Advertise on podcast: Virtual Pause

November 24, 2025 Through some recent experiences, I have realized that there is a fire inside of me that desires to express truth, creativity, passion, and sight. But there has been a blanket ofcompliance that has shoved that fire down over the years, for fear it will kick me out of situations and leave me abandoned. But what happens when you don’t let fire out? You eat it, and eventually it eats you or blows up you and those around you. Today we will stir that fire up a bit through breath, try to identify its source and gifts by connecting it with holy fire, and let go of that which may be holding it back. I will be quoting an excerpt from Every Moment Holy: “Breathe out sorrow, Breathe in joy. Breathe out lament, Breathe in hope. Breathe out pain, Breathe in comfort. Breathe out sorrow, Breathe in joy. Breathe out joy.” (Adapted) A Liturgy for Embracing both Joy and Sorrow, Every Moment Holy V. II, Douglas McKelvey, 2021 Check out Numa Wellness Collective at NumaWellness.org Photo by Patrick Hendry on Unsplash

November 3, 2025 Yesterday was All Saints Day, or All Soul’s Day, and in Mexico, The Day of the Dead. Sometimes we forget how our ancestors have shaped us. What positive attributes have we acquired?What has been passed down to us that we may not even recognize? In today’s episode we will root ourselves into our lineage – noticing the beautiful gifts we have been given that make us who we are, and the challenges, generational trauma, or fears that have been passed down that we need to tend to.

October 27, 2025 Today’s episode is a simple grounding practice using imagery and sound. Sometimes (like always) we just need to get out of our heads and back into our bodies and souls. We will assess where we are on the continuum of groundedness. Our reading for today is an excerpt from the poem Remember fromJoy Harjo, a Native American U.S. Poet Laureate from the Muscogee Nation. Remember, Joy Harjo Remember the sky that you were born under, know each of the star’s stories.Remember the moon, know who she is.Remember the sun’s birth at dawn, that is the strongest point of time. Remember sundownand the giving away to night.Remember your birth, how your mother struggledto give you form and breath. You are evidence ofher life, and her mother’s, and hers.Remember your father. He is your life, also.Remember the earth whose skin you are:red earth, black earth, yellow earth, white earthbrown earth, we are earth.Remember the plants, trees, animal life who all have theirtribes, their families, their histories, too. Talk to them,listen to them. They are alive poems.Remember the wind. Remember her voice. She knows theorigin of this universe.Remember you are all people and all people are you.Remember you are this universe and this universe is you.Remember all is in motion, is growing, is you.Remember language comes from this.Remember the dance language is, that life is.Remember. https://www.joyharjo.com/ Photo by Merri J on Unsplash

October 20, 2025 Sometimes we know where we are headed and can actively prepare for it. But more often than not we end up going somewhere we had no idea about, and we are being preparedwithout even noticing it. Let’s get curious about how we are being prepared, not what we are being prepared for. Today we will get grounded and curious about what we have had to let go of, to heal, a new skill we have acquired or strengthened, etc. Our listening portion today is a beautiful one… Above all,trust in the slow work of God. We are quitenaturally impatient in everything to reach the end without delay. We shouldlike to skip the intermediate stages. We areimpatient of being on the way to something unknown, something new. And yet itis the law of all progress That is madeby passing through some stages of instability – And that itmay take a very long time. And so Ithink it is with you; your ideasmature gradually- let them grow, let them shape themselves, without unduehaste. Don’t try toforce them on, as thoughyou could be today what time (that is tosay, grace and circumstances acting on your own good will) will make ofyou tomorrow. Only Godcould say what this new spirit gradually forming within you will be. Give our Godthe benefit of believing that God’shand is leading you, and acceptthe anxiety of feeling yourself in suspenseand incomplete. -PierreTeilhard de Chardin, SJ photo credit: Alice Donovan Rouse on unsplash  

October 6, 2025 Angels don’t fly around light and easy. They have heavy wings that require strength and power to move and go where they are directed. In this episode I will share about a terrifying hike, and then we will look at where we have gone and where we may be being beckoned to go, and what is required of us to do so. Photo by Julia Kadel on Unsplash

