Episode Transcript
[00:00:21] Speaker A: Hello, friends.
Today we are somewhere.
[00:00:26] Speaker B: We are actually somewhere.
[00:00:27] Speaker A: We are actually somewhere. I know. This is a segment where our usual listeners hear us talking, blathering, if you will, about how we're nowhere and we're just gonna stay nowhere. Yeah, we're going nowhere. But today we are somewhere. And that's the point of this episode today.
[00:00:42] Speaker B: Just so as not to disappoint you, we're still gonna blather.
[00:00:45] Speaker A: Oh, oh, absolutely. I mean, come on, that's a given.
[00:00:48] Speaker B: We're blathering a little bit.
[00:00:50] Speaker A: We will blather a bit, but we're blathering from somewhere.
[00:00:54] Speaker B: Not just somewhere, but the same somewhere.
[00:00:56] Speaker A: The same somewhere. This is the first podcast where we are co located.
We are mere maybe two yards away from each other.
[00:01:04] Speaker B: I could throw spitballs at it.
[00:01:06] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. So this is a first in our episodes together.
Hopefully not the last.
[00:01:12] Speaker B: Hopefully. Yeah.
[00:01:14] Speaker A: But I want to tell you a little bit about where we are today because for.
Oh, several episodes now in our check in component of the podcast, we talk a little bit about.
Laura Beth's working on something. It's big. There's growing pains. We've been dropping little breadcrumbs that.
[00:01:33] Speaker B: So many pains, so many breadcrumbs that.
[00:01:36] Speaker A: Laura Beth was working on something big. And I am sitting here in the office of the big right now, the very big thing. And this very big thing has a name and it is called the Coalition for Peace and Restoration.
This is.
This is a project that we are going to really learn about today. We're going to learn about Laura Best's vision for this, who it's for, what it's going to do, why it's important and why you should care, because you should.
And we are going to.
We're going to bring this all to you right from this space. It is a gorgeous space even I did not have.
And as Laura Beth has been talking with me over the last few months about what she was working on, I did not totally get it.
[00:02:30] Speaker B: It's kind of hard to know until you're here and you feel it. And it's been evolving to the point. I mean, we just signed the lease and moved into this space last week. And so it's all still fresh and.
[00:02:41] Speaker A: New and it smells fresh and new. There is.
[00:02:43] Speaker B: It is. No, it's like. It is complete. Recently renovated. It is gorgeous 1920s era building that with exposed brick. We'll put some pictures up.
[00:02:54] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, there's got to be pictures because I can describe it to you and I will, but it is. It I think when I walked in here and I felt the warmth of the space and I saw the rooms, everything kind of came together for me about how important this space is going to be for people.
[00:03:15] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:03:15] Speaker A: And in this area. And it is.
The building is warm, it's inviting. It's been carefully put together.
[00:03:25] Speaker B: It is huge. And that credit goes to our partners that we bloom. And we'll talk a little bit more.
[00:03:31] Speaker A: Yeah, we'll talk about that.
[00:03:33] Speaker B: In the spirit of coalition.
[00:03:34] Speaker A: In the spirit of coalition. There are a lot of people involved in this, and it's a community.
A community that we'll be introducing you to on this episode. And I'm sure in episodes to come, it is something that. That we are going to spend some time just being here together today.
[00:03:53] Speaker B: Yeah.
Yeah. So we're going to go back to nowhere.
[00:03:57] Speaker A: We're going back to nowhere. Even though we're somewhere.
[00:03:59] Speaker B: Even though we're somewhere.
[00:04:00] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:04:01] Speaker B: Yeah. So, yeah, for this episode, we get to be nowhere.
[00:04:08] Speaker A: Yep. We're going to. We're going to go into nowhere mode. And you can kind of pull up a chair, and you may be nowher with us. Will we give you a picture of somewhere?
[00:04:19] Speaker B: Of somewhere? Yeah. Yeah.
But when we come back, I. I will not be a host.
[00:04:25] Speaker A: No. When we come back after the break, Laura Beth is going to be.
Not asking any questions at all. Laura Beth is going to be answering.
[00:04:34] Speaker B: Yeah, we'll see about that. But. Okay.
[00:04:39] Speaker A: And he's going to answer questions. Okay.
[00:04:41] Speaker B: All right.
[00:04:42] Speaker A: All right, let's go.
[00:04:43] Speaker B: Let's go.
[00:05:00] Speaker A: All right. I am here today with Laura Beth Buckleiter.
It's good to be here.
[00:05:07] Speaker B: Huge fan of the podcast, by the way.
[00:05:08] Speaker A: I'm so glad. I mean, friend of the pod. Laura Beth.
