Bear the Light

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Calling all the folks in the room who don't know how they'd name their light or have been in a long period of discernment about it! Today's episode of Bear the Light with Leanne Shawler is especially for you.

Leanne is a member of the Light House community who struggled for a long time to know how she'd name her light in the world. In fact, the first time we talked about her coming on the show, she hadn't yet gotten to a point of naming it and was willing to come on the show anyway for a conversation about that difficulty of naming her light, specifically. (Kudos to her for having been willing to do that!)

But then, in January, she gained some unexpected clarity through several avenues: a virtual retreat day I hosted in the Light House, an in-person retreat stay she did at a monastery that same week, a meditation offered by the writer Anna Lovind, and a labyrinth walk she took while at the retreat house.

Leanne is now able to name that she is an artist who gifts her art.

This episode offers a great peek into the kinds of questions we might ask ourselves when we're on the search to name our light, the things we might instinctively know is or is not it, and what it's like to finally be able to name it.

Connect with Leanne on her website and on Instagram at @leanneshawler.

Connect with Christianne on Instagram at @christiannesquires or by subscribing to the Light Notes email list.

And consider applying to be a guest on the show! Fill out the guest application form here.

It's a real treat to bring you today's episode of Bear the Light for three reasons. First, it's an interview with our first male guest! I'm grateful to Andrew Moman of Twin Rose Farm for being willing to step into those inaugural shoes.

Second, Andrew was referred to the show by his sister, Anne Brock, who was interviewed on episode 2 of the show. Thank you, Anne!

And third, Andrew is a fresh-cut-flower farmer local to the Nashville area whose entire life is life powered and sustained by the earth and by community, and I cannot imagine a more fitting time to be talking to someone whose life is sustained outdoors and with other people during a time when our freedom to experience both of those things is seriously curtailed.

We recorded this episode before the coronavirus hit us in the States, and I've added some notes in the intro of the episode, thanks to an update Andrew gave me, about how their business is responding and faring during this time.

I was quite touched by this conversation, both because of what it demonstrates of the beauty and trust of living interdependently and of what we can learn from those who are willing to dive in with both feet and learn as they go.

Connect with Andrew and Twin Rose Farm on their website and on Instagram at @twinrosefarm.

Connect with Christianne on Instagram at @christiannesquires or by subscribing to the Light Notes email list.

And consider applying to be a guest on the show! Fill out the guest application form here.

Click here to learn about the live weekly examen being offered on March 30 and April 6.

Alexandra Cuncev is someone I am so happy to introduce you to today on the podcast. As I share in the intro piece I recorded for the episode, I have a hunch you'll fall a little bit in love with Alex after hearing her speak for even just a few moments. She's humble, thoughtful, caring, and remarkable.

Alex is the founder of the #mybeautifulstories hashtag on IG, a project she started one year ago with virtually no real IG experience and which has grown to more than 13,000 posts in just one year. This path also led her to start the My Beautiful Stories podcast, which she hosts with her husband, Pawel, to extend the joy of storytelling and finding the magic in the mundane.

On this episode, we talk about:

* Alex's experience of living through the Romanian Revolution in 1989 and how that made her care about the everyday moments in everyday life

* What her narrative PhD research on homelessness and storytelling taught her about the value of the anecdotal moments in our lives

* How our stories are like threads in our lives, linking every moment from one to the next and keeping us awake to life if we pay attention to them (not so unlike Scheherazade and her 1,001 tales!)

* What having the courage to move forward with the seed of an idea has taught her and brought into her life, often unexpectedly

* How stories are gifts we can give to and receive from one another, and how they grow in meaning the more we nurture them with love

Connect with Alex on her website and on Instagram at @storisse.

Connect with Christianne on Instagram at @christiannesquires or by subscribing to the Light Notes email list.

And consider applying to be a guest on the show! Fill out the guest application form here.

I couldn't help but decide to record a special episode of the podcast for us this week, inviting us to hold the question, "What does it look like to bear light in the midst of the coronavirus?"

I mean, is bearing the light a luxury, meant for when times are calm? How do we think about this when our inner and outer resources have been significantly taxed?

Isn't Maslow's hierarchy of needs a thing?

These questions asked me to wrestle. Because really, if this is the work of *my* life—inviting you to bear your light in the world in your own particular way—then does this work matter when the world is quarantined and no one knows where this is going or how it will end?

What do we do with our light in the face of a pandemic? Is this a question worth asking? And if it is, how do we even begin to answer it?

That's what today's special episode of the Bear the Light podcast invites you to consider. I ask lots of questions. I approximate some answers. The rest are yours to hold.

I hope you'll share with us what you notice is true for you in response to the questions I offer you! Visit this episode's post on my Instagram account at @christiannesquires to share your thoughts with the rest of us, or feel free to reach out to me via DM or email to share what this episode helps you consider.

