We’ve been quiet for a few weeks. We’re back, with something new: conversations. Not wrong, just incomplete. Maybe what you were handed doesn’t hold the way it used to. The old way has come apart, and the new one hasn’t arrived yet. Most of us want to hurry through that place. What if it’s where there’s finally room? Welcome to The Remembering Way. This is the first conversation. My dear friend Bob Gauen sits across from me with questions he gathered from the first five episodes. For twenty years of preaching I read the room. Recording alone under a fort of quilts, there’s no room to read. With Bob here, there is. We talk about why this podcast, and why it doesn’t fit in a box: mystics of every kind, astrology, dreams and visions, poetry, wilderness, my story and yours. That’s what you get. About the words I close every episode with, and why they’re the ones I need to hear most. About the in-between: three nights and four days with a tarp I didn’t know how to set up, and what comes in sideways when we stop leaning on what we already know. About the people I’ve walked with at the end of their lives, and the ones who practiced letting go long before they had to. And about what we inherited, not wrong, just incomplete, and Rachel Naomi Remen’s catfish. How are we good catfish, putting back out what is good? Not answers. A wondering. In this episode 0:00 - Welcome, and Bob 2:19 - Why a podcast, and why now 6:19 - A podcast that doesn’t fit in a box 10:14 - You are not too much. You are not too little. And you are not alone. 12:32 - More in-between moments than settled ones 14:58 - The tarp, and what comes in sideways 16:28 - Letting go, at the end of a life 18:11 - Bob, the introvert at the dinner party 18:56 - Not wrong, just incomplete 22:28 - The beetles: difference that doesn’t compete 23:33 - The catfish 27:14 - Whatever is stirred in you today Mentioned in this episode Rachel Naomi Remen — the story of the man who chose catfish [“Kitchen Table Wisdom: Stories That Heal”] Thérèse of Lisieux — the little way: not through getting it right, but through our imperfection Jim Finley and Cynthia Bourgeault — two of the wise voices I lean into Mary Oliver — her poem on loving and letting go [“In Blackwater Woods”] Kenosis — the mystic path of letting go, not clinging Episode 2 · The Wilderness Between the Stories — where the in-between first came up - https://elizabethjameson.substack.com/p/the-wilderness-between-the-stories Listen to Episode 2 Here This is a conversation Whatever stirred in you today, let it stay. Don’t rush past it. That’s the remembering at work. And now it’s a conversation in the plainest sense. Bob still has questions from the first five episodes, and we’d love yours too: the things you’re actually sitting with, the ones without simple answers. You can send feedback and reflections here https://elizabethjameson.wixforms.com/f/7515113450746414205, write to me at elizabeth@therememberingway.org, or leave a comment at elizabethlightfootjameson.com. I read them all. And if this landed in you, share it with someone who might need it. That’s how this travels. Ways to walk this together The podcast is free. It always will be. You’ll find it at Broken Open, elizabethlightfootjameson.com, and wherever you listen to podcasts. If you’d like to help this work keep going, you can support it with a paid subscription. Nothing sits behind a wall, and nothing will. Second Sundays — free, monthly, open to absolutely anyone. Next: November 8, 6–7:30pm MT. Come as you are. Register here: https://becoming-love.circle.so/c/events-d39d8c The Remembering Way — circles, soul coaching, and ways to go deeper in community: TheRememberingWay.org Becoming Love — the community gathering around this work: becoming-love.circle.so/c/welcome-circle Dedicated with Love For Bob, who said yes to listening. And for anyone standing somewhere in between, where you aren’t yet and you’re no longer. There’s more room here than it feels like. Until next time: keep rethinking the unthinkable. Keep noticing what you are noticing. You are not too much. You are not too little. And you are not alone. With love always, Elizabeth Lightfoot Jamesonelizabeth@therememberingway.orgTheRememberingWay.orgElizabethLightfootJameson.comBecoming-love.circle.so/c/welcome-circle Credits Creative direction by John Harrison. Original music by Jonny Rodgers. The mosaic is the work of Patrick Raymond. With gratitude to Bob Gauen, and to everyone who has walked this way with me, the easy companions and the hard ones alike. Transcript Elizabeth: All right, are we recording? Okay, here we go. Welcome to the Remembering Way. I'm Elizabeth Lightfoot Jameson. This is a podcast about rethinking the unthinkable, about how the very things we fear the most can become our deepest openings. I'm so glad you're here. And joining me today is my dear friend on the journey, Bob Gauen, and it is such a joy to have you with me. Bob: