modalities of spiritual direction and companionship. Become a new member or renew your membership on SDI’s secure online store, at sdicompanions.org.

Awakening Joy - Practices to Cultivate Spiritual Presence - Harry Pickens

“I already feel more awake`-thank you.”
“I cannot wait for the class!!!”
“brilliant and blissful,” “Tingly,” “Being present to my own joy,” “Calm and energized,” “Peacefulness,” “Wonder and awe,” “Reconnecting with my true self.”
“This was life-changing.”
“I feel like I’ve transformed as a spiritual director” (OK, that one is from me, but it’s true).
These are a few of the comments received just from the one-hour preview session we had with Harry Pickens! The recording is posted below and is available for you to watch whenever you like. SDI Members can also find it in the Free Sessions Course within their ‘My Courses and Webinars‘ section, or can access directly by clicking here: “Awakening Joy”
Huge thanks to Harry Pickens for facilitating this wonderful session!
If you want to experience more healing, more integration, more joy, and cultivate a fuller spiritual presence for yourself and those you companion, then we encourage you to sign up for our five-session webinar with Harry beginning on July 5th. All sessions are recorded for you to watch whenever you like. Click here to learn more and register.
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Harry Pickens is an award-winning musician, educator, and life transformation coach. He  holds practitioner and trainer certifications in EFT and Spiritual Technology and a Certificate in Applied Positive Psychology from the Flourishing Center. He is the developer of the From StageFright To Standing Ovation™, From Burnout To Bliss™ and Rewire Your Brain For Inner Peace™ Workshops, and creator of Emotional Empowerment For Personal Mastery™, a step-by-step protocol that is designed to help his clients quickly and easily release the pain of the past, fully embrace the miracle of the present moment, and consciously create their best possible future. Harry was a recent presenter in the SDI Trauma and Wellness Course for Spiritual Directors and Companions.

Dr Jeanette Banashak and Rev Simon Ruth De Voil - Guides for Our 2024 Forest Bathing Journey

Hear directly from our Guides for the newest iteration of our Forest Bathing Journey, coming in March 2024.
We are pleased to welcome all to join us as SDI returns to the woods of the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. For spiritual directors, companions, wayfarers and explorers, we invite you to spend a week immersing in nature, breathing the clean forest air, finding silence and stillness, and experience deep listening on new levels.
If you missed our first Retreat, here is your opportunity to join us for this truly restful and transformative experience. If you previously attended, we are excited to again bring this offering to you. All are welcome! March 3 - 9, 2024.
Special pricing of 20 percent off in place through July 5, 2023! Call or e-mail our Office at 425-455-1565 or office@sdiworld.org to start a payment plan, or register now at https://www.sdicompanions.org/product/2024-the-forest-as-companion-nature-immersion-and-deep-listening/

Reconsidering Spiritual Companionship - Full Conversation with Rev. SeiFu Singh-Molares

In this recent April 2023, SDI Executive Director Rev. SeiFu Singh-Molares and SDI Creative Director Matt Whitney had a wide-ranging conversation about spiritual direction and companionship, and in particular, reconsidering some of the elements we might consider to be “universal.” Are there common elements to the work of spiritual companionship that we can identify? For example, we often cite “deep listening” as a common practice. But what do we mean when we say that? We also consider, and reconsider, the generation of “spiritual heat,” how spiritual companionship has elements of contemplative practice, opening to new depths of awareness, and how to befriend the overwhelm that can come when we gain insight into the depths of our existence. We have this conversation posted as a five-part video series on our YouTube channel, but here you can listen to the conversation in its entirety. We hope you enjoy it and reconsider for yourself some of the building blocks of your own practice as a spiritual companion.
SDI Membership is about being a part of a global contemplative movement that contributes to peace, justice, and living in right relationship with all living beings. The SDI learning community is a group of compassionate listeners who are committed to serving others on their spiritual journeys. Everyone is welcome to become a member of SDI, which also supports our work to advocate for the healing contemplative modalities of spiritual direction and companionship. Become a new member or renew your membership on SDI’s secure online store, at sdicompanions.org.

A Conversation with Fr. Adam Bucko - Let Your Heartbreak Be Your Guide

Recently we at SDI hosted a free preview webinar session with Fr. Adam Bucko, who will be facilitating an upcoming webinar series called Let Your Heartbreak Be Your Guide – Spiritual Direction and Companionship for a World That Has Lots Its Way. This episode we share the audio of that free preview webinar conversation. Join our community of spiritual companions and wayfarers for this 3-part webinar exploring Heartbreak for Spiritual Directors and how to turn it to our advantage. Through readings, deep conversations, dialogue and discernment with one of SDI’s most compelling teachers, Fr. Adam Bucko, your heart will open and be renewed. We will be reading portions of Fr. Adam’s newest book, Let Your Heartbreak Be Your Guide – designed for every person trying to live at the intersection of contemplation and justice, but will be specially resonant for spiritual directors and companions.