Subscribe to the Light Notes email list.

And consider applying to be a guest on the show! Fill out the guest application form here.

I felt positively giddy going into the interview recording for this week's episode of Bear the Light—and then I felt even more lit up afterward! Sian Peters is a beautiful soul with a calming yet vibrant energy who is here to tell us about living in alignment with the moon cycles as a way of bearing light.

Sian (pronounced "Sean" for those of us here in the States) and I discuss:

* The difference between the solar calendar and the lunar calendar

* How living by the solar calendar (that's our usual January to December calendar) works against the rest of nature and how we've lived for thousands of years

* The two main anchor points of the moon cycle—the new moon and full moon—and how you can align your monthly rhythms, rituals, and intentions with both

* How the female hormonal cycle reflects this reality too

* The truth behind the idiom "It must be a full moon!"

* How your personal way of being and personality impact the way you experience the cycles and seasons as they ebb and flow

I love the way Sian talks about the moon. I'm pretty sure you will too.

Connect with Sian on her website and on Instagram at @sianpeters.me.

Connect with Christianne on Instagram at @christiannesquires or by subscribing to the Light Notes email list.

And consider applying to be a guest on the show! Fill out the guest application form here.

On the podcast today, I'm talking to Bailey Brawner, a senior pastor in the United Methodist Church who is all about the boundary-breaking spirit she sees in the person of Jesus, particularly when it comes to creating spiritual spaces for people who've been hurt by the church.

Bailey has a particular heart for those in the LGBTQIA+ community, with which she also identifies.

In this episode, we talk about:

* How she noticed her call to become a pastor, especially when she wasn't looking for it, and what it was like for people to diminish her call because she was a woman

* How she came to identify as queer and how that's impacted and informed her ministry ever since

* How she is helping her congregation think through what it means to help people feel fully included once they walk through the doors of the church

* The difference location can make to pastors serving the LGBTQIA+ community or identifying as part of that community themselves

* Resources she'd recommend to those wanting to explore the intersection of faith and sexual identity for the first time

* Her concerns about the church's slowness to catch up to conversations happening outside the church

* Her heart for people to experience God outside the four walls of church and outside a one-hour church service on Sunday

Connect with Bailey on her website and on Instagram at @baileynbrawner.

Connect with Christianne on Instagram at @christiannesquires or by subscribing to the Light Notes email list.

And consider applying to be a guest on the show! Fill out the guest application form here.

Today on the Bear the Light podcast, we're taking a deep dive into the magic that is childhood and how accessing childlike joy can bring greater happiness, health, and contentedness to our adult lives.
 
Tiffany Hoehne is a speaker, educator, and emotion coach who helps people access the joy of childhood while still attending to their lives as adults. In Tiffany's mind, the two aren't mutually exclusive but are meant to be integrated more intentionally for increased joy and health.
 
In this episode, we discuss:
 
* Why we tend to put childhood on a shelf when we become adults but lose out when we do
 
* The connection between thoughts, emotions, actions, and results
 
* What to do when accessing your childhood is the absolute last thing you want to do
 
* How judgment too often keeps us from doing things that are in our best interest
 
* A definition of light that includes love, knowledge, enlightenment, and awareness (this part of the conversation blew my mind!)
 
* How life is meant to be experienced in a ratio of 50/50—50 percent negative and 50 percent positive—but most of live with a ratio of 70/30, with an emphasis on the negative
 
* The role our imagination can play in our healing—and how much imagination plays into our lives already, whether we intend for that or not
 
* The emotional hacks within reach that can help us manufacture greater joy and happiness in our lives
 
One of my favorite quotes from this episode is where Tiffany said, "Nobody wants to stay as a 6-year-old, but I don’t want to stay as a 40-year-old who doesn’t have any of that 6-year-old left, either. There’s no joy left there. For me, I feel like I’m every age I’ve ever been." Isn't that beautiful?!
 
Connect with Tiffany on Instagram at @redlicoricelife.

Connect with Christianne on Instagram at @christiannesquires or by subscribing to the Light Notes email list.

And consider applying to be a guest on the show! Fill out the guest application form here.

On the Bear the Light podcast today, we get to meet Mary Lunnen, a life coach living in Cornwall, UK, whose primary work is to help women reconnect with their inner wisdom and step into their gentle power in the world.

On this episode, we discuss:

* How a serious health diagnosis in 1994 became the wake-up call that led Mary to take a new life path

* The first thing she said to her doctor after receiving her diagnosis, which was the gateway to that new path for her life

* The magic that happens in the gaps when we allow ourselves to notice and receive them

* Where her deep conviction that we all have inner wisdom came from

* The gentle wave of light-bearing work that flows among and through so many of us in the world

Mary also offers two impromptu demonstrations of the tools she uses in her life-coaching practice on the episode! And there's a synchronistic moment where three episodes of the show seem to talk to one another.

