WELCOME. Begin Here.
Urgent times usher us beyond the pursuit of comfort to the depths of human becoming.
Dear Fellow Human Becoming,
Welcome.
I’m glad you’re here.
Permit me to offer a few words about me.
I live close to silence. In silence, I listen to what cannot be heard in the spoken word.
My work is poiesis. Poiesis is the unceasing becoming of being. My work is devotion to the inner unfolding of human being—of you and me.
I am human. I, like you, live and in living, abide inside an unseen—
By unseen, we mean
. . . a force infinitely intimate, enlivening the life that is you and me and all life we see and cannot see
. . . en> <un/folding Earth and the creative energies of the Universe
. . . the Ever-Present Origin seeking to see us through.1
Together we call them the Mystery. Where the Mystery is the deepest is the gate of all that is subtle and wonderful.
~LaoTzu, Tao Te Ching
Permit me now to turn to you.
You are here for reasons I cannot say.
That you are says you and I are drawn to this page by that one unseen, winding a thread between us.
Perhaps you, too, are seeking: seeking to unfold.
For, to seek is to be sought—seek/beseech. And so, to seek is to (choose to be sought to) participate in the grand unfolding of (the human as reflector and reflection of) the universe. To seek is to tend toward the blossoming forth.
And let us suppose you and I come to this page at a moment altogether auspicious
. . . that, in the grandeur of life’s unfolding, moments come, rare and fleeting, when conditions are ripe for a great leap,2
. . . that such a moment is upon us.3
There's a particular quality of consciousness that only humans can provide. Nature needs that consciousness; cries out for it. And the process of deciphering Nature's need, then discovering how to respond to it, is what's called learning to become human. ~ Peter Kingsley, Book of Life, 94
Permit me to say what gave birth to this letter.
In November 2022, I set out on pilgrimage. I set out to wander wild reaches of North America.
From time to time, I would return to the land of city lights, to the buzz and hum of day to day, to good friends, old and new, who would welcome me “home” for a day, a week, or two.
But those times became fewer and far between as the wild call pulled.
I took to the road in a Sprinter, a roadhorse made vanhome by a man who grew up on sailboats.
Inside, the walls and ceiling are wood so that when I am not outside, it is as if I am. A library, hand-crafted by my son, lends a six-foot stretch of books. The bed, I layered in linen, down, and wool for when the nights grow ice on the windows inside.
I have never been more at home.
When I began –
I did not know where I would go.
I could not say how long I would be gone.
I would walk and write and gather images as a way of being.
I took to the journey emptied
already
the need to empty more,
to plunge into an abyss
of no thing to cling to
and plummet without sound,
a pebble descending
a hollow
sea
to soul, to cease
being what being had known.
I began in high desert in winter.
I journeyed across boreal forests,
glacial fields,
the tundra of the North Country in summer.
The journey took my hand and took the lead
and carried me miles
and miles
and more miles still
across plowed dirt
heaves (once frost)
to the end of this land
to meet the Arctic Ocean
to be kissed
and then return. . .
riding Earth’s breaths
many miles more
and days
to get back home
to the Blue Ridge Mountains
of the Southern Appalachian Range, December 2023.
I came home hushed. I came home stilled. I came home sobered.
Hushed by a murmuring care that silence sounds without pause.
Stilled by the ever-present within as close as the breath in the wilds out there.
Sobered by a pressing call (evolutionary) to be responded to by me, by you.4
The Great Work now . . . is to carry out the transition from a period of human devastation of the Earth to a period when humans would be present to the planet in a mutually beneficial manner.” ~ Thomas Berry, The Great Work, 3
We become a complete human being because we know it's needed.
Cynthia Bourgeault, Mepkin Abbey, 2022
Permit me to share what this letter might be today, 2024.
Let us imagine this letter as an invocation of the Great Work of our time—this work: to become more fully human, to unfold together as a “mutually enhancing” mode of being on Earth.5
What we would mean is that to further unfold our unique mode of earthly being, we seek/beseech (and so, are sought by) “the wild unconscious depths of the human soul.”6
And so, for this work, let us say this letter serves as an invitation into a willing not-knowing, this not-knowing, a stillness inside a knowing willingly shown.
Let us suppose this letter is a question absent all answer.
