Posts in Spiritual Formation
Season 11, Ep 8: The Golden Goodness of Friendship

Season 11 has been filled with golden goodness, as we've considered the topic of friendship deeply and from various angles. 

From opposite-gender friendship to soul friendship to lifelong friendship to life-saving friendship to friendship in marriage -- we covered the gamut! 

Join me for the last episode of this season as we pause to soak in all this goodness and reflect on what we've learned together. See you in the fall, Gold Digger!

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Season 11, Ep 6: Building Friendships That Stand the Test of Time

Seasonal friendships are important. They provide mutual strength and encouragement for particular times and spaces of our lives. We rely on them for variety, fun, and networking. But lifelong friendships that stand the test of time are harder to come by and take a lot more work. Building these kinds of friendships requires adaptability, humility, selflessness, and creativity. 

Join me in conversation today with the woman I made the legal godmother of my children, the person who has been by my side through childbirths, adoptions, funerals, deathbeds, celebrations, and family reunions, Danielle Ramos. Together we discuss the secrets to our lifelong friendship, and how we've grown closer each year despite living far apart and having completely opposite personalities.

Perhaps the gold God has been trying to give you in friendship is hidden in the most unexpected person. 

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Season 11, Ep 5: Pain Points in Companionship

True, soul-level friendship isn't all fun, joy, and fulfillment. Every relationship is tested at some point. When our friendships run into pain points, we arrive at a cross-roads of sorts. We can resolve to fight for the beauty and love we've experienced together, or we can avoid the pain by abandoning the relationship. 

When a relationship is unhealthy (or, of course, if it's abusive), walking away is the right choice. Yet, if the freindship has a foundation of love and is simply running into inevitable rough waters, we risk losing something essential by allowing temporary pain points to overshadow the good. 

Join me in conversation with my dear friend, Dr. Tiffanie Wilson, as we discuss the joys and challenges of companionship, and how moving thorugh our own pain points led to a deeper, and truer, friendship for us both. 

You can find Dr. Wilson online at https://tiffaniewilson.com/

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Season 11, Ep 3: Spiritual Friends - Why We Need Them and How to Maintain Them

John O'Donahue famously introduced the Celtic term anam cara to the broader world in his book of wisdom thusly named. O'Donahue describes an anam cara as a soul friend, one in which we find recognition and belonging, cutting across all convention and category. These are the kinds of deep intimacies we have a hard time developing in this fast-paced world of surface-level connectivity. Spiritual friendship differs from other types of friendship, and it might just be what we need in our spiritual journey toward transformation. Today's episode is an interview with my anam cara, Jen Slongier. We talk about the special nature of our friendship, how we developed our relationship, and how we cultivate it. 

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