Connect with Mary on her website and on her Facebook page. You can also request to join either of her private Facebook groups, Dare to Blossom into Joy and The Powerful Voice of the Quiet Ones.

Connect with Christianne on Instagram at @christiannesquires or by subscribing to the Light Notes email list.

And consider applying to be a guest on the show! Fill out the guest application form here.

I know many of you will love this week's episode of the Bear the Light podcast because I'm interviewing certified labyrinth facilitator Sadelle Wiltshire, and we spend the whole episode talking about labyrinths!

Labyrinths have come up several times on previous episodes, which tells me this show seems to attract people who appreciate a good contemplative walk. I was excited to have Sadelle on the show to talk in a more in-depth way about this practice so many of you appreciate.

In this episode, we talk about:

* The history of this ancient archetypal image and tool

* How a labyrinth walk can be a great form of meditation, especially for those who have a harder time sitting in silence and stillness

* Common misconceptions about labyrinths, particularly related to the pace at which you're supposed to walk them and whether you're supposed to walk them alone

* How labyrinths can be used as powerful peacemaking tools and a way of bringing people together

* The connection between walking a labyrinth and going on pilgrimage

* Some of the differences you can expect from walking a labyrinth versus using a finger labyrinth

Sadelle mentions several resources on this episode, and the links for those can be found here:

* The Jail Labyrinth Project

* Videos about the 3Rs and 4Rs of walking a labyrinth

* A 7-day mini-course via email about walking labyrinths

Connect with Sadelle on her website and on Instagram at @sadiavt.

Connect with Christianne on Instagram at @christiannesquires or by subscribing to the Light Notes email list.

And consider applying to be a guest on the show! Fill out the guest application form here.

What do you do when you notice you want to know your neighbors? But what if you live in a culture where neighbors don't talk to each other and don't even see each other most days in a given year?

For Chelsea Roberts and her husband, the answer was to plant a church. This was especially bold, given the spiritual climate of where they live in Canada. But for Chelsea, it had everything to do with valuing people and relationships.

On this episode of Bear the Light, we talk about:

* How hard it is to meet one's neighbors in the area where they live

* How hot chocolate on Halloween, Canadian hockey culture, and Facebook have provided ways of getting to know the strangers in her city

* Why the anonymity of serving far away was tempting and easier for her to imagine for her life but how she eventually came to see she was meant to stay right where she was

* What the process of discerning a church plant can look like

* How hard it can be to see a vision for your life when you've never seen it modeled before

* The challenge of loving people and that which can't be measured in a culture that values numbers and glossy finishes

Connect with Chelsey on her website and on Instagram at @chelseyroberts.

Connect with Christianne on Instagram at @christiannesquires or by subscribing to the Light Notes email list.

And consider applying to be a guest on the show! Fill out the guest application form here.

Today on the Bear the Light podcast, we get to step into the life of a sheep farmer. Jessica Gigot lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and their two daughters, where they've been farming for nine years and learning each year, more and more, what it looks like to farm sustainably, both ecologically and economically.

I love this conversation for the peek it gives us into a life most of us will never live but whose daily realities affect us all. Perhaps one of the profound insights I gained from the conversation was Jessica's naming of food as the most direct connection to the natural world all of us have.

In this episode, we discuss:

* What a day in the life of a sheep farmer looks like, and how that changes from season to season

* What drew Jessica to choosing this kind of life

* What it's been like for her to grow into this way of life as a first-generation farmer

* The adult 4-H project that led her to fall in love with sheep and grow her capacity for nurture

* The realities of food access and food sovereignty that guide her personal philosophies of farming and food

* Looking at the farm as a whole system and how she approaches being a good land steward

* Her life as a poet and how her work as a writer and her work as a farmer feed each other

Connect with Jessica on her website and on Instagram at @harmonyfields and @shepherdessjess.

Connect with Christianne on Instagram at @christiannesquires or by subscribing to the Light Notes email list.

And consider applying to be a guest on the show! Fill out the guest application form here.

On the show today, I'm talking to Jaclyn DeVore, founder of DeVore Editorial, about how she helps authors bring their words into the light and onto the page.

In many ways, meeting Jaclyn felt like meeting my soul twin. We both emphasize the role of light in our work, and we both have built editorial businesses. On top of all that, she used the image of a midwife on her guest form to come on the show—and she didn't even know at the time that I had a company called Bookwifery!

On this episode, we talk about:

* How the image of light started showing up in her business and what it means to have a team that is light focused

* The importance of alignment, intuition, and flow in how she runs her business

* How Instagram has been a magic portal for her business, bringing her people for her team and clients who are just the right fit

* The key experiences that helped her learn who her editorial agency is best suited to serve

* How her work as a trauma therapist serves her work today

* Her love for collaboration and community

We also talk editorial shop quite a bit and even share some not-so-proud moments from each of our editorial histories.

