If we assume that because we’ve been born and are not yet dead, we’re alive… is there a cost? What is aliveness, after all? And how many times will I eat soap?

This is an episode about aliveness. An episode about cycles of rupture and repair. An episode where I share a silly story about me eating soap (multiple times, to date!) and some of my own journey from being unaware to being more in rhythm with life.

A few months shy of this podcast’s second birthday, and inspired in a few ways by my conversation with Tad Hargrave (ep 38) and work I’m doing in his Marketing for Hippies Membership, this is an episode where I tune back into the question these conversation coalesce around: what does it mean to be human… and what if being human, being alive, isn’t inevitable?

You’ll hear:

• how decreasing aliveness and interrupted rupture-repair cycles seem connected to me;
• the way I see aliveness trying to manifest itself through us now;
• the three planes of existence and the three main alchemical ingredients I see as necessary for repair after rupture (and in any attempt to align ourselves again with life);
• why certain modalities may only take us so far… and more.

• 
  

Since much of this conversation seems to land squarely at the heart of how I see the world (and my work within it), I would love to hear from you: what pinged? What do you disagree with or have more questions about? Any thoughts/ impressions? You can email me: kate@wildsacredjourney.com. I’d love to hear.

May we find again our rhythm in the cycles of rupture and repair - in moments when that’s easy and in moments when we have a lot of skin in the game. May we see our aliveness as a precious gift to be stewarded with care. May we remember Love as the necessary ingredient in all things. And may we learn our lessons so we don’t have to keep eating soap… or at the very least, eat less of it each time.

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You can find Kate:

Website: www.wildsacredjourney.com

Email – kate@wildsacredjourney.com

Instagram: @wildsacredjourney_kp

And I hope you'll stick around for more conversations to access, repair, inspire, and evolve our humanity and serve the wild, tender aliveness of our personal and collective hearts.

To further support the podcast and conversations like this:

1. Please ‘follow’, ‘like’ or ‘subscribe’ where you listen so you stay up-to-date on all our conversations and help others find them, too. On Apple Podcast, please consider rating and leaving a review.

2. share widely

3. consider joining the new Patreon community! For as little as $1/ month, patrons get access to community gatherings and get to play a more interactive role in the growth of the podcast. ⁠https://patreon.com/wildsacredjourney⁠

How do we say ‘yes’ to life, without saying ‘no’ to death? How do we “rise to the occasion” and “wrestle something good” from the heartbreak of a terminal diagnosis? What does it look like to “become familiar with grief and uncertainty in intimate ways”?

Today’s virtual fire-side conversation about being human and being alive is with Duncan Passmore - husband, father, writer, and woodworker of 20 years - as he shares his story and the story of his son, Torin, diagnosed at a young age with Pearson syndrome, a rare and incurable mitochondrial disorder.

It’s a story of life and death, grief and beauty; punctuated with the power of story, the mystery of ceremony, the practice of craft and community… and the building of boats.

It’s also a way of inviting you, if you feel able and called to, to weave into the community Torin has inspired and contribute to Duncan’s family’s GoFundMe; raising the funds to support them spending six months with Torin’s presence and his memory as they build a boat and sail it on Lake Windermere - a request of Torin’s he didn’t live to see fulfilled.

As someone grappling in my own ways (as most of us are) with fears, griefs, and the way life laughs at plans; as someone who believes in the power of community, of cultures devoted to full-spectrum aliveness, mystery, story, and ceremony; this feels like a deeply worthy story to share and a deeply worthy endeavor to support.

Join us around the fire? You’re most welcome here.

May we shed the armor which keeps us trying to hold off what is. May we become vulnerable enough and brave enough to share our stories so community might find us and, when the time comes, hold us. May we use our hands and heart to craft beauty from grief so we might fully embody at least some small part of what it seems to mean to be human and to be alive. May Torin’s presence and memory live on through the ripples of his story and the way it disarms us and invites us to rise to the occasion of our own lives.

You can find out more about the project and become a part of the prayerful building of the boat through Duncan’s GoFundMe:

https://gofund.me/9983ec87

Please also consider sharing the GoFundMe so we can continue casting the net wider and weaving more people into this story. They’re at 50% as of the recording/ publishing of this episode and have until June 9th to make it the rest of the way.

P.S. My Zoom seems to have finally caught up to the version with the floating reaction videos - so please excuse the random thumbs up and balloons which seem to pop up at strange and slightly inappropriate times.

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And if you've come for Duncan, I hope you'll stick around for more conversations to access, repair, inspire, and evolve our humanity and serve the wild, tender aliveness of our personal and collective hearts.

To further support the podcast and conversations that aim to awaken, inspire, repair, and evolve something deep within us and serve as good medicine for our wild, tender personal and collective hearts:

1. Please ‘follow’, ‘like’ or ‘subscribe’ where you listen so you stay up-to-date on all our conversations and help others find them, too. On Apple Podcast, please consider rating and leaving a review.

2. share widely

3. consider joining the new Patreon community! For as little as $1/ month, patrons get access to community gatherings and get to play a more interactive role in the growth of the podcast. ⁠https://patreon.com/wildsacredjourney⁠

What if the very things which challenge our ability to ‘fix’ or ‘produce’ in the ways we’re used to are the things which bring us closer to sacredness?

I recorded this episode a month ago, right after I recorded the ‘Sacredness: Part 1’ episode and while grief and uncertainty were right under the surface of my skin. Like with Sacredness Part 1, I ended up adding in some updates and edits as I was prepping to release. Like with Sacredness Part 1, my wonderings are raw and full of prevarication. You won’t find many sound bites or clear-cut answers here. Instead you’ll hear me drawing threads of understanding and insight together in real time, while being a mouthpiece for something that might be wisdom (or maybe not?) to come through.

You’ll hear me muse further on:

• What we should perhaps be looking for in our guides and mentors;
• A saying I heard in a yoga class and why I think it’s short-sighted as far as a spiritual and cultural approach goes;
• My understanding of the term ‘shaman’ and why it might help us to stop thinking we all can or should be one;
• How language can affect our ability to be in right relationship with ceremony, with the sacred, with the medicine we each carry;
• The language of energy as our birthright;
• The role of the messy and uncomfortable in our initiations and becoming;
• Ceremony vs navel-gazing;
• And a part of my journey I don’t speak about much, but which seems to be pointing me to…. something.

When the road of words and doing and fixes runs out, may we arrive at the profound and terrifying silence. And in this silence, may we meet ourselves stripped bare. And when we find ourselves stripped bare, may we hold the present of what really matters in our hands and heart. And may we realize we were only ever beautiful and worthy. May we finally realize what it is to be alive.

You can find Kate:

Website: www.wildsacredjourney.com

Email – kate@wildsacredjourney.com

Instagram: @wildsacredjourney_kp

And I hope you'll stick around for more conversations to access, repair, inspire, and evolve our humanity and serve the wild, tender aliveness of our personal and collective hearts.

To further support the podcast and conversations like this:

1. Please ‘follow’, ‘like’ or ‘subscribe’ where you listen so you stay up-to-date on all our conversations and help others find them, too. On Apple Podcast, please consider rating and leaving a review.

2. share widely

3. consider joining the new Patreon community! For as little as $1/ month, patrons get access to community gatherings and get to play a more interactive role in the growth of the podcast. ⁠https://patreon.com/wildsacredjourney⁠