[00:05:11] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
[00:05:12] Speaker A: Laura Beth, tell us your. Your official title. What. What are we calling you now in your role here at the Coalition for Peace and Restoration?
[00:05:23] Speaker B: So there's several things we could go with there, Reverend.
Is that what you're getting at?
[00:05:29] Speaker A: What, What. What will the constituents, if you will be calling me?
[00:05:33] Speaker B: Well, they. Yeah, some of my colleagues here have started taken to calling me rev, which, you know, we called my youth pastor growing up. Heavy, Revy, heavy. Yeah, I. So some of my other colleagues in more high church places, you know, some of them are the right Reverend or the reverend being ordained Baptist. They like to refer to me as the occasionally barely Reverend, which really fits, and I own that. That deeply. So that. That's what. I didn't know if that's what you're doing.
[00:06:08] Speaker A: Well, for our purposes, Today we will, we will say, I'm here with the Reverend Laura Beth Buckleiter.
[00:06:12] Speaker B: That works.
[00:06:13] Speaker A: Yeah.
And your role here at the coalition is.
[00:06:18] Speaker B: So I am the founder.
[00:06:19] Speaker A: The founder.
[00:06:20] Speaker B: And at the Coalition for Peace and Restoration, I am the co creator for administration.
[00:06:26] Speaker A: Okay. So I am here with Reverend Laura Beth Bugleiter, the.
[00:06:31] Speaker B: Found.
[00:06:33] Speaker A: Something else.
[00:06:34] Speaker B: Co creator. Co creator for administration of administration. I mean, it's executive director, but I don't like director. I'm not very executive, so it didn't feel very honest.
[00:06:45] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:06:46] Speaker B: And so I do the administration of the coalition and, and I co create with people.
[00:06:53] Speaker A: Okay. So let's dig into this. I think we need to rewind just a little bit.
So assuming that our listeners just like myself, kind of have a hazy, fuzzy sort of idea of what this is all about, give us the elevator pitch. What is the Coalition for Peace and Restoration?
[00:07:15] Speaker B: Yeah. So the Coalition for Peace and Restoration is an organization that is intended to bring together resources of professionals, individuals, organizations focused on investing in wholeness through the health of body, soul and spirit.
[00:07:37] Speaker A: All right. Okay.
[00:07:38] Speaker B: So it is a holistic approach to spiritual well being, to personal wellness, and there are other elements of that that we'll get into.
Right.
But that, that at its at its core, if you want to know who we're looking for to be part of the coalition, it is people engaged in.
Wherever you are, if you see part of what you do as investing in either body, soul or spirit, there's a space.
[00:08:11] Speaker A: There's a space for you here.
[00:08:12] Speaker B: Yeah. We can find ways to share resources and engage with each other on that journey.
[00:08:17] Speaker A: Okay. So this is truly teamwork in action.
[00:08:20] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:08:21] Speaker A: With a goal.
[00:08:22] Speaker B: Yeah.
And it's, it's a vision that I have had brewing for a decade.
[00:08:28] Speaker A: Yeah. Let's dig into this. Where were the original seeds? And bring us from the original seeds to why here? Why now?
[00:08:36] Speaker B: Yeah.
So the original seeds go back to my early advocacy, after coming around to my own gender identity and self awareness, probably even a little back further than that. Just aware that there is a challenge to authentic living within so much of our culture and even within the context of the church. So even before I went through that deconstruction era and that coming out coming around era, there was just an awareness that we needed to be doing things differently.
And so as I went through that, that entire season of life, 2014, 2015, I started to develop this vision that we needed to work together better, to share resources to move through that space.
I was working with therapists that were helpful in one way, but I was also going through medical things that were helpful in another way. And I really wanted two entities to coalesce.
[00:09:45] Speaker A: Right, you wanted to focus on the whole person.
[00:09:47] Speaker B: Yeah. And so it'd be. The burden fell to me to, to bring that together.
[00:09:54] Speaker A: You're cobbling together what you need and the, the work for that was on you during a time when you didn't have the bandwidth for that.
[00:10:04] Speaker B: Yeah. And so, so there was an element of wanting these professionals to be able to work together in that capacity, but there was also an awareness that I was able to do that because of, because of my background, because of my history.
And so how do we equip individuals to bring that wholeness together, to bring those things into conversation in their lives, whether it is on a medical journey and a spiritual journey and a mental health journey and, you know, all of these, these other spaces. How do we, how do we start to make that happen? So it was out of that own, my own experience that I started to look at this. I began to define and understand what body, soul and spirit is.
And we can talk more about that if we want to.
And how I define those understanding things that come out of my Christian background to concepts of what is love, what is grace, what is faith, what is hope?