Connect with Jaclyn on her website and on Instagram at @jaclyn.devore.

Connect with Christianne on Instagram at @christiannesquires or by subscribing to the Light Notes email list.

And consider applying to be a guest on the show! Fill out the guest application form here.

In my conversation with Susie Stonefield Miller, she quotes Rumi, who said, "The wound is where the light will enter you." Our conversation is a testament to how she's lived—and continues living—into that truth.

Susie is someone for whom creativity, truth telling, and honoring the process are life and breath, and she has experienced and channeled these gifts into art journalling and now makes a vocational life for herself by helping others do the same.

In this episode, we talk about:

* How creativity, truth telling, and honoring the process emerged as deep values in her life from a young age and became even more fiercely expressed through art journalling once she discovered it

* The immediate release that comes when our inner voice is expressed creatively on the page

* Art journalling as process driven rather than product driven

* What it's like for her to create containers for people to take deep dives into their inner world

* The art journal as a safe space to receive what we have to say without judgment or response, and how safe communities offer this gift plus the ability to be seen, heard, and witnessed

* Her journey toward coming out of the closet at age 56 and how art journalling played—and continues to play—a foundational role in that process

Connect with Susie on her website and on Instagram at @creativity_midwife.

Connect with Christianne on Instagram at @christiannesquires or by subscribing to the Light Notes email list.

And consider applying to be a guest on the show! Fill out the guest application form here.

Lisa Degrenia is a pastor living in Sarasota, Florida, who has a deep heart for helping people experience God in a direct, real way—"helping ordinary folks experience God for themselves," as she terms it.

In this episode, we discuss:

* What is means to have a "virtual faith"—one that is observed, not experienced—and how contemporary churches and spiritual practices unwittingly set us up for this

* What chili con carne and football have to do with Lisa's vision for what's possible for our experiences of God and faith instead

* The kinds of practices that can help us grow in our direct experiences of God

* The role that fear and pride play in keeping people from these direct experiences

* How Moses, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and all the other figures in Scripture don't have a corner on the market with this

* Her heart for equipping people in the church to be hometown missionaries

Connect with Lisa on her website and on Instagram at @revlisad.

Connect with Christianne on Instagram at @christiannesquires or by subscribing to the Light Notes email list.

And consider applying to be a guest on the show! Fill out the guest application form here.

On today's episode of Bear the Light, I'm chatting with Debra Smouse, whose particular superpower is being able to see people—their potential, their challenges, their actions, and their desires. Her work as a life coach helps them become who they truly can be.

One of my favorite aspects of this interview are the real-life stories of change Debra was able to share with us. They're inspiring!

In this episode, we discuss:

* How she learned she had a gift for helping people with people problems

* The role that blogging, content marketing, and search engine optimization play in her work as a life coach and helps the right people find her

* Her use of the Myers Briggs personality type indicator to help educate people about themselves

* The role that generational bonds—and breaking them—plays in her work, especially with women

* The importance of holding a vision for someone and continuing to bring them back to it

* Her ability to separate emotion from logic and how it is a gift and strength she can offer to her clients

* Her personal policy not to post negative things on social media—but how posting what's positive isn't the same thing as posting what's perfect

Connect with Debra on her website and on Instagram at @debrasmouse.

Connect with Christianne on Instagram at @christiannesquires or by subscribing to the Light Notes email list.

And consider applying to be a guest on the show! Fill out the guest application form here.

*** Apply to be a guest on the Bear the Light show! All are invited to apply. ***

Heidi Fiedler wears many hats in the children's book publishing industry—and has even worn more hats than she does today throughout her long career in the industry!—and today she's on the Bear the Light podcast to share what it's like to work in an industry that helps young people become who they're going to be.

On this episode, we discuss:

* What drew Heidi to focus on picture books, chapter books, and nonfiction for kids

* Her new class, called Before You Begin, that helps writers discover the practices that will best support their writing life

* The collaborative experience of working in children's book publishing

* The relationship between writer and illustrator when bringing picture books to life

* How she works to bring personal elements of connection to each book she writes for kids—and what frogs and beach houses have to do with that

* The ups and downs of the publishing industry but what continues to give her hope and energy to work within it

Connect with Heidi on her website and on Instagram at @heidifiedler.

Connect with Christianne on Instagram at @christiannesquires or by subscribing to the Light Notes email list.

And consider applying to be a guest on the show! Fill out the guest application form here.

Laetitia Phan is a clinical psychologist, coach, artist, emotional badassery facilitator, and joyful purpose activist. (I'm pretty sure two of those are among the coolest job titles I've ever heard!)

Laetitia's light is to help others go deep into unearthing their own light. She's French. She lives in New Caledonia. She reads 10 books at a time. And she wants to see psychological support and emotional education normalized across all countries and cultures.

