Who are you? How we answer this question determines everything in life. Too often our culture answers it for us, taking us away from being in touch with who we truly are. The essence of the spiritual life is to reclaim our lost identity. Using a blend of storytelling and interviews, the Soul Search podcast is an up-close look at this journey, taking you below the surface of life to find your deepest and truest
self.

Music: The Onyx by Blue Dot Sessions

https://thesoulsearch.org

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In Episode One of our very first podcast series, called "Welcome Your Life," we look at walking as a spiritual practice to deepen our awareness in life. This is a certain kind of walking, not to get anywhere or to accomplish anything. Instead it is a walk to linger and to listen.

We'll join Kirk Davis, a San Francisco native and community leader in the city's Bayview neighborhood, to trace the steps of a sacred walk he would take through the city. Often taking several hours, it is a way he intentionally listened to what the city is saying to him about the past and the future. And to what stirred in his heart as he contemplated both. Find out what he heard.

Intro | Meet Kirk (00:00)

Act 1 | Bayview Forever (2:58) - A wave of gentrification has Kirk's neighborhood changing.

Act 2 | Walls without Walls (19:35) - One street connects many neighborhoods but not all neighborhoods are the same.

Act 3 | New Wineskins (37:07) - Kirk holds on to hope and fights for the soul of the city.

Credits (51:17)

Learn about Kirk's work with Kairos of San Francisco in the city's Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhood.

Music by Blue Dot Sessions.

Check out our website for a deeper dive into this episode, including pictures of our walk with Kirk and a spiritual exercise you can use to take what you heard deeper into your soul. You can download the exercise directly here.

Also: try out our "walking" guided meditation. You can find it as a Soul Search bonus episode on this streaming app or on our website.

Soul Search is a 501c3 non-profit. Our work is made possible by your support. If you like what you've heard, consider making a donation today.

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Let us know what you think about the podcast. I'd love to hear from you! Email me at seth@thesoulsearch.org.

In this second episode of our "Welcome Your Life" series, we look at a vital, but often neglected, aspect of a healthy spirituality - wonder. As adults we tend to lose that unfiltered amazement of the world we had as children. Our agendas take over instead because we think wonder is a luxury we can no longer afford. But could it be that what we seem to have lost in our adult lives has never left us? And that recapturing wonder can reconnect us with what's always been most essential to us?

We'll visit with Lacy Finn Borgo and Steph Cheung to help us see why we've lost wonder and how to recover it.

Lacy is the author of Spiritual Conversations with Children and has other books in print and on the way related to spirituality and children. Find out more about her work at Good Dirt Ministries. Steph is on staff with InterVarsity.

Intro (0:00)

Act 1 | Kids Have Experiences (1:57) - Lacy says there's a lot adults can learn from kids about wonder.

Act 2 | Play (17:54) - An old practice we can all do to renew our sense of wonder.

Act 3 | Legos (32:16) - Steph Chung found a unique way to incorporate play into her career discernment.

Coda | A Grove of Aspens (50:51)

Credits (53:04)

Music by Blue Dot Sessions.

Check out our website for a deeper dive into this episode, including a spiritual exercise and guided meditation you can use to take what you heard deeper into your soul. We also have a blog post about connecting with your inner child.

Soul Search is a 501c3 non-profit committed to your process of self-discovery, so you experience greater freedom, spontaneity and love in life. Our work is made possible by your support. If you like what you've heard, consider making a donation today.

Sign up for our newsletter here.

Let us know what you think about the podcast. I'd love to hear from you! Email me at seth@thesoulsearch.org.

Our eyes often deceive us. We tend to confuse what we think about a person or a situation with all there is to them. But much of what we've come to believe is simply a reflection of our own internalized expectations or fears. Our projections distort their truth, and say more about us than about them. What does it take to slow down and see below the surface of life to what's actually there? And what's on the other side of what we resist?

In this third episode of our "Welcome Your Life" series, we visit with Bernie Dickson, a photographer and mother of two special needs boys. Her profession requires her to see the world a bit differently than most of us. Hear the story about how photography and acceptance of her kids came together one beautiful night. And how a community came around to support her.

See photos from the Acceptance Exhibit here.

Intro | Meet Bernie (0:00)

Act 1 | Photography (2:10) - Bernie talks about her approach to using the camera to capture a moment.

Act 2 | Resistance (18:00) - In the wilderness of confusion, Bernie encounters a truth that changes her perspective on life.

Act 3 | Acceptance (32:07) - A community comes around Bernie to create an unforgettable evening.

Coda | Welcome to Holland (52:40)

Credits (55:08)

Check out our website for a deeper dive into this episode, including a guided meditation and spiritual exercise.

Sign up for our newsletter here.

Soul Search is a 501c3 non-profit. Our work is made possible by your support. If you like what you've heard from us, consider making a donation today.

Episode Credits
Welcome to Holland by Emily Perl Kingsley
Audio engineering by Lenny B.
Music by Blue Dot Sessions and Rhucle.

Kirk's walk in episode 1 inspired others to walk too. In this bonus episode, we take a walk with Nita Hines through Ingleside, the neighborhood where she was born and raised. It was a place of childhood wonder, care and spiritual connection. But like Kirk's home, it's changed too.

Intro (00:00) - Did I lose something?

Act 1 | The Hood (04:00) - Some things have changed.

Act 2 | The Church (15:53) - Some things you question.

Act 3 | The Home (20:43) - Some things can't be taken from you.

Outro (32:15)

Music Credits:
Blue Dot Sessions
Rhucle
P3PPER

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Soul Search is a 501c3 non-profit. Our work is made possible by your support. If you like what you've heard from us, consider making a donation today.

Kris Smiley has had four cancers episodes, twenty plus tumors and multiple invasive surgeries. He knows what it’s like to face that cold calculating part of reality that doesn’t care about your plans or the things you love. Can you hold hands with what’s destroying you? Is there an answer to why it’s happening? This is his story about finding out.

Be advised: This episode contains adult language and graphic descriptions of medical procedures. So if any of this is triggering for you, you might want to skip this one.

Intro | A Montage of Pain (0:00)

Act 1 | A Guy Named Kris (5:45)

Act 2 | I Get Off at This Stop (20:09)

Act 3 | An Exit (34:10)

Credits (55:06)

Music Credits:
Blue Dot Sessions
Rhucle

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Soul Search is a 501c3 non-profit. Our work is made possible by your support. If you like what you've heard from us, consider making a donation today.

Dr. Joyce del Rosario has returned to her hometown of Seattle after being away for a while. She had a career serving under-resourced youth in the city and then at-risk moms in the Bay Area. She also earned a PhD in theology and taught at a prestigious seminary, but things changed and she's come home to find her way again. What can food say about who you are, when the world is making demand of who you're supposed to be? This is her story.

Music Credits:
Blue Dot Sessions
Blue Scholars
Hideyuki Hashimoto
Bass Relief

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Affirmation 1 in a series of 9.

We all get stuck in negative thinking at times. Use this affirmation to reclaim the truth about who you are. You are worthy of love simply because you're human. It's not about how successful you are. And it doesn't go away just because you fail.

Love is never earned. It just IS.

Music Credit:
When the Earth Yelled Back at Me by Alaskan Tapes