How do those things come together to exude peace?
What is peace?
You know, spoiler alert. I define peace as more than just a lack of conflict, but is it a state of wholeness?
So when we, when we are in a state of balance of body, soul and spirit, these three pieces and parts that make up all of who we are, we exist in a state of peace.
And the restoration, piece of peace and restoration is the process of bringing all of those things together. So it's a restoration of the whole self so that the whole self can be restored to community and community can be restored to its function of investing in the whole self.
[00:12:06] Speaker A: So it's a community effort to bring others into community.
[00:12:10] Speaker B: Yeah. So it, then the community becomes self healing as, as it start as it is able to invest in wholeness.
Individuals invest in community.
Community invests in new individuals.
[00:12:25] Speaker A: So how did you go from this vision to where we are right now? How did that come about?
[00:12:30] Speaker B: Yeah, so there's been a several, several, I don't call them false starts, early pushes to do this. And it wasn't the right time for, for many reasons.
Looking back on it, the two biggest were I was trying to build a coalition and there was no coalescing.
[00:12:51] Speaker A: I mean, you can't coalition coalesce.
[00:12:55] Speaker B: I have a Lot of friends and a lot of great people and good connections, but there just wasn't. I had not fully developed and articulated the vision enough to. To share and to bring people along this path with me.
And the. And part of the reason for that was the second thing that I noticed is that I was unsettled.
While I was experiencing more authenticity, learning to live into my wholeness. As I went through seminary and traveled a bit afterward, there wasn't. I was building something more virtually and on a national stage, international in some cases, but there wasn't a grounded thought to the initiative.
[00:13:45] Speaker A: So this is the grounding.
[00:13:46] Speaker B: So when I decided three years ago that I was gonna make Indianapolis home, which wasn't an easy decision.
[00:13:55] Speaker A: No. I remember this is about when we started becoming friends. And I was supposed to woo you back to.
[00:14:01] Speaker B: Back to the East Coast. Yeah. Yeah. You know, and if anyone who knows me, the ocean, water in general is life to me. I love the mountains.
I love being up in the mountains. I love everything. One thing that I realized we were talking about this earlier today.
Those things are incredibly stimulating, and they're beautiful. For me to visit and have that sense of stimulation and presence with them, but to be in them constantly or near them constantly was almost overstimulating.
And there is just something incredibly regulating about driving through a Midwest cornfield.
It is monotonous. It is flat, but it is calming, and it's beautiful. And, I mean, amber waves of grain are just as much a part of America as the sea, the shining sea.
[00:15:02] Speaker A: I mean, I have been marveling all day about how beautiful and quaint and clean it is here.
[00:15:10] Speaker B: Indianapolis is a great city.
[00:15:12] Speaker A: It's a great city.
So you've made it home. Let's bring it back.
[00:15:15] Speaker B: Okay. Yeah. So I made that choice to make it home and already had some connections here, a good social network from being in seminary here, and was working in an interim job with a church that if I did my job well, I would work myself out of a job.
And as I was moving toward that point, I was starting to think, what's next? And I started taking inventory of where we were, where the need is culturally, politically, spiritually, for the queer community, for the faith communities in general.
I was looking at the connections that I had developed and realizing that there was the coalition. There was those pieces and parts were starting to come together almost effortlessly. Perhaps each one of them took their own effort, but it was one of those things. I didn't do it for the sake of this. I did it for the sake of doing the Work that I feel passionate about.
[00:16:18] Speaker A: And then one day you look around and all of.
[00:16:21] Speaker B: And all of the pieces and parts right here.
One of the things that I describe the coalition as is it's an entity that I'm building to house what I'm already doing, but building it with the flexity to become what the community needs.
[00:16:41] Speaker A: So let's talk a little bit about the community. Who do you see coming through the doors?
[00:16:47] Speaker B: Yeah. So we describe the coalition as being here for queer and queer adjacent people.
[00:16:53] Speaker A: Okay, let's talk a little bit more about that.
[00:16:55] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, and there's a higher level of that where it's anybody who's hurting.
[00:16:59] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:17:00] Speaker B: So I mean, it is not limited to that, but the focus. The focus is queer and queer adjacent.
[00:17:07] Speaker A: So who is queer adjacent?
Let's. Can you give us some examples? What would a queer.
[00:17:13] Speaker B: Glad you asked.
What does that look like? Yeah. If you're. You're saying, oh, gosh, I've never heard that word term before.
You're. You're probably right because I have coined it.
[00:17:23] Speaker A: You've coined the term. You've heard it here first.
[00:17:26] Speaker B: Use it five times in your conversations this week.
So what I describe as queer adjacent is anyone who is next to or comes up against or in contact with the queer community through the course of what they do.