This woman is an empathic force with a capacious heart and mind!

In today's episode of the Bear the Light podcast, we talk about:

* Her passion for what it means to be human

* Her approach to work that combines therapy, coaching, and creativity plus a completely individualized process for each client

* The importance of moving beyond healing to happiness

* What it means to be an emotional badassery facilitator and joyful purpose activist

* What it's like to be the bearer of hope for those with particularly difficult healing journeys

* What's more interesting to her than the news

* The value of impeccable self-care

Connect with Laetitia on her website and on Instagram at @thehappymessproject, @laetitiaphanart, and @laetitiaphan.

Connect with Christianne on Instagram at @christiannesquires or by subscribing to the Light Notes email list.

And consider applying to be a guest on the show! Fill out the guest application form here.

*** Consider applying to be a guest on the show! Fill out the guest application form here. ***

God as Mother. Mother Mary. Tara, the Bodhisattva. Sophia. The Shekinah. Wisdom.

In every faith tradition, we find some representation and reverence of the divine feminine. And in today's episode of Bear the Light, I'm delighted to share a conversation with Sandra Logan that helps us understand the divine feminine and the importance of her presence in our lives and world today.

Sandra is a knowledgeable, gracious, and passionate guide on the subject. Together, we talk about:

* Five key characteristics of the divine feminine

* The dynamic aspect of her presence, which can be cultivated and grow in us and in our world

* How the divine feminine and divine masculine relate to one another

* The role female mystics can play in teaching us about the divine feminine

* Small steps you can take to connect to the divine feminine in your everyday life

* What happens in us and in our world when the divine feminine is neglected or forgotten

Connect with Sandra on her website and on Instagram at @sophias.way.

Connect with Christianne on Instagram at @christiannesquires or by subscribing to the Light Notes email list.

And consider applying to be a guest on the show! Fill out the guest application form here.

Kathryn Coneway is a working artist in Alexandria, Virginia, whose deep passion is bringing everyday people together in creative space. The resounding cries of "I'm not an artist, nor am I creative!" are nothing new to her—and yet she would invite those who make these cries to give their creativity a chance to see what happens. For Kathryn, these experiences are less about the final outcome or product and more about what happens inside a person or in a group when they share a creative space together.

On this episode, we talk about:

* The difference between creative practice and what is produced when it comes to art making

* How creative spaces become fertile ground for contemplative stillness and silence

* How often creative practice has proven itself to be more healing and helpful than talking, by itself, can be, especially in a group that's processing a difficult experience

* Kathryn's experiences working with post-9/11 groups, with hematology and oncology patients and families, and with those processing the aftermath of the 2016 election

* How parents and their kids can grow together and in relationship through sharing creative space together

* How art created in community especially makes room for the unexpected and the unknown

Connect with Kathryn on her website and on Instagram at @kathrynconeway.

Connect with Christianne on Instagram at @christiannesquires or by subscribing to the Light Notes email list.

And consider applying to be a guest on the show! Fill out the guest application form here.

*** The doors to the Light House community are currently open. Join us for ongoing connection to other lightbearers as you steward your own light in the world. Learn more here. ***

Beth Knight is a free-range ecumenical minister who lets her creativity, entrepreneurial spirit, and eclectic style guide her in the ways she helps others find Spirit, connection, and mindfulness.

I've known Beth a long time, and it's been wonderful to see her vocational journey unfold over many years to bring her to a place that feels like home now. Hers is a path marked by faithfulness, discernment, and persistence—so inspiring!

In our conversation on the podcast today, we talk about:

* What it means to be a free-range minister and how Beth found her way to this naming of her work in the world

* Her love for labyrinths, noetic conscious aging, mindfulness, and bringing unique experiences to people of all ages and faith traditions

* The important role of networking and support for those ministering outside a denominational or institutional structure

* Her heart for people facing the challenges of the health care system, given her own experience with this

* Her desire for those outside the church to find a meaningful spiritual connection and expression that works for them

Connect with Beth on her website and on Instagram at @delenabeth_knight.

Connect with Christianne on Instagram at @christiannesquires or by subscribing to the Light Notes email list.

And consider applying to be a guest on the show! Fill out the guest application form here.

*** Light House doors are open until January 6, but join us early for a live virtual retreat day on January 3! Learn more and sign up here. ***

The guest on today's episode of the Bear the Light show, Debbie Huff, is a special woman indeed. On this episode, she talks about Mama Grace, which is her special name for her Higher Power, and her intuitive practice of prayerful play, which is a prayer practice that may speak to you.

On this episode, we discuss:

* Needing to explore a God whose face is more like your own

* How to do a reading with soul cards and use them as a form of prayer (Debbie even does a reading for us right there in the interview!)

* The difference between prayer that comes from ourselves versus prayer that's more like receiving and responding to something

* What it's like for her to share this practice with others through collaborative readings

Connect with Debbie on Instagram at @gracedeb1.

