April - The Growing Edge Newsletter
April, 2023
WELCOME to The Growing Edge Newsletter on Substack!
We’ve moved The Growing Edge newsletter to a new platform. Nothing will change for subscribers—you’ll still receive our newsletter directly to your email address. The fun news is that we will post our bimonthly podcast episodes here, on our newsletter website, on the Growing Edge website, and everywhere folks get their podcasts.
AND you’ll be able to comment on our question of the month in our newsletter and be in conversation with others listening to The Growing Edge Podcast and reading our newsletter. (You can also access our newsletter on the Substack app.)
To old and new subscribers alike, Welcome to The Growing Edge!
In this Newsletter…
• Notes from the Edge
• The Growing Edge Podcast with author Scott Russell Sanders
• Online & In-Person Events
• Question of the Month
Notes from the Edge
A Note from Parker…
On this month’s podcast, we had the pleasure of talking with environmental activist and author Scott Russell Sanders about his 2022 novel, Small Marvels. Scott—who spent four decades as professor of English at the Indiana University—has written twenty-plus books related to “a culture of caretaking” and was elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences in 2012.
Small Marvels is a collection of stories about Gordon Mills and his three-generation family. They live in a fixer-upper in Limestone, Indiana, a fictional town where humdrum everyday life is frequently enlivened by small marvels that arise from the human spirit and from the non-human world. As Carrie put it in her review of the book, Scott “reminds us of all that is still right in the world and shines a light on what is luminous and extraordinary in an ordinary day.”
Someday, historians will give our era a name, and it’s not likely to be “The Second Age of Enlightenment.” The “big story” of our time, as told by the mass media, is one of lies, corruption, violence, threats to democracy, and wholesale failures of compassion. But the big story is not the whole story. There are millions upon millions of “little stories,” stories of your life and mine, in which small marvels abound. Gifted story-tellers like Scott Russell Sanders remind us that we can always find cause for hope in the human-scale stories of our daily lives. Put them all together, and they are the biggest and best story in town.
A Note from Carrie…
On this month’s podcast we explore where goodness and open-hearted wonder are still found in our uncertain times. I’ve had the great privilege of working with Scott Russell Sanders on a variety of projects, including a beautiful stage show called “Wilderness Plots” which featured his short stories and the songs of five gifted songwriters. His stories and essays have touched my heart and inspired several songs. I can always rely on Scott for lively discussions about science, the natural world, the miracle of friendship and family, the power of stories, poetry and songs. Honestly, it was great fun for me to be a fly on the wall listening to Parker and Scott—both such touchstones for thoughtful engagement in the world—discuss with such clarity what concerns and encourages them in a complicated time.
Gordon Mills, the main character in Small Marvels, is practical mystic in overalls and a tool belt. He attends to the daily and necessary with as much dignity and good humor as he can, which I suppose is what most of us do. And yet, he keeps his heart open for wonder whether stumbling upon the northern lights shining above the city dump, or in the eyes of his youngest child, Danny. He keeps putting good heartedness in the world, and good heartedness always seems to find its way back to him—although not always in the ways you would expect or predict. The kindness that is embedded in the cosmos knows Gordon’s name. For those of us longing for stories that expand rather than contract our hearts, getting to know Gordon will be pleasure. May we all live lives of continuing wonder. May we live in a manner that the kindness embedded in the cosmos will know our names as well.
Question of the Month
The media that dominate our lives (if we let them) major in stories of division and conflict, sometimes with the intent of generating fear and rage. But we can collect other stories from personal experience—stories about “small marvels” that remind us of the shared ground on which we stand, of the essential goodness of the human heart. If you have a “small marvel” story to tell, please share it here. It might do someone else a world of good!