So doctors treating queer patients, queer adjacent.
Parents who have kids come out queer adjacent, grandparents, aunts, uncles, pastors who are working in congregations with parents, aunts, uncles, and everything. So people can be 2, 3 steps removed from the queer community.
But we would consider them queer adjacent because they have the potential to influence.
[00:18:11] Speaker A: So that's a pretty.
[00:18:11] Speaker B: Make an impact.
[00:18:12] Speaker A: Big umbrella.
[00:18:13] Speaker B: It is a pretty big umbrella.
I distinguish it from allies for a couple of reasons.
Allies is an even bigger umbrella.
Allies is something that you can claim or not claim.
If you are queer adjacent, you are queer adjacent whether you're going to claim it or not.
[00:18:42] Speaker A: Okay, so it's not a choice.
[00:18:44] Speaker B: It is not a choice.
[00:18:46] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:18:46] Speaker B: If there are queer people in your circles and in your function, you are queer adjacent. Consequently, not everyone who is queer adjacent is an ally.
[00:18:58] Speaker A: All right, let's dig into that a little bit.
[00:18:59] Speaker B: Which is where our real work begins.
[00:19:02] Speaker A: Okay. All right, bring it.
[00:19:03] Speaker B: Because what we are then doing is creating a space where I, as a spiritual director and pastor and community advocate, can be in contact and connection with queer adjacent people who don't understand their role potentially as an ally or are not wanting to embrace that.
[00:19:26] Speaker A: Okay, so like a doctor in your example, a doctor that Is treating.
[00:19:30] Speaker B: Treating queer patients. They may not, but I'm binary patients.
But isn't on board.
[00:19:37] Speaker A: They might not even support.
[00:19:39] Speaker B: Right. So we can make room for those conversations or make room for my colleagues in the medical field who are on board to facilitate those conversations.
You know, we can create space for parents whose kids are coming out, coming around to sharing that identity with them, for a place to process and engage with that, whether they're ready to call themselves allies.
[00:20:06] Speaker A: So they're coming here for maybe resources for information, and they don't even know how they feel yet.
[00:20:12] Speaker B: Right. And so we're doing all of that while also curating a space that we can engage in spiritual growth and development and what we call. Then we'll get into this when we start talking about the center for Peace and Restoration, but creating spaces where we can engage in spiritual practices in ways that help us re. Engage from a trauma informed perspective.
So it really is an opportunity for everybody to see everybody in a shared community that is also tempered.
[00:20:56] Speaker A: Okay, so let's make this a little more tangible.
How do you see. Let's start with near term, the coming weeks, coming months.
What is an average day or week going to look like here?
[00:21:11] Speaker B: Yeah, let's go with week because.
Yeah, so there's three buckets, if you will, that when we talk about the Coalition for Peace and Restoration. I've defined we and we as a board. We do have a board of directors that we have met and they are holding me accountable to my work and what I do and how we use our funds, very limited funds that we have that's either shoot, contemplate, create, connect, and convene the four C's. Yeah, so contemplate. There's an element of what we do that's a think tank.
I mean, we're. So contemplation is more than just sitting there thinking, but it is. It's a. Thinking about the consequences, thinking about next steps, thinking about actions, thinking about how we as partners can come together and do each be better at what we do because we are together.
So it's creating intentional space for that contemplation to happen.
Creating. So we engage in podcasting. We have, you know, space for art and music and.
[00:22:34] Speaker A: So maybe an art class.
[00:22:36] Speaker B: Yeah, an art class. We're looking at building a demo studio that we can not maybe really produce a full album, but get some ideas out.
Recording studio. Yeah, okay. Yeah, Podcast, demo studio.
Connecting is educating, learning, growing together.
Um, and that's part of. Part of. That's developing the resources and writing those tools to do that and then convening is actually coming together in a physical space.
And this is something that shifted everything. Early iterations of this in my mind were mostly virtual.
This was mid pandemic era. Oh, everything was. Everything was virtual. And so we had a hard time thinking back to the real world. But I really want this to, to there to be a very present together in this space.
[00:23:32] Speaker A: So will it be open, like during the work week? Well, can people come in and like say it's somebody that wants to participate? Can they rent studio time or.
[00:23:43] Speaker B: Yeah. So you know, as far as the studio spaces and everything, we'll, we'll work into that. We'll probably have a membership type space.
[00:23:54] Speaker A: Okay. Membership model.
[00:23:55] Speaker B: Yeah. For, for that type of work.
The, the initial piece of that. So we have the creative piece, we have the education piece and then we have what I call the center for Peace and restoration.
Also CP&R.