Connect with Christianne on Instagram at @christiannesquires or by subscribing to the Light Notes email list.

And consider applying to be a guest on the show! Fill out the guest application form here.

Just me today (a bonus episode!), and I'm talking to you about what it means to live a life marked by invitation and intention and how this connects to the way we show up and bear our light in the world.

Nestled inside this conversation is an invitation to join us in the Light House community. Doors open on a quarterly basis, and they're open today as we prepare to step into 2020. Join us for a virtual retreat day on Friday, January 3, and then continue forward in the community as someone stewarding light in particular ways.

Join us here.

Is addiction, in any of its many forms, a part of your family's story? Are you fearful that it might be? Do you know someone who is living this reality every day? Jean Heaton is a force wrapped in grace and truth who is bringing light to the experience of family addiction. She is a person who gets this reality and offers the hand of hope to everyone in this place. She's also seeking to raise awareness and reduce the stigma, particularly within church settings.

On this episode of Bear the Light, we talk about:

* The unexpected way our light can shift when a new part of our story emerges

* The particular challenges a parent faces when they suspect their child may have a problem

* The symptoms of addiction you might be noticing in someone you love

* The first honest prayer Jean uttered that helped her feel less alone and start to move forward

* What it means to "work" a 12-step program and how this applies to all of us

* What the 12 Steps have in common with the Ten Commandments and the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius

* How everybody's got somebody affected by this

* Jean's heart for more open conversations and safe spaces to be found in churches so families feel less alone

Connect with Jean on her website and on Instagram at @jeanheaton64.

Connect with Christianne on Instagram at @christiannesquires or by subscribing to the Light Notes email list.

And consider applying to be a guest on the show! Fill out the guest application form here.

On the podcast today, I'm talking to Gretchen Crowder, whose life was changed by St. Ignatius of Loyola and his legacy of Ignatian spirituality. By leaning into Ignatian spirituality, she discovered her calling to be a writer.

On today's episode, we discuss:

* The way writing revision is also like life revision

* How paying attention to your experiences can help you discern your path

* How we can receive the gift of an experience many years after it happened, even if we didn't notice it at the time

* How our imperfections and sharing the light of them can be a gift to others

You also get a good primer on Ignatian spirituality from someone well equipped to talk about it!

Connect with Gretchen on her website and on Instagram at @gdcrowder.

Connect with Christianne on Instagram at @christiannesquires or by subscribing to the Light Notes email list.

And consider applying to be a guest on the show! Fill out the guest application form here.

There are so many access points that might draw you into today's episode with Alyssa Storrs, making this conversation a rich gift to receive and share with those you know.

* If you are a person with dyslexia, an educator, a parent of someone with a learning disability, or you know someone with dyslexia, this episode is a great one to receive and share with others you know. Alyssa is a dyslexia tutor and has much to teach us about this experience and how to honor and esteem those who are learning in this way.

* If you are a spiritual person carrying questions about your faith as well as experiences of race, gender, and identity, wondering where God might be found in any and all of it, this episode is also for you. Alyssa is a trained spiritual director who works specifically with spiritual white folks, helping them untangle and examine their questions and experiences of these things in the context of spiritual direction.

* If you have a chronic illness or disability, this episode is also for you, as Alyssa lives with this reality herself, and she's additionally bearing light on the entrepreneurial experience for those with chronic illnesses and disabilities.

Connect with Alyssa on her website and on Instagram at @alyssa_storrs.

Connect with Christianne on Instagram at @christiannesquires or by subscribing to the Light Notes email list.

And consider applying to be a guest on the show! Fill out the guest application form here.

Renee Ronika Bhatti-Klug lives in Phoenix, Arizona, where she is, through the power of serendipity shaken together with her personal narrative, been making intercultural competence the focus of her life's work.

There is so much in this conversation to love, including:

* How our lives are like stars, seemingly random and yet forming patterns once seen as a whole

* The multiple narratives we carry inside us and the greater fullness of experience and healing that happens through the work of integration

* How a professor's chance reading of a paragraph from Jhumpa Lahiri's book Interpreter of Maladies caused Renee to realize she couldn't forsake a key part of her identity anymore

* How the market crash of 2008 and her first day of teaching on September 11, 2001, indelibly marked the future of Renee's professional life

* The vital connection between emotional intelligence, cultural intelligence, self-awareness, and empathy

* The impact this conversation might have on the church

Connect with Renee on her website and on Instagram at @reneeronika.

Connect with Christianne on Instagram at @christiannesquires or by subscribing to the Light Notes email list.

And consider applying to be a guest on the show! Fill out the guest application form here.

Jenny Smith is a United Methodist Church pastor living in the Pacific Northwest who is living what she calls a palms-up life. She's also reimagining church leadership within her denomination by living it out with seven of her colleagues. She's passionate about inclusion, co-visioning with her people, and living in opposition to hustle culture.