Episode 50: A Conversation with Scott Russell Sanders, author of “Small Marvels”
In this podcast, Carrie and Parker talk with author Scott Russell Sanders about his new book Small Marvels. Scott’s work often explores the spirit of place, our relationship with the natural world, and creating communities of care and generosity rather a culture of fear and division. In this episode we talk about what inspired the stories in this lovely work, and share thoughts about the power of story and creativity. I hope you’ll join us for this heart-opening conversation.
Link to the podcast on our The Growing Edge website
Here’s some more links for Scott Russell Sanders and how to find his books or attend a workshop.
Official Scott Russell Sanders Website
Link for Small Marvels
Visit our website for the full archives of The Growing Edge Podcast.
Parker’s Online Events
On Thursday, April 27, at 7:00 PM Eastern Time, I’ll give the Perkins Lecture at Earlham College and Earlham School of Religion online on the topic, “All Real Living is Meeting: Close Encounters of the Quaker Kind.” I’m looking forward to exploring the impact of Quaker faith and practice on my work and life. Tickets are free HERE.
Here's the Good Life Project podcast—“We’re on a quest to help you live a more meaningful, connected and vital life”—where I talk with founder Jonathan Fields, a great conversation partner. Listen HERE.
HERE’S an interview I did for The Sun magazine, which is well-worth subscribing to whether or not you read the interview. Under the title “If Only We Would Listen”, Alicia von Stamwitz got me talking about “life its own self"!
Last month, I spoke with Marc Lesser on his Zen Bonespodcast. We had a probing dialogue about "Finding Wholeness in a Challenging World.” Listen HERE.
Fun Carrie News - New Album Release “A Great Wild Mercy” - Sept 15, 2023
I’ll be recording a new album at Airtime Studios/ The Hundredth Hill Artist Retreat with Co-Producer/Engineer David Weber during May and June. The working title is “A Great Wild Mercy” and will be released Sept. 15, 2023!
I’m so excited to be joined by some incredible musicians including some names and voices you’ve heard on past projects : Gary Walters, Jordan Tice, Paul Kowert, Jim Brock and Brittany Haas.
I’m really looking forward to sharing this new collection of songs with you all later this summer. We will have some special pre-release packages and I’ll be sharing more news and even some in studio sneak peeks with my Substack Supporting Subscribers.
Carrie’s Events - Spring Tour & Retreats
For more information visit Carrie’s Tour Page www.carrienewcomer.com/tour
Argaille
A poem "wrote me" on Apr. 1st!🙂
Inspired by quote from John O'Donoughue, Irish Poet, Writer, "May you experience each day as a sacred gift woven around the heart of wonder."
Open to God's World!
Open to God's World, like a flag unfurled.
Each day is a New Beginning.
Release "yester-thoughts," "yester-shoulds,"
"yester-oughts,"
Set your heart and soul a'grinning.
For this is the day the Lord has made,
Not you, nor I, but God has made!
So let's fill up
Our "Today" big cup!
Fill up with Gratefulness
In good times and bad.
Fill up with Healing
When you're feeling sad.
Fill up with Love for others, for your self.
Fill up with dreams you take
Down from the "shelf"
Of "I can't," or "I won't,"
Or "There's just no time,"
Fill up with God's "Yes" in Nature sublime.
Go hug a tree; stretch your arms to the sky!
Open to God's World.
You'll be blessed when you try!
Oh my! What synchronicity. There was a musical gathering here this week at my retirement community, which I've never attended before. I went to support a new resident who is in deep grief over her husband's sudden death. At one point in the program, one of the residents from the Alzheimer's unit was clearly taken w/the music. She got up, her face slightly softened from its usual stony demeanor, and reached for the microphone of the singer, who tried to turn away. A staff member, seeing this, walked calmly through the crowd, gently grasped the woman's uplifted reaching hand, placed an arm around her waist, and began a quiet dance w/her. There were no longer two people in the scene, but One Presence, and only THE dance - one of compassion and grace and tenderness. It moved me to tears, and I thought THIS is who we are, if we can only hear the call of the music deep within.