[00:24:12] Speaker A: We don't have to change the letters.
[00:24:13] Speaker B: If you don't have to change the letters. Branding gets consistent. I changed the colors on the logos, if you're paying attention. But so the center for Peace and Restoration is really focused on what is happening here in this space.
This is where. So in my title here. So I'm the co creator for administration at the coalition at the center. I'm the co creator for spiritual development.
And the idea being there that someday maybe I separate those roles and I hire somebody else to be the co creator for spiritual development.
Or more to my liking, the co creator for administration because.
Yeah. So that we can grow and expand along those lines. But as the co creator for spiritual development, I'm offering spiritual direction.
So we describe the center for Peace and Restoration as a trauma informed safe space for queer and queer adjacent people to explore and or re. Engage in spiritual development. Okay.
[00:25:21] Speaker A: So this beautiful building that we described at the beginning, this beautiful space that we're in now, this is the center.
[00:25:27] Speaker B: This is where the center.
[00:25:28] Speaker A: This is where the work is going to happen. The coalition is kind of in the world. In the world. It's where the resources are coming from.
[00:25:36] Speaker B: Yeah. And we, we will be able to do things here as far as training and creating and engaging in those, those spaces. But, but a lot of the coalition pieces will be out there in coffee shops and conferences.
[00:25:51] Speaker A: Okay. But when you come to the center, that's where we might find the art class or we might find the studio and.
[00:25:57] Speaker B: Yeah, okay. Yeah.
[00:25:58] Speaker A: The events.
[00:25:59] Speaker B: Yeah. And so one of our.
It's like I say, doing spiritual direction. And so the model that we're really working with is these are our queer and queer adjacent friends are people who are trying to re. Engage in a spiritual life.
So what I've experienced so often is people in the queer community who have been pushed out of their faith communities.
Do you know anything about that?
[00:26:31] Speaker A: I've, you know, I know a little something about what that might look like.
[00:26:36] Speaker B: But might look like C also says Cynthia's book, if you haven't. Haven't read that. But yeah. And so, but acknowledging and feeling this, this emptiness because we are spiritual people, that is in body, soul and spirit. That is part of who we are. And so we have been forced to reinvent or neglect is what usually happens.
That piece of who we are. And so that wholeness.
There is no restoration.
There is no peace and restoration through that journey. And so how do we do that in a way that is aware of and sensitive to all of the hurt and trauma that has been done by faith communities in our lives.
[00:27:19] Speaker A: Come in here that's had a horrible church hurt, has had a horrible experience.
They feel detached from their community.
They can come here and find that community again.
[00:27:30] Speaker B: They could come here and find it. And through our one on one spiritual direction, part of the coalition that we're building, it's with some therapists in the community that are trauma trained.
And so to take it a step beyond what I would do in spiritual direction as far as trauma healing.
So we re engage, we understand where the hurt is.
And so as we come back together.
And so one of our plans is to start hopefully as soon as next month, September 25th, in case you're listening to this much later, a monthly citywide worship service.
And it's basically what I call practice church.
So it's a place that we can come together, go through the elements of worship, go through the elements that somebody might experience should they choose to go into even a fully open and affirming church.
Because you could walk into a church that is thrilled to have you there, will recruit you, ordain you, marry you, all of the above. And you hear a hymn and it still sends you over the edge. Right. Understand, right back where you, right back where you start. Somebody says, come have communion with us. And they have this bread and wine and you're like, screw that.
Right? So why, you know, what is that activation in your head and how is that engaging and why. And it's a, it is a legitimate barrier to community.
[00:29:05] Speaker A: Well, I think it's what we talk about sometimes in psychology and in therapy spaces is your body, your physical body can hold that trauma.
[00:29:15] Speaker B: Absolutely.
So you walk into that church service, right?
[00:29:20] Speaker A: You walk into that church service, you thought in your head that everything's fine, but then you feel an activation. Maybe your heart starts to pound, maybe you feel not so well in your stomach.
[00:29:30] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So what we want to create is a place where you can experience that, you can experience that activation in a spot where, you know, you could make eye contact with me or anyone else in the room.
[00:29:46] Speaker A: So staff will be standing by.
[00:29:49] Speaker B: Not just staff, but the person sitting next to you.
Because it's a community, understands it.
[00:29:55] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:29:56] Speaker B: And so there are literally in this space, rooms that you could go into that are isolated and you could scream at God.
[00:30:05] Speaker A: We talked about the possibility of a rage room even wouldn't quite go that far.
[00:30:10] Speaker B: But it's a, it's a, it's a space that you could actually just be angry, verbally angry.
[00:30:16] Speaker A: No smashing.
[00:30:17] Speaker B: Please don't smash our windows. We just put them in.