In this episode, we discuss:

* How her church has integrated an outward focus with inward transformation

* The relationship between how a leader lives and how a leader leads

* The competition, comparison, and isolation that mark most pastors' lives

* What happened when seven clergy colleagues decided to walk alongside each other using Zoom and the Marco Polo app

* The four phases of the palms-up life and why they matter in today's hustle culture

Connect with Jenny Smith on her website and on Instagram at @jennysmithwrites.

Subscribe to the Light Notes email list or connect with Christianne on Instagram at @christiannesquires.

And consider applying to be a guest on the show! Fill out the guest application form here.

Rebecca Conrow-Bayles lives on the central coast of California, where she works as a speech language pathologist and has named her work of bringing light to the world as "giving voice"—to others, but also to herself. Rebecca believes everyone has something to say and is communicating something. Our world will be a much richer place if those who don't currently have a voice are given a chance to communicate and be heard.

On this episode, we discuss:

* The potential every person who struggles with speech carries inside them

* The greater fullness speech brings to a person's expression in the world

* That there's a time for everything and things happen when they're meant to happen

* The importance of presuming competence in those challenged by speech or other physical limitations

* The superpowers of presence and intimacy that speech therapists carry within them

* What happens when you realize the person who needs to have a voice is you

Connect with Rebecca on her website and on Instagram at @talknmore, @rebeccasbuencamino, or @lucy_paws.

Subscribe to the Light Notes email list or connect with Christianne on Instagram at @christiannesquires.

And consider applying to be a guest on the show! Fill out the guest application form here.

Sarah Winfrey is a mom of three kids living in Parker, CO. She came on the show to talk about parenting as a way of not only bearing light but raising light—seeing one's children as little lights and one's role as a parent as that of seeing their flame and helping it grow in brightness.

But the reality of parenting today, particularly in America, includes the prevalence of school shootings. What if that happens to you? Can you prepare for it?

This did happen to Sarah and her family in May 2019, and she talks on this episode about that experience and how she's recognized in herself an additional way of bringing light that came in the aftermath of the event, which is helping her children (and herself and others) with post-trauma processing.

Together, we discuss:

* Seeing one's children as one of the huge tasks of parenting

* How to help your children keep their light lit and burning in sustainable ways

* What happens when other people's—especially one's children's—legitimate needs conflict with your own legitimate needs

* What trauma, especially after a school shooting, can look like

* What she'd most like to tell other parents who worry about school shootings

* The importance of talking about these experiences so we all can learn from one another and help heal more effectively

Connect with Sarah on Instagram at @sarahgracewinfrey.

Connect with Christianne on Instagram at @christiannesquires or by subscribing to the Light Notes email list.

And consider applying to be a guest on the show! Fill out the guest application form here.

Stephanie Cochrane lives in New Orleans, where she makes a good effort in any given week to notice the people around her—particularly those working in service roles. It's a way to help others feel visible, she says.

Thrumming beneath the surface is another deep concern of her heart, which is talking honestly about the challenges of church and faith. As someone who has been in churches where things went wrong or where behavior needed to meet a certain standard, she knows God's people don't do the best job representing God.

And when pain happens or questions come—when the people closest to us die, sometimes by their very own hand—these things have no neat or tidy answers. Stephanie cares that people find the freedom to talk about these things with each other. She also wants them to know the person of Jesus in that place.

In this conversation, we explore:

* The practice of seeing those in service roles as real, whole people

* What can happen to faith when a loved one takes their life

* The value of honest but not cynical conversations about faith and church

* Why the two extremes of deep grief aren't healthy places to stay

* The ripple effect each life can have on innumerable other lives

* The courage it takes to go first and how our worst fears in doing so aren't likely to be realized

Connect with Stephanie on her website and on Instagram at @stephaniehcochrane.

Connect with Christianne on Instagram at @christiannesquires or by subscribing to the Light Notes email list.

And consider applying to be a guest on the show! Fill out the guest application form here.

Annette Franklin and her husband, Tim, have always known a life of hospitality. It marked their marriage from its earliest days. But in recent years, that intention of hospitality has taken a more formal shape. They purchased a renovated a colonial-style home, called The House, near Middlebury College in Vermont, so as to make their home and presence easily accessible and readily available to college students—particularly those in the international community—and other marginalized populations in their town.

In this episode, we discuss:

* How this life of hospitality came to be a way of life for Annette and Tim

* What it was like to find, purchase, and renovate a home for this specific purpose

* What the students in their lives really want (hint: it's not big plans or clever programming)

* The hardest part about caring for college-aged students

* How you can offer different forms of hospitality in your own community too

I love the way Annette and Tim have found a way to be "love with skin on" to those in their community who are likely to be missing home at any given time.

