markrvotava-2
markrvotava-2
| Forum role | Member since | Last activity | Topics created | Replies created |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Member | Jan 12, 2014 (12 years) |
- | 4 | 3 |
- Forum role
- Member
- Member since
Jan 12, 2014 (12 years)
- Last activity
- -
- Topics created
- 4
- Replies created
- 3
Bio
I am a local practitioner in Downtown Tacoma where I have lived for the past ten years.
This is my personal blog. It is focused on pondering the mysteries of life, living interdependently in community, contemplative spirituality and exploring authentic ways of being the body of Christ in the parish. My philosophy is when we root ourselves in a place, it will teach us to love and listen to one another in everyday life together. We also need to be linked to other places so we do not become too insular and learn from new contexts regularly.
I write on themes of an ordinary, everyday life spirituality that is rooted in a particular place and is lived out in a relational way in community with others. I like the word parish to describe the local context where we learn to practice and experiment with new forms of authenticity in our lives together. While living in community, we must not forget the deep interior life of solitude, reflection, listening, contemplation, silence and rest as we share life with others.
My goal is to create helpful content that will inspire you to cultivate an imagination for the place that you live and allow that place to be a part of a deep interior transformation within. This blog is for you - if you desire to find a way to share life with others and become a local practitioner.
I typically post five times a week (Tuesday-Saturday). To keep updated on my newest posts, you can subscribe using RSS or e-mail.
I moved into the neighborhood of Downtown Tacoma in 2004 to become a local practitioner through a relational network called The Downtown Neighborhood Fellowship. In 2010, I was drawn to work with the poor in our neighborhood. So I became a core member of the Tacoma Catholic Worker where we have eight houses of hospitality that span an entire block. I call it an urban village. The poor are now teaching me of God's beauty in all kinds of ways that I didn't understand before.
I have published my first book in April of 2014 called The Communal Imagination: Finding a Way to Share Life Together. It is about my experience of place and community in Downtown Tacoma for the past ten years. I am on a track to keep learning, practicing, exploring, experimenting and writing in the future. I collaborate with the Parish Collective Leaders Fellowship where we help others to become rooted and linked in the changing twenty-first century.
In my free time, I enjoy reading, writing, running, reflecting, blogging, spending time with others, engaging in meaningful conversation, contemplation, storytelling, listening to music and resting to take care of myself.
Some of my favorite writers who have influenced me a lot are Dorothy Day, Thomas Merton, Martin Luther King Jr, Lillian Daniel, James Howard Kunstler, Maggie Jackson, Brene Brown, Diane Butler Bass, Christopher Heuertz, Marshall McLuhan, Sue Monk Kidd, Lesslie Newbigin, Margot Starbuck, Peter Rollins, Ash Barker, Walter Brueggemann, Tom Sine, Letty Russell, Michael Polanyi, Elizabeth Newman, Lauren Winner, Enuma Okoro, Martin Buber, Richard Rohr, Wendell Berry, Illia Delio, John Freie, Sean Benesh, Macrina Wiederkehr, Paula Huston, Parker Palmer, Martin Robinson, David Abram, Cynthia Bourgeault, Soren Kierkegaard, Mary Jo Leddy, Michael Frost, Amy Sherman, Pat Ennis, Marjorie Grene, Charles Taylor, Walker Percy, Anne Lamott, Bill McKibben, Karen Wilk, Alan Roxburgh, Kelly Bean, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Daniel Kemmis, Christine Valters Paintner, Mahatma Ghandhi, Lisa Sharon Harper, Shane Claiborne, Paulo Freire, Debra Farrington, Annemarie Kidder, David Benner, Simone Weil, Leonard Hjalmarson, John Pattison, Barbara Brown Taylor, Ellen Charry, MaryKate Morse, Elisabeth Moltmann-Wendel, Margaret Feinberg, Chris Smith, Jim Diers, Lisa Tatlock, Jamie Arpin-Ricci, Paul Sparks, Carl McColman, Becky Garrison, Margaret Wheatley, Pam Hogeweide, Eric Jacobsen, Diane Chandler, Peter Block, Julie Clawson, Rachel Held Evans, Tim Soerens, Brenda Salter McNeil, Eileen Baura Suico, Robert Lupton, Jean Vanier, Michele Hershberger, Dwight Friesen, Jon Huckins, Christine Sine, Steven Chase, James Finely, Amy Oden, Thomas Keating, Dallas willard, Carolyn Weber, Paula Huston, Phileena Heuertz, Kathy Escobar, Tony Kriz, Christena Cleveland, Mark Van Steenwyk, Brian Walsh, E.F. Schumacher, Wendy McCaig, Jacques Maritain, Mary Margaret Funk, Sarah Coakley, Rene Girard, Mark Scandrette, Judith Shulevitz, John Perkins, Sara Miles, Emily Stimpson, Brian McLaren, Thich Nhat Hanh, Ronald Rolheiser, Sharon Daloz Parks, Henri Nouwen, Leonard Sweet, Mother Teresa, Gustavo Gutierrez, Joyce Rupp, John McKnight, Ivan Illich, Elain Heath, Paula D' Arcy, Esther De Waal, Jacques Ellul, Christine Pohl, Debbie Blue, Jeanne Choy Tate, Esther Lighcap Meek, Marva Dawn, Jonathan Wilson Hartgrove, Charlene Spretnak, Joan Chittister and David Fitch.
You can contact me via e-mail markrvotava@gmail.com or follow me on twitter @MarkVotava or my facebook fan page.
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