But yeah, I mean, you know, and if that's what you need, we'll find one. You know, they're here in town in.
[00:30:28] Speaker A: The coalition of the larger community.
[00:30:31] Speaker B: Yeah. That's what the coalition needs, a rage room.
So, yeah, so it is just a place where you can, you can do that. And, and there's two outcomes to this. This. We could become the spiritual community that people share and, and this is fulfilling for them and that's what they need.
[00:30:49] Speaker A: They don't happen. They don't go on to a church. They just, they just feel good here.
[00:30:53] Speaker B: Yeah. Or we become a bridge and you're fine either way. A bigger faith community and we're fine either way. And hopefully if they've, they bridge into the bigger, a more traditional institute, Sunday type institution, they still are engaged with us and helping others.
[00:31:09] Speaker A: Right.
[00:31:10] Speaker B: On that journey.
I'm amazed at how often I meet with pastors in the community that are just like, can I come? Oh, can I just. Pastors need to hear too, because pastors need pastors.
[00:31:24] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:31:25] Speaker B: And we are in a era where pastors are feeling the trauma.
[00:31:29] Speaker A: I've known pastors that are virtually friendless because they've got to put their own emotions on a shelf and tend to the needs of others.
[00:31:38] Speaker B: Yeah. So, I mean, there's, there's that element to it, but they are literally being traumatized by the culture that we're in.
And so there is a need for us as a community to create trauma sensitive spaces for our past to engage.
So as a spiritual director, I already am doing that through my work with leader Wise, who is one of those partners that had just emerged.
So Leader Wise is a group out of Minnesota that I do spiritual direction with. I also do some education, so they're part of that education bucket as well. We're doing trauma informed ministry workshops.
We have a program called not yout Average Boundaries Training.
And so do that a lot with different denominations and church groups and such. But the.
Yeah. So it's. It's.
This is one of those moments where I'm saying I'm building it for what I'm doing, but building it flexible enough to become what the community needs. Right.
[00:32:47] Speaker A: That makes a lot of sense.
What do you think is something, maybe the biggest thing that the average person, maybe even somebody listening right now, doesn't understand about the need for a space like this?
[00:33:05] Speaker B: I think.
I think most people assume that if somebody's got going to church, it's because they've chosen to not like church or they've rejected God or.
And my experience of that is quite different.
[00:33:26] Speaker A: So there's people that are hungry for what church has to offer, but there's.
[00:33:31] Speaker B: Barriers for what church should be offering.
[00:33:33] Speaker A: What church should be offering.
[00:33:35] Speaker B: Yes, but there are barriers to that. And there is a.
Yeah, like I say, a desire to continue to grow as a spiritual being.
Another outcome of being in this process with us is that they. They might find some spiritual paths that aren't even Christian.
We're not evangelists here. We're not. You.
[00:34:02] Speaker A: You allow people the freedom to go on their own journey.
[00:34:04] Speaker B: Yeah.
As long as they're on a path.
As long as they are on a path that is nurturing this spirit part of who we are.
[00:34:14] Speaker A: So, again, spirit is also. When we use this word in this context, this is also a large umbrella.
[00:34:20] Speaker B: It is. Yeah.
Yeah.
Let's take a. Let's take a breath.
[00:34:29] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:34:30] Speaker B: And we'll come back and talk about body, soul and spirit.
[00:34:33] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:34:34] Speaker B: What we mean by that.
[00:34:35] Speaker A: Okay.
All right, we're back. And we have just hit upon one of the very foundational topics and one of the very.
Just the core of why you, Laura Beth, are in this work and what resonates with you the most.
We got there when we started talking about spirit and what that means and why that's important and where some of the disconnect can come in. So can you speak to that a little bit?
[00:35:54] Speaker B: Sure. So part of this whole journey over the last 10, 15 years for me is in the pursuit of wholeness. Wholeness feels overwhelming.
[00:36:05] Speaker A: For sure.
[00:36:06] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:36:07] Speaker A: How do you.
[00:36:07] Speaker B: How do you know when you're how do you know when you're there? How do you know where to start?
And so I, in the process of those years, I've developed what I call a poetic theology.
And so this is a way of understanding ourselves in the context of, of the universe that I am not putting a capital T truth on. This isn't this. I'm not saying this is. This is the way it is. And someday we're all going to die and it's going to be revealed and everyone's going to say, oh, Laura Beth was right all along, this is a.
[00:36:41] Speaker A: Capital T. Truth is what some people are running from.
[00:36:45] Speaker B: Exactly. Right, yeah. And so I'm not. This isn't a prescription. You don't have to buy into this or believe this in order to be part of the coalition.