Learn more by visiting The House website, and connect with Annette on Instagram at @annetteinvt.

Connect with Christianne on Instagram at @christiannesquires or by subscribing to the Light Notes email list.

And consider applying to be a guest on the show! Fill out the guest application form here.

Melissa Monroe has always cared about the human spirit dwelling in all of us, and she has been walking, even from a young age, toward a life that integrates the healing work of body, heart, mind, and spirit. Whether it's through healing Pilates, breathwork, Ayurvedic medicine, or poetry, Melissa brings her light to bear on the wholeness available to us all.

In this episode, we range over topics like:

* What it means to be a healer

* How our life experiences and values shape us for the work we choose

* What a "furious year of writing" helped Melissa reclaim about herself

* The struggle in finding the people our work is meant to serve

* The perplexities social media brings into our lives

I love how deep and wide Melissa's work has the potential to reach into each person's life she works with.

Connect with Melissa on her website and on Instagram at @melissa_rootedwholeness. Her poetry collection, Zen in the City, releases in spring 2020.

Connect with Christianne on Instagram at @christiannesquires or by subscribing to the Light Notes email list.

And consider applying to be a guest on the show! Fill out the guest application form here.

On today's episode of Bear the Light, we get to hear from Jen Willhoite of @cobbleworks. This woman is a wonder. She has a deep heart and creative gifts to the hundredth power.

We discuss the particular light she brings into the world through the illustrated stories she creates and shares on her Instagram page (one of whom is the beloved character she calls "a little potato person"), but the conversation goes so many wonderful places.

In this episode, we talk about:

* How Jen came to start drawing her little illustrated stories

* How honesty and conversation have always marked her relationship with the holy

* The limitations of language when it comes to talking about God and naming God

* How life is an ongoing experience of becoming

* And so much more, truly!

I hope you'll give it a listen and share how it touches you. Jen, thank you for the wonderful light that you are and the sparkling, deep, wide-ranging conversation I was privileged to share with you.

Connect with Jen on Instagram at @cobbleworks.

Connect with Christianne on Instagram at @christiannesquires or by subscribing to the Light Notes email list.

And consider applying to be a guest on the show! Fill out the guest application form here.

Anne Brock shares generously online about her experience of learning to live a good, full life in the midst of infertility, and she invites other women whose lives have been changed by that diagnosis to gather and do the same. In this conversation, we talk about how the path beyond an infertility diagnosis can go in different directions for different women and that there is no one path that fits every woman the same. For Anne, it's about leaning into what kind of life is possible once "childfree not by choice" becomes one's reality.

If you or someone you know has been given an infertility diagnosis, this episode is particularly for you and them.
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But if infertility is *not* your reality, this episode is *still* for you. And that's because this conversation shines a light on something so many women experience, helping all of us collectively understand it more and grow in our awareness of what it can look like for light to be brought into this space.
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In this conversation, Anne and I talk about:
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* What it's like to share publicly about such a personal subject
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* The difference between journaling and blogging
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* The various paths available to women diagnosed with infertility and why all paths are not created equal for all women
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* The hope that this kind of light—learning to live a good, full life in the midst of infertility—can bring to a reality that otherwise feels quite dark
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I hope Anne's story and leadership in this area touches you. If you know someone who could be particularly encouraged by this episode, I invite you to share it with them. Thank you, Anne, for a terrific conversation and for bearing the light with such brilliance. 🌟

Connect with Anne on her website and on Instagram at @livinginthemidst.

Connect with Christianne on Instagram at @christiannesquires or by subscribing to the Light Notes email list.

And consider applying to be a guest on the show! Fill out the guest application form here.

Noelle Rollins and her husband and two gigantic Newfoundland dogs live lightly in the desert of SoCal—when they're not tooling around the United States in their 15-foot teardrop trailer or scooting off to Europe or some other far-flung destination. Noelle has always been a bit unconventional, but the path to getting here, to this particular life, has been slow and intentional.

We range deep and wide into things like:

* Living an unconventional life of frequent travel and living lightly

* Asking deep, thoughtful questions of your life

* Making big changes with wisdom and responsibility

* Living with intention and in accordance with your values within your family

* Paying attention to the deep longings and desires of your heart—and how this isn’t selfish

I’m inspired by the intentional way Noelle and her husband live. And even though not all of us—or even many of us!—are called to the same unconventional lifestyle of travel and living lightly that they are, Noelle’s way of living into her particular light becomes an illumined gateway for the rest of us to consider how we’re living into ours.

Connect with Noelle on her website and on Instagram at @noelle_faithsetfree.

Connect with Christianne on Instagram at @christiannesquires or by subscribing to the Light Notes email list. 

In this introductory episode, get to know your host, Christianne Squires, and the vision behind the show. You're invited to sign up for the Light Notes email and to apply to be a guest on the show.

Connect with Christianne on Instagram