August 25, 2025 We have been remodeling a house and it has been ripped apart and gutted. I have found that I have also felt gutted over the past few years. But what happens when we gothrough times that challenge our very being? What is that process? What do we do with it? And what is on the other side? This is what we will pause through on today’s episode. Our listening portion is from Nan Merrill’s Mandalas and Meditations:  Simple Songs for the Spiritual Life May we slow down And learn once again The wisdom of silence The efficacy of simplicity The renewal of solitude That we might be co-partners with you In healing and re-creating the Earth

July 28, 2025 We will have a dash on our tombstones - the time between birth and death. But what if we saw it as a plus? Where our life is about contribution? Yet the only way to do this with real impact and integrity is following that vertical line - grounding in humanity, being awake in reality, with all of its beauty and challenges, and connecting to the divine so we can be reminded who we are. Today we will experience a way to ground ourselves into humanity, into the earth, and connecting our soul to our creator.

July 28, 2025 "Note from Nature Do not try to save the whole word or do anything grandiose. instead, create a clearing in the dense forest of your life and wait there patiently, until the song that is your life falls into your won cupped hands and you recognize and greet it. only then will you know how to give yourself to this world so worthy of rescue. "A Clearing" by Martha Poslewaite Our dense forest is our illusions - of control, of perfection, of acceptance, of security. If we move in the world without seeing and clearing these things, we will only be able to walk around in our small forest, where we cannot see and is full of darkness. Yet if we clear these things away, the sunlight can come in and new life can happen. Then, we can hear when we are being beckoned to participate in positive ways in this world.

May 19, 2025 Gratitude works. It changes our body – our physiology. Itchanges our mind - our approach and attitude. It changes our heart – from onethat is closed to one that is open. It taps into our souls and transcendsnegativity, division, and isolation. Today we will slowly walk through eachstake of our tent, giving gratitude for all parts of ourselves and gratitudefor all parts of life itself. One day in summer When everything Has already been more than enough The wild beds start Exploding open along the berm Of the sea; day after day You sit near them; day after day The honey keeps on coming In the red cups and the bees Like amber drops roll In the petals; there is no end, Believe me! To the inventions of summer To the happiness your body Is willing to bear The Roses, Mary Oliver

May 12, 2025 I am frustrated and fascinated by how my ego, my false self,is dealing with the major transitions I am facing right now in my life. I am continuingto learn, through a translation of the Psalms by Nan Merrill, through MichaelSinger, and many other spiritual and psychological teachers, that when the egois uncomfortable, it builds walls of illusion. The ego is driven strictly by fearof not being ok, not being in control, loved, or safe, so it builds stories ofhow it can be okay. We build a house of illusions, and, as Michael Singerstates, it’s a house of horrors. Today we will hopefully experience a moment where our trueselves can be at peace and commune with God, with love. Then we will see whathappens as we allow a thought or fear to surface, and how we end up back in ourhouse of illusions once again. We will settle and let go so that we can takethis thought or fear back out of the house and into the open air. For our listening portion today, I pulled together a few phrasesfrom various Psalms as translated by Nan Merrill in the book, Psalms forPraying, “Distracted by greed and arrogance we do not hear the Beloved’s Voice whispering in the silence: ‘Awaken all of you living in darkness! We are all One in Love Consciousness. You live in my Heart even as I dwell in yours.’”– Psalm 2 “Now, I shall forgive all illusions that my ego tries tobuild.” “Rise up, Love! Set me Free!”- Psalm 3The Michael Singer podcast I quote:  https://open.spotify.com/episode/0qqZhl8ALcFVdpxLDctIFP Photo by Lena Polishko on Unsplash

April 14, 2025 It is tough right now to see all that is happening in our world.Many emotions come up for me that can be paralyzing – keeping me from positivelycontributing my gifts. Yet I can’t have my eyes closed and live simply byungrounded hope, because that is denial. I need to live with my eyes open tothe reality of what is happening and my heart open towards community, compassionand comfort. Today we will be practicing Tonglen, which is “giving and receiving”.In this Buddhist practice we identify a feeling/emotion that we areexperiencing and imagine others experiencing the same feeling, even people wedon’t know or don’t necessarily agree with. Then we send out comfort, love, andlight. For our listening portion today: I amdetermined to cultivate only thoughts that increase trust and love To use myhands to perform only deeds that build community To speakonly words of harmony and aid. Thich NhatHanh I reference theauthor/scientist Margaret Wheatley, Leadership and the New Science; RestoringSanity: Practices to Awaken Generosity, Creativity, and Kindness in Ourselvesand Our Organizations; and Who Do We Choose to Be