You know, one of my new doctor friends identifies as agnostic and has, but can be part, I mean, understands where this fits. And so I really just started to break down myself in terms of what my trauma healing, my spiritual growth, deconstruction, all of those things.
And a lot of this also came about through my study of the yoga sutras and understanding what we call the five clashes and the obstacles to faith and growth and personal development.
So anyway, I begin to see this notion that we on some level are eternal.
And by that I mean we exist in a space beyond what we can see, smell, taste, touch.
Here it's out there. Further beyond that, those senses and expressions, we are also temporal.
So we are all of those things.
And so I named those body and soul.
Body being the physical, body being the physical, temporal self, and the soul being the intangible. And the soul being. Yeah, the tangible, the eternal, the.
So now if with this physical, metaphysical.
[00:38:38] Speaker A: Right. Physical, metaphysical. So from this perspective, spiritual health is for everyone.
[00:38:44] Speaker B: Spiritual health is for everyone.
[00:38:46] Speaker A: Even your friend who's agnostic, spiritual, she can still be spiritually healthy and not buy into an ideology.
[00:38:52] Speaker B: An ideology or doctrine or creed or whatever. Yeah. So we exist in those two spaces.
And as I started to really make sense of the Christian message that I was trying to, to still hold on to pieces and parts because it is beautiful to me, but I think so much of it has been twisted and turned and distorted.
There is through that storyline, through that narrative, a restoration of body to soul.
And that restoration is the function of spirit.
[00:39:37] Speaker A: So we can't be whole until the spirit is addressed.
[00:39:41] Speaker B: So an unhealthy spirit creates a division, amplifies the division between body and soul. Spirit serves as the bridge between the temporal and the eternal.
Again, not Literally necessarily believing this is true. In my life, I have seen it play out and I've seen and come to understand why this is a helpful metaphor or imagery for me to work with personally as I grow through challenges and things.
And so I'm willing to share it and let it be that for others.
But if you have a better metaphor for that, then I mean, yeah, just in general, if anyone has a better metaphor or their own metaphor, then that's welcome at the table as well. But it's just this. Yeah, it's just this understanding that, you know, there is more to us than meets the eye and there is a path, there is a way for us to engage that whole self.
And so any one of the suffering of any one of those three pieces, body, soul and spirit, I see a direct tie to what Christianity calls the Trinity, soul, creator.
So the arts in me, the, the musician, the artist nurturing, that piece of the coalition is a very soul oriented. I don't know where inspiration for art comes from.
It comes out of some sort of metaphysical, metaphysical space that we engage with there.
The doctors and taking care of this body, nutritionists, all sorts of people that I have worked with to try and make sense of what's going on here and continue to do make sense. Even therapy.
And this is a kind of a gray area for some people in therapy. Some therapists identify more with the spiritual and the metaphysical.
A lot of therapy is a healing of the mind and the healing of the mind is because of what happens to us in a temporal space.
So I put a lot of therapy and trauma work in that body.
[00:42:13] Speaker A: Right. We're back full circle to the body keeps the score.
[00:42:17] Speaker B: Thank you. You bessel y the.
Yeah, so.
But we don't heal the body without engaging the spirit and nurturing the soul and expect wholeness.
We don't neglect the spirit while investing in the body.
We don't do our arts and our creative work and be over here without taking care of this body that moves us through the world.
So the restoration of all of that is where I have personally started to find more peace in my life.
[00:43:06] Speaker A: And that's the idea, the model that someone can come in and, and have access to better health in all of those, as you say, buckets.
[00:43:17] Speaker B: Yeah, no, we don't have doctors here on staff.
We don't plan on having doctors on staff. We might someday have therapists on staff.
We have them that we're partnered with.
Right.
[00:43:28] Speaker A: So someone that had a physical need, the idea might be, hey, I can.
[00:43:32] Speaker B: Connect you to a good Doctor, we can. Yeah. We're not a social services organization.
We're not here to help people find housing, though a lot of people need to find housing, and that's a huge problem in our world. You know, we know our lane.
[00:43:46] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:43:48] Speaker B: We're gonna stay in it. But we're also partnered with people who have those resources.
[00:43:55] Speaker A: Who have resources. Right.
[00:43:56] Speaker B: And connect that. We're not here to provide all the answers.
In fact, I don't even necessarily put answers as the highest goal of what we do.
[00:44:07] Speaker A: No, I don't think answers.
I don't think they are what we want them to be.
[00:44:12] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:44:13] Speaker A: And I don't mean that the answers are bad. I mean that when we get what is supposedly an answer, it often leads to just more questions.
[00:44:22] Speaker B: Yeah, I think often if we're being honest and healthy about it. Yeah.