Yeah, I feel honored to be here with you today and to talk about these first couple episodes of your podcast. Elizabeth: Well, thank you. I have to confess that I do these episodes on my own under a fort of quilts that I have made to try to make this sound good, but then I'm completely cut off from you, listeners. You feel far away, and so I'm really grateful you're here, Bob. And no, we're not under a fort of quilts, but I'm grateful because your presence helps bring out something in me when I don't have your smiling face across from me. Bob: Ah, thank you. Elizabeth: Tell me a little bit about why you said yes when I asked you to partner with me on this podcast. Bob: Of course, I've been a student in some of your classes and participated in a retreat that we did in the spring, and I took from that retreat a richness that I still can hold on to today. And so, when you ask me, there's not a lot of talents that I have, but I thought I could listen and come up with some questions that would help pull out from what you said in your episodes ideas and themes that we could all relate to and maybe start to implement into our lives. Elizabeth: Yeah. Well, thank you. Here we go. Bob: Why a podcast? Why this podcast, and why now? Elizabeth: It was actually John who was doing the editing that suggested a podcast, and to be honest, it's much harder than I thought it was going to be. I have no trouble talking. I talk a lot. I talk easily, and that part is not hard. What has been much harder than I thought it would ever be is doing it alone, because you know for 20 years preaching, I read the room. I don't use a script. I mean, I know what I'm going to say, but it changes because I read the room. I know if people are with me. I circle back around if I'm seeing confused looks, or you know, I just there's so much energy I get back that comes right back into it, and people don't realize it's a conversation. It's one-sided on the one hand, but it's drawn from all the interactions that I have with people, and so sitting by myself when there's no engagement visible has been much harder than I thought it would be, and there are too many times that my heart isn't in it because I feel like, yeah, because I'm not with someone, and so we did a couple of episodes, just tell a little bit of my story, but it's never been about my story. This isn't a podcast about me; it's a podcast about a way of living and seeing that has been life-changing for me, and has been life-changing for other people. And I know there's something here that more people are ready to hear, and maybe need to hear. And there's there's the part of me that says, "Well, who am I? You know, go listen to Jim Finley, go listen to Cynthia Bourgeault, go listen to all these other beautiful, wise people whom I lean into. Why me? Why should I have anything to say? And I've wrestled with that because it's a good question. There are plenty of podcasts out there. There are plenty of people doing this kind of work. But my story and my journey has been my own, and I've learned some things and brought some additional pieces to it, and the way that I frame it and understand it and help hold space for people who are on their own journey to engage with all of this in an accessible way, isn't like everyone else. Realistically, it's not like anyone else, and so I'm daring to put my voice out into the mix, not in competition, but because someone somewhere might be able to hear it through me that isn't going to hear it through another means. I feel I've been given both the heart of my life and the beauty of my life to be a voice for others. It's a lot of blood, sweat, and tears—more than I thought it would be, but we're getting there, and we'll find our way. Bob: When you first started doing this, I thought of it as a spiritual podcast. But having listened to the first few episodes, it seems like it's more of a healing podcast or a podcast about opening up. Does that sound right, or should we not try to label it at all? Elizabeth: I don't know how to label it. Yeah. And people say those people out there say you should have a target audience. You know, you speak to someone who's had a devastating loss, and how do they make it through? And I do speak to that, and I have some experience on that. But that's not all. That's not all I'm about. I'm not only here for people who've had heartbreak or grief or loss or struggle. I'm here for people who are just waking up and who want more of that taste that they've had, the spaciousness of how to live in a way that's permeated with who they really are? Well, those people aren't going to respond if I say, "Well, I'm here just for someone whose heart has been broken, and I'm here for people who want to parent differently, love differently. I'm here for people who want to lead differently, who are caring about changing the world because our world is hurting, and so there'll be times where somebody goes