We might observe that the Great Work of a people is the work of all people. No one is exempt. [Each] person in and through their personal work assists in the Great Work. Personal work needs to be aligned with the Great Work. ~Thomas Berry, The Great Work, 10
Let us say this letter may usher us to an edge of discomfort. And let us say, this is good; for every discomfort is an always inner impulse to become more intimate with what we believe we cannot bear: the fullness of life itself.
Let us hope this letter stirs the soul, quiets the mind, quickens aliveness inside.
And let us trust that if this letter leaves us hushed that the silence that comes is a portal through which. . .
[we] were chosen by some power beyond ourselves for this historical task
knowing, too, that. . .7
. . . those powers that assign our role must in that same act bestow upon us the ability to fulfill this role
and if this is so, then
[we] must believe that we are cared for and guided by these same powers that bring us into being. ~Thomas Berry, The Great Work, 7
Receive Sunday Letters.
A Taste of the Letters You’ll Read
I wish I could give you the silence of this body of water minutes before an autumn sunset. I wish I could show you the stillness of this air, the absence of any movement anywhere. We could have a seat in the tall grassy reeds at the water’s edge, and the afternoon air would receive the hushed breath of the bodies called you and me, and the bodies called you and me would receive this air effortlessly, and together we would gasp just a little when the wood-brown Grebe we did not see perched motionless there on the yonder edge takes sudden flight, webbed feet and wingtips waltzing across water, giving birth to sound, drawing ripples center to shore, and the still image we happened into when we took our seat would have just shown us what it is to come alive.
Sun sets at Midnight Dome in the land of the midnight sun: Yukon, where autumn was the glory of October gold and firelight red just a week ago, and today, it is the color of November back home—trees undressing not so slowly, showing now the shoulders of nakedness, bark the color of a mud-stormed sky.
Look, and you will see that no infant fresh from the womb can weep. While we may say that falling rain may be the sky’s tears in yearning to feel what it is to be green, in its truest sense, to weep must be to have lived—to have experienced being together-alone and bear a certain intensity of feeling that this is so. Weeping comes unbidden, unfolding the inner folds of an inner life, a life having experienced the grandeur and tragedy of being.
Kind Words from Kind Readers
Inside Renée's words, I am home: Inside Presence . . . hers, mine and ours. We are ONEing in a field larger than the two of us, inside Mystery herself. Mind quiet, body open, the energies of wonder, silence, livingness, heartfulness, and so much more, free-flowing through. My senses are heightened, and I Know from somewhere deep within. My unconscious, Thee Unconscious, speaks softly here, showing me what has been unseen glorying in our invitation to become human through us. In these urgent times, Renée's words draw me "beyond the pursuit of comfort to the depths of human becoming," just as she promises.
of
Stunning unfolding of the world's mysteries. . . .
Sarah Fay of
“Renée Eli, Ph.D.’s Beyond the Comfort Zone. She’s doing it. Old school and new school at once.”
of
“Renee's words are a balm for my soul and stir the deepest kind of curiosity within me. Her writing guides me to explore myself and my relationship to life itself in the most profound way. I look forward to her posts every week. . .”
of
“Renee's writing stirs my heart and soul. In sharing her heart centered, hard earned wisdom she calls me to a deeper exploration of my soul's true calling. I love seeing Beyond the Comfort Zone arrive in my inbox. . .”
of
“I appreciate the reflective and contemplative nature of Renée's writing in addition to the curiosity inherent in her investigation of becoming fully human.”
of
“Dr. Renée Eli has been traveling across North America with books of spirituality and philosophy for companionship. Beyond the Comfort Zone gives back her reflections with generosity, irresistible honesty, gorgeous photographs, and drops of grace. I want to pin a map to the wall and go where she goes.”
of
"Renee shares such a depth of wisdom and experience that always seems to bring me deeper within my own self. Her writing sparks beautiful reflections of my own. This is the greatest gift we can receive from writing, thank you Renee."
of
"Dip into anything. Sublime writing."
of
"When I am lost for words I rest with Renée Eli, Ph.D. a while and immerse myself where I know I will find comfort, peace, and joy."
CURAlive (an accidental side project)
I witnessed alchemy for struggling skin. . . .