[00:44:26] Speaker A: Right. An honest, true, authentic. Authentic answer is probably going to invite more questions.
[00:44:33] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:44:34] Speaker A: So I can. I can meet you in that space. Perfectly.
So let me ask you, you say in the future, perhaps there'll be therapists on staff. Perhaps.
Let's. Let's project ahead. What is your big dream like? Let's say five, ten years.
[00:44:49] Speaker B: Yeah.
You know, I don't know how long this body is going to keep.
It better go another five or ten years.
The.
But yeah.
[00:45:03] Speaker A: To.
[00:45:04] Speaker B: So we. Right now we are in an office.
We have this wonderful space that we. Bloom is our.
Our partner in this space. They own the building.
They run the Recovery Cafe, which is downstairs. We're on the second floor, which has our office and a few other offices available.
There's a third floor that is, as of yet, unspoken for.
Part of my vision is to have a whole space like the third floor up here that we could move into, have set up as a music venue, community gathering, worship space, have offices dedicated to therapy, spiritual direction set up for that.
They have a training space, have a studio space, you know, and the. Yeah. Have therapists on staff.
I would love to see the center replicated in other cities.
Ah.
So the center for Peace and Restoration can be something that is. Is built into other places. We're nowhere near a model curriculum or something that can be a base. A base baseline. Yeah.
It might need to be something a little bit different in a different city.
[00:46:37] Speaker A: Sure.
[00:46:38] Speaker B: You know, so.
[00:46:39] Speaker A: Because the needs are going to be different.
[00:46:40] Speaker B: Yeah. So whether that's here, I've had, you know, some of my early visions of this were taking over an old house somewhere, you know, and using a space, you know, for that, that type of place.
The third floor of this building.
I can't. I could not build a better space.
[00:47:05] Speaker A: Well. And I mean we're already soft launching the.
The venue. The performance venue.
[00:47:11] Speaker B: We are.
[00:47:11] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:47:12] Speaker B: Yeah. This will already have happened by the time. So sorry for your luck. But we are doing our inaugural event on the third floor. Right.
[00:47:22] Speaker A: Which is why we're. We're here right now.
[00:47:23] Speaker B: We're here right now. That's why you flew to Indianapolis. Yeah. Flammy Grant's coming. If you've.
Yeah. If you've been following our last episode.
[00:47:32] Speaker A: Friend of the Past.
[00:47:35] Speaker B: Yeah. With flaming.
So she will be here tomorrow to help us open. Yeah.
So.
And I gotta tell you, I. When we first were talking about this show, I pictured it on the first floor.
[00:47:51] Speaker A: Ah.
[00:47:52] Speaker B: And in that space. And they. It's not ready.
Like where's there's still dust, there's still construction dust and construction workers in and.
[00:48:00] Speaker A: Out the of we're building the plane as it's flying.
[00:48:02] Speaker B: We really are. And the.
And yeah.
The folks at we bloom came back and said, well how about. How about we do this on the third floor?
And I was like, okay.
And then I got up there setting up.
[00:48:19] Speaker A: It's gorgeous.
[00:48:20] Speaker B: And I was like, I. I really love it up here.
[00:48:23] Speaker A: Yeah. That might be plan A. Yeah.
[00:48:27] Speaker B: And so.
Yeah. And it really is just an issue of what the community. How the community grows, where our funding grows, how that. That comes in.
And I'm really in a beautiful space right now. For me, our first funding goal is my salary.
I don't eat a lot, but I do eat a little.
[00:48:51] Speaker A: No, I don't think you've eaten anything today. Can I just put that out there?
I have not watched you. And it is.
It is 403. And I don't believe you have put anything in your. Your mouth today.
[00:49:02] Speaker B: Does lemongrass mint latte count?
[00:49:07] Speaker A: No, it's not solid.
[00:49:08] Speaker B: Okay, then. No.
[00:49:10] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:49:10] Speaker B: Yeah.
Which is another whole episode about my relationship with food. But what. But yeah, I mean we're, we're. Yeah. I mean I need a salary to. To do what I do.
And then we need to cover rent and event expenses and everything. But if, if the funding were here, we would rent out the tops.
[00:49:34] Speaker A: Sure.
[00:49:35] Speaker B: Floor.
You know, come have some therapists come in and you know, work out some sliding scales for them to do some work, whether they're here on a full time basis or a couple days a week or whatever might work for them in that space. So yeah, it's an incredibly flexible vision.
[00:49:58] Speaker A: So if there was, I don't know, Somebody out listening that said, hey, I'd love to be a part of this in some way. Is there a way they could be part of this?
[00:50:07] Speaker B: Yeah. Your financial support is