Carmen Acevedo Butcher - Mystical Wisdom and Practice from The Cloud of Unknowing and Brother Lawrence

Recently, SDI hosted a free webinar with Carmen Acevedo Butcher, an internationally acclaimed speaker, author, educator, and poet. Carmen specializes in Early Modern French, German, Latin, Middle English, and Old English mystic writers. You can watch the webinar on Vimeo.
SDI is starting a four-part series on two mystics: Brother Lawrence and The Cloud of Unknowing. The series will be hosted by Carmen Acevedo Butcher and begins on April 5th, 2023. You can join anytime and watch the recorded sessions at your convenience. Learn more and register on our website.
Join us for a deep dive into the writings and teachings of these great mystics. Carmen Acevedo Butcher will facilitate the series and guide us in exploring the meaning beyond the words. We will engage in practices like singing and contemplating to experience the deep love underlying their writings.
These writers lived through plagues, wars, and trials similar to what we face today. They are relatable spiritual companions who have walked these paths before us. How did they grapple with the crises of their times? Join us to nourish our souls with hope.
Carmen Acevedo Butcher is an internationally acclaimed speaker, author, educator, and poet. She is an award-winning translator of works in Early Modern French, German, Latin, Middle English, and Old English by writers including Brother Lawrence.

Website Chat Support, Compassionate Listening, and Growing Peppers - Ryan Hinson - SDI Technical Support Specialist

Have you ever noticed on the sdicompanions.org website, a small purple chat bubble that follows you in the lower-right hand corner of the screen? It looks like this:
The ‘SDI Chat’ feature is there to assist you with questions you might have about most things related to our website, how to do things like renew your Membership, access a Webinar. And, lest you think it’s a virtual assistant AI robot, oh no, there is a live, breathing human being on the other end of that chat. And his name is Ryan! Ryan Hinson is our Technical Support Assistant, and I thought it would be fun to talk with him and give the opportunity for you to get to know him a little bit. Ryan is interesting and thoughtful and has the perfect calm, unflappable demeanor for dealing with our Members’ technical issues and helping them find and do what they need. I personally promise you will learn something new and interesting in this conversation.
Ryan Hinson (he/him) brings his skill and patience as a technology literacy professional to the Technology Support Position. He has two decades of experience in online teaching, educational writing, tutoring, and tech support, as well as a Bachelor of Arts in Religious Studies from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Outside of this professional role, Ryan enjoys growing hot peppers and native fruits, foraging, cooking, and playing video games.

Eric Massanari - SDI Board Chair - An Invitation to Community

In this interview we talk to Eric Massanari, Chair of the SDI Board of Directors. Eric invites all SDI Members to join him and the rest of the SDI Board for virtual teatime gatherings on March 10, 2023. Learn about what it's like to serve on the Board and bring your questions! Bring your tea or coffee to this informal online gathering on March 10th at either 10am Pacific, or at 4pm Pacific! Register here.
On a related note, the Board is accepting applications and nominations for new members to serve. the role comes fiduciary, visionary, strategic planning, and Executive Director oversight responsibilities. As part of this Board’s commitment to Diversity and Inclusion, we strongly encourage people from diverse backgrounds, gender identities, ethnicities, nationalities, and religious traditions and/or spiritual orientations to apply. We deeply value, cherish, and encourage applicants from these diverse areas, and others.”
Eric Massanari (he/him) is an ordained pastor in the Mennonite tradition, living in northern Washington state where he serves as the Executive Conference Minister for the Pacific Northwest Mennonite Conference of Mennonite Church USA. He also maintains a private practice in spiritual direction. Eric has served on the SDI Board of Directors since 2018 and brings a passion for inter-faith and inter-spiritual connections, community formation, peace and justice building, and companioning people who are at diverse places on the spiritual journey. An avid poet and essayist, Eric is a contributing author of An Open Place: The Ministry of Group Spiritual Direction.
In his own words: “I celebrate how spiritual companioning takes so many vital forms across time, place, traditions and cultures. In its myriad expressions it’s a practice that our world needs now more than ever, as together we seek the paths that make for enduring peace.”

Rabbi Myriam Klotz - SDI Board Vice-Chair - An Invitation to Serve

In this interview we talk to Rabbi Miriam Klotz, vice-chair of the SDI Board of Directors. Rabbi Myriam invites all SDI Members to join her and the rest of the SDI Board for virtual teatime gatherings on March 10, 2023. Learn about what it's like to serve on the Board and bring your questions! Bring your tea or coffee to this informal online gathering on March 10th at either 10am Pacific, or at 4pm Pacific! Register here.
Rabbi Myriam Klotz is a spiritual director and supervisor in Jewish seminaries and in private practice since 1999.  Myriam consulted with several rabbinical schools to introduce spiritual direction to their students and faculty.  She coordinated the spiritual direction program at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion from 2010-2020, and has been the director of the Bekhol Levavkha Spiritual Director Training program since 2014.  Myriam is also a Senior Program Director with the Institute for Jewish Spirituality where she teaches somatics and embodied practices from a perspective of deep listening and honoring of our bodies’ sacred wisdom.  Myriam lives in Philadelphia, PA with her spouse Rabbi Margot Stein. She is the proud mom and step mom of two sons. 
On a related note, the Board is accepting applications and nominations for new members to serve. the role comes fiduciary, visionary, strategic planning, and Executive Director oversight responsibilities. As part of this Board’s commitment to Diversity and Inclusion, we strongly encourage people from diverse backgrounds, gender identities, ethnicities, nationalities, and religious traditions and/or spiritual orientations to apply. We deeply value, cherish, and encourage applicants from these diverse areas, and others.”
If you’re interested in applying or nominating a qualified individual to serve on the board, please go to our website sdicompanions.org, and on the homepage you’ll find the graphic which will take you to the appropriate forms.