CURAlive is live, nutrient-rich care for skin: a triple-fermented active botanical serum to address nderlying changes in the skin’s healthy functioning, changes related to the inflammatory response, oxidative stress, and microbiome changes that come with age, stress, and environmental pollutants.
Batch #6 is available.
Email me for more information and/or a bottle: renee@reneeeliphd.substack.com
A Kind Word Heard about CURAlive
of
. . .I had a mole on my face that seemed a bit suspicious so I made an appointment with a dermatologist. Of course, they are months out, so in the meantime, thought Why not use CureL(o)ve on it? I'm not trying to sound like an advertisement over here, but a month later, it's nearly gone. What's left is just a bit of discoloration. I'll keep my appointment with the doc but I suspect he'll laugh at me when I show him what I was concerned about. I have no doubts in my mind that your gorgeous serum reminded my little skin cells their innate harmony and resolved the situation themselves. ;)
References + Notes
Jean Gebser, Ever-Present Origin, trans. Noel Barstad and Algis McKunas (Ohio University Press, 1953).
Formatting does not permit annotating LaoTzu passage that follows:
Lao-tzu, Tao Tê Ching, in The Texts of Taoism, trans. by James Legge. Intro by D. T. Suzuki. (New York: Julian Press, 1959), p. 95.
Henri Bergson, Creative Evolution, trans. Arthur Mitchell (Henry Holt, 1913); Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, The Phenomenon of Man, trans. Bernard Wall (Harper & Row, 1959; originally published as Le Phénomene Humain, Editions du Seuil, 1955).
Thomas Berry, Dream of the Earth “Here we might observe that the basic mood of the future might well be one of confidence in the continuing revelation that takes place in and through the earth. If the dynamics of the universe from the beginning shaped the course of the heavens, lighted the sun, and formed the earth, if this same dynamism brought forth the continents and seas and atmosphere, if it awakened life in the primordial cell and then brought into being the unnumbered variety of living beings, and finally brought us into being and guided us safely through the turbulent centuries, there is reason to believe that this same guiding process is precisely what has awakened in us our present understanding of ourselves and our relation to this stupendous process. Sensitized to such guidance from the very structure and functioning of the universe, we can have confidence in the future that awaits the human venture” (p. 137).
Thomas Berry, The Great Work (Bell Tower, 1999). “Perhaps a new revelatory experience is taking place, an experience wherein human consciousness awakens to the grandeur and sacred quality of the Earth process. Humanity has seldom participated in such a vision since shamanic times, but in such a renewal lies our hope for the future for ourselves and for the entire planet on which we live” (p. 106).
Jean Gebser, Ever-Present Origin, trans. Noel Barstad and Algis McKunas (Ohio University Press, 1955). “. . . if we do not overcome the crisis it will overcome us; and only someone who has overcome himself is truly able to overcome. Either we will be disintegrated and dispersed, or we must resolve and effect integrity. In other words, either time is fulfilled in us—and that would mean the end or death for our present earth and (its) mankind—or we succeed in fulfilling time: and this means integrality and the present, the realization of the reality of origin and presence. And it means, consequently, a transformed continuity where mankind and not man, the spiritual and not the spirit, origin and not the beginning, the present and not time, the whole and not the part become awareness and reality. It is the whole that is present in origin and originative in the present” (xxvii-xxviii).”
Thomas Berry, The Great Work: Our Way into the Future (New York: Bell Tower, 1999) p. 55.
Ibid., p. 11.
Ibid., p. 55.
Formatting does not permit fn here. Both passages, above and below, are Berry, Great Work, p. 7.
"... beyond the pursuit of comfort toward our own becoming" - It was enough to read with you "beyond the comfort zone" without knowing where we were going, but now that I see we are going "toward our own becoming," what is there to resist? Serial enchantment happening here. Love it.
"There's a particular quality of consciousness that only humans can provide. Nature needs that consciousness; cries out for it. And the process of deciphering Nature's need, then discovering how to respond to it, is what's called learning to become human. ~ Peter Kingsley, Book of Life"
Peter Kingsley is one of my mother's favorite authors and this is on my list to read💕🙏🕊️
(p.s. I never classify myself as a "seeker" as it implies I'm not a "finder," and "I am," and this is the universal "I"😉🥰)
and p.p.s. I'm honored you quote my recommendation✨🧚♀️🤸♀️🌼🌷🌈🌺🪷💕☀️