Living in a thin place

This incredible talk really hits on the experience of Camp Cross as a thin place. A place for all of us to disconnect from the logical structures and systems that support the world we live our lives in (our left brain lives), and connect to a very different experience of the world around us (our right brain lives), one that seems to defies words because our language lacks the ability to succinctly and accurately describe the movements of our hearts.

It reminds of me of Thomas Merton’s spiritual theologia (”uniting the head and the heart, philosophy and contemplation” to steal from Anne Carre). Although this talk aims at pushing us to use our right brains more than our left, I finished it feeling like the search for developing and balancing both sides is an important aspect of Anglican Christianity. Although she uses many terms that come from the New Age movement and Buddhism, they do have parallels in Christian writing. And although she doesn’t speak from a Christian perspective, her talk is an excellent reminder of how faith and physiology impact one another, and how we must be better develop all aspects of ourselves if we are to honor both the theology and the spirituality that are essential to our Christian faith.

Camp Cross is a place for both the scriptural and contemplative aspects of our faith to come together in a unified and harmonious formative experience. And I think this talk highlights why that it is so powerful at Camp, away from the systems and structures that at times confine us, and in a place where we are free to be whole people, made in God’s limitless image.I really encourage you to take the 18 minutes to watch this powerful, moving and truly human talk, and reflect on what it means to us as Christians and to our Camp Cross experiences. TED talks are taken from a gathering of the most brilliant and accomplished people from around the globe, and interdisciplinary conference that seeks to unify and build up human knowledge and potential.