El Nellis

Phil Nellis | Seattle, WA

[elnellis]

Places on the Edge

“Fierce landscapes remind us that what we long for and what we fear most are both already within us. Another way of saying this is that desert and mountain terrain provokes the identification and reordering of boundaries. It confronts people with their edges. In wild places, terror and growth-toward-wholeness walk hand in hand.”

- Belden Lane, The Solace of Fierce Landscapes, pg 37.

[elnellis]

The Empire Strikes Back...

[elnellis]

...But my grandfather's rules and beliefs did not add up as I grew older. I came to find the disjunction between the thoroughness of my mind and the limitations of church teachings intolerable. I would only be able to return to faith after I concluded that the stories and vocabulary and symbols of the faith of my childhood could withstand and contain my questions and ideas. Christianity itself would yield and expand, making room for even larger questions beyond my wildest imagining. I needed faith to be generous, open to creativity and intellect and humor...

Krista Tippett- Speaking of Faith

[elnellis]

A body, love insists, is neither a spirit nor a machine; it is not a picture, a diagram, a chart, a graph, an anatomy; it is not an explanation; it is not a law. It is precisely and uniquely what it is. It belongs to the world of love, which is a world of living creatures, natural orders and cycles, many small, fragile lights in the dark.

Wendell Berry (Health is Membership, 1994).

[elnellis]

Stress is a perverted relationship with time.

John O'Donohue

[elnellis]

One of the great confusions of our time is to mistake glamour for beauty.

John O’Donohue

[elnellis]

You work where you can and sometimes you get lucky.

[elnellis]

Dr. Kristen Neff & Self Compassion

Watch this talk with a notepad on your lap- lots of gold here!

[elnellis]

VULNERABILITY

“VULNERABILITY is not a weakness, a passing indisposition, or something we can arrange to do without, vulnerability is not a choice , vulnerability is the underlying, ever present and abiding under-current of our natural state. To run from vulnerability is to run from the essence of our nature, the attempt to be invulnerable is the vain attempt to be something we are not and most especially, to close off our understanding of the grief of others. More seriously, refusing our vulnerability we refuse the help needed at every turn of our existence and immobilize the essential, tidal and conversational foundations of our identity.

“To have a temporary, isolated sense of power over all events and circumstances, is one of the privileges and the prime conceits of being human and especially of being youthfully human, but a privilege that must be surrendered with that same youth, with ill health, with accident, with the loss of loved ones who do not share our untouchable powers; powers eventually and most emphatically given up, as we approach our last breath. The only choice we have as we mature is how we inhabit our vulnerability, how we become larger and more courageous and more compassionate through our intimacy with disappearance, our choice is to inhabit vulnerability as generous citizens of loss, robustly and fully, or conversely, as misers and complainers, reluctant, and fearful, always at the gates of existence, but never bravely and completely attempting to enter, never wanting to risk ourselves, never walking fully through the door.”

© May 2014 David Whyte Excerpted from ‘VULNERABILITY’ From his book of essays CONSOLATIONS: The Solace, Nourishment and Underlying Meaning of Everyday Words. http://www.davidwhyte.com/

[elnellis]

David Whyte — The Conversational Nature of Reality

David Whyte is a poet and philosopher who believes in the power of a “beautiful question” amidst the drama of work as well as the drama of life — amidst the ways the two overlap, whether we want them to or not.

Ruth said you have to listen to this. Then Renee said you have to listen to this. Finally listening to it. So glad that I am!

[philnellis]

Reclaimed Oak Bookends

These modern, angular bookends came from oak pallet 4x4′s. Sanded & oiled with a beeswax mineral oil. 

[philnellis]

Personal Icon Shelves

These small live-edge hardwood shelves are made with love for the sacred symbols & significant objects in life. 

All shelves are carefully sanded, oiled and braced 16″ apart (the standard gap between the studs behind most drywall).

[elnellis]

Ok, this was actually quite beautiful- tender & holy. I like both men more (if it was possible for me to regard Peterson higher) after this. Enjoy!

[elnellis]

The Seer

The Seer: A portrait of Wendell Berry (documentary film by Laura Dunn)

"What he's saying to me is, there is no big solution. It's broken! We're all complicit in a broken system, and in a broken world. The question isn't how can I fix it all. But how can I, with my own two hands, do good work, every day. And I find that immensely hopeful."

NPR spot: The Gospel According to Wendell Berry

[elnellis]

[elnellis]

Ched Myers is an audacious, in-your-face-with-nothing- to-lose punk. He is also an uncredentialed biblical scholar who breaks most of the rules, while engaging in guerilla tacts to undermine the guild. That's why Empire Remixed loves him. Happy Birthday Ched!

Brian Walsh celebrating Ched Myers. Grateful for both of these voices... I also take “ahead of the game” to mean something along the lines of “a prophetic voice”...

[elnellis]

Jesus was killed because what he said, what he did and who he was posed a threat to the political and religious powers of his day. As North American Christians, we live with remarkable political power and religious preeminence. How can we be honest about the realities of our situation as people who confess Christ in this day-n-age, but who do so as residents and beneficiaries of Empire and as worshipers in a religion that has largely been co-opted by the politics of Empire? I imagine that a certain outcome would be that our practice of politics and religion will become increasingly odd and difficult to categorize...