This is Enlightened-ish with Brad Wetzler, my weekly dispatch about how we can brave the wilderness of these tough, post-modern, hyper-capitalist times…together. It’s about storytelling, healing, adventure, the human heart, and the pursuit of the sacred and the holy, too.
Who am I? I’m the author of the new memoir, Into the Soul of the World: My Journey to Healing, and a longtime journalist with bylines in the New York Times, Newsweek, Wired, GQ, National Geographic, Travel + Leisure, and Outside where I was a senior editor and a longtime contributing editor. I spent fifteen years working as an adventure writer, journalist, and magazine columnist. After a long period of depression and overmedication with prescription drugs, I launched a round-the-world quest to heal body, mind, and spirit—to recover my very soul. You can read all about this journey in Into the Soul of the World. I live in Austin, Texas, where I edit books, coach aspiring memoirists, and teach yoga and meditation.
What helps you connect with the holy or the deepest place within yourself? Are these two the same?
Does that word—holy—mean anything to you? Maybe it doesn’t. Maybe you don’t know what it means. And yet, whatever it is, perhaps you have a feeling in your gut that you’d like to have more of it in your life?
There are a lot of things that connect me to the holy, to my soul and the world's soul. Music, my yoga practice, rivers, waterfalls, mountains, my dog, intimate conversations with loved ones, and, last but certainly not least, my altar. My altar, located on the top of a long bookshelf turned on its side, holds the objects most precious to me. Religious statues, candles, photos of saints, and a picture of Kedarnath Baba, a 100-year-old yogi I met in a mountaintop cave in the Himalayas in 2018. a man who transformed my life with a swat on the head (improbable and weird, I know) and souvenirs from my travels worldwide. My
altar brings my home alive. It is the Universe, the divine, All of It, brought down to earth to a single unassuming piece of wood furniture.
I light candles and incense each morning and sit before it, not necessarily to meditate but to turn towards the sacred. It's a peaceful, meaningful, and humble time that I cherish.
Last week was a wild one for me, and my altar and the concept of home played a significant role. After three years in Austin, I returned to Boulder, Colorado, leaving loved ones and new friends behind. I didn't plan it this way, but my move seemed especially significant as it was synchronous with other consequential events. It was the spring equinox, a time when day and night are in balance, and the one-year mark of the publication of my memoir, Into the Soul of the World.
During my 850-mile drive across Texas, Oklahoma, and eastern Colorado, I had plenty of time to reflect on the concept of home. As a single, childless man in my 50s, the meaning of home may be different for me than for someone with a family. However, it is no less critical. I thought about what brings me close to my soul and the soul of the world--and helps me feel at home in the Universe and my own body. Upon my arrival in Boulder, one of the first things I did was recreate my altar. The following morning, I sat before it in the darkness before dawn and turned towards the holy.
This Easter week, the holy is on my mind. Maybe you can do something to turn your home into place of prayer to belong to this wild, mystical world.
If you haven’t bought my memoir, Into the Soul of the World: My Journey to Healing, yet, I hope you will.
Here’s what author Hampton Sides wrote about it:
“Brad Wetzler has led the very definition of an adventurous life, but in Into the Soul of the World, he gives an unflinching account of his interior adventures. Wetzler’s soulful quest, by turns anguished and transcendent, will resonate with readers around the world who struggle to find purpose and a sense of the holy in the ambient jitter of the digital age.
Thank you Brad. I needed to be reminded of the power of sitting in front of an altar. Love my altar so much and this inspires me to commune w it more💜
An interesting question! I named my publication here on Substack 'Holy Chaos' precisely because I'm looking for more of the sacred in the messy life of special needs parenting.
I was reflecting that holy means separate or apart whereas sacred means connected to God or the holy.
Like you I find the sacred in many places - nature, precious moments with people, a moment of quiet, a sense of God's presence. I love your home altar too.
For me this Easter weekend my belief in the jesus story helps me look for the holy in times of suffering and darkness too as God experienced all of that too. Wishing you many more encounters with the holy in your everyday life!