Contemplative THREADS for the Community

+ updates on seeking sanctuary and living a meaningful life at the end of empire

Last week when I wrote, I had sent out a Substack email letting y’all know that I will be seeking sanctuary elsewhere. Today, I woke up to several messages alerting me to the violence that might be perpetuated at PRIDE events in Tennessee. Extreme Right Wing vigilante violence is what is coming down the pike. It’s not safe here, but no where is safe for the underside of history.

I’m thrilled to let y’all know that we reached the goal for our initial phase of fundraising. We are onto the second phase, which is to pay for the POD for the academic year. We will be in transitional housing for 9 months in a safe place, but we will be without our things for that entire time. I’ve been advised to fundraise for the cost of the POD, so that we have some peace of mind. So, if you can give, please do! If you have already given, thank you! Would you share my story with three other people and ask them to give? If you want to give in some other way, please reply to this email and I will see it!

Bonhoeffer Reading Group

I’ll be facilitating a reading group starting in September and ending in December 2024. We are still figuring out the details of how we will meet and so forth, but the focus will be on Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s writings. I’m hoping to have a Bonhoeffer expert join us for each conversation who wrote on Bonhoeffer for his dissertation. I think we are in a particular moment right now where reading Bonhoeffer will be useful for us to determine how to ‘make little moves against destructiveness’ at the end of empire! Do you want to join us? These are the books we are reading so far.

Welcome to the first edition of Contemplative Threads for paid subscribers! In these posts, which drop on Mondays during 2023, you’ll be invited to contemplate on an image; reflect on sound; engage in a somatic exercise; and, read a few sentences. Again, I’m introducing sound to the posts, because we all resonate with different aspects when leaning into contemplation! Let me know how the sound is resonating! These posts won’t be long, but rather they will be an invitation for you to follow the threads throughout the week!

These posts are for paying subscribers, so I hope you’ll upgrade your subscription. I’ve lowered the price to $5/monthly or $50/year. You can still be a cultivating member, so that I can gift subscriptions to others who otherwise can’t afford the cost. Let’s fight poverty; not the poor! As a deeply working class person, I am in solidarity with the underside of history! Let’s join together and be the healing of the wounds!

I have spent the last week struggling to make sense of the swirling politics around me. I am meditating several times a day to ground myself in the work and practice of contemplation. I am trying to slow down in the midst of an accelerated political situation. I am trying to feel my way thru the toxicity that is designed to terrorize me. Perhaps we can learn to be the healing of the wounds.

I hope you’ll stick around for what we are building here! Consider upgrading your subscription to become a part of a collective becoming.

Onward, —Dr. Roberto Che Espinoza