April 7, 2025 I am findingit very difficult to quiet my mind these days. There is too much noise –locally, nationally, and globally. Yet I know that if I don’t find a way toquiet my mind, even for a moment, I will push myself into the world with fearand control, or hide away from it, and not be a place of refuge and safety forothers. Today we willdo a simple pause focusing on being still, allowing ourselves to touch, evenfor a moment, that place of beauty, stillness and hope in us, so we can bringit out to the world. I referenceRichard Rohr’s meditation about apatheia, or dispassion or indifference, andyou can find it here.  https://cac.org/daily-meditations/a-change-in-consciousness/

March 24, 2025 There aretimes I behave in ways I am not proud of and feel very incongruent to my soul. Thechaos of the world and the chaos into my head leaks into my thoughts andbehaviors. Coming back to stability may happen as an interior shift in us, oras an external shift in circumstances. The common theme is surrender, so we canopen up our lungs and our hearts for the breath of God, the breath of thespirit. YHWH  There was a moment when Moses had the nerve toask God what his name is. God was gracious enough to answer, and the name hegave is recorded in the original Hebrew as YHWH.Over time we’vearbitrarily added an “a” andan “e” inthere to get YaHWeH, presumably because we have a preference for vowels. But scholars and Rabbi’s have noted that theletters YHWH represent breathing sounds, or aspirated consonants. Whenpronounced without intervening vowels, it actually sounds like breathing. YH (inhale): WH (exhale). So a baby’s first cry, his firstbreath, speaks the name of God. A deep sigh calls His name – or a groan or gasp that is too heavy for merewords. Even an atheist would speak His name, unaware that their very breath is givingconstant acknowledgment to God. Likewise, a person leaves this earth with their last breath, when God’sname is no longer filing their lungs. So when I can’t utter anything else, is mycry calling out His name?Being alive means I speak His name constantly.  So, is it heard the loudest when I’m the quietest?In sadness, we breathe heavy sighs. In joy, our lungs feel almost like they will burst. In fear we hold our breath and have to be told to breathe slowly to help uscalm down. When we’re about to do something hard, we take a deepbreath to find our courage.  When I think about it, breathing is giving him praise. Even in the hardestmoments! This is so beautiful and fills me with emotion every time I grasp the thought.God chose to give himself a name that we can’thelp but speak every moment we’re alive. All of us, always, everywhere. Waking, sleeping, breathing, with the name of God on our lips.- Unknown Author 

March 3, 2025 I am findingmyself stuck and experiencing physical stress responses to triggers, with no evidencethat warrants such a reaction. Trauma that I experienced decades ago issneaking up now in surprising ways. I feel I am being invited into deeper healingthat helps release and reprogram the trauma I experienced. Today I willintroduce a new modality that helps calm the nervous system down through soundsand frequencies. The poems and narratives I am reading arefrom Ranier Maria Rilke, Jan Richardson, Alexandra Vasiliu, and Mary Oliver. Thanks toDr. Carol Lewis and the UF Mindfulness Center for leading us through thismodality through the UF Mindfulness 360 Series.  https://www.ufmindfulness.org/workshop-programs Photo by Touann Gatouillat Vergos on Unsplash

Letting of of non-essentials in life seems like a no-brainer if we see them simply as things that are unhealthy for us or are distractions. But our nonessentials can be anything, even good things, that we are entangled in and that keep us from our center. In today's episode, we will identify those nonessentials and let them go so that we can experience "supreme life" and "deepest peace." Our listening portion today: "Everything that is non-essential in s must fall away like ashes in a furnace, in order that the pure gold of our being, thus refined, may shine in the light of grace....For peace begins only in death, with inexpressible bliss of supreme life, which is supreme wakefulness, supreme activity, and supreme intensity, and at the same time deepest calm, deepest peace, and deepest security." Hanns Georg von Heintschell-Heinegg, From Dying we Live: The final Messages and Records of the Resistance. An Austrian poet and theology student who was put to death for his outspoken resistance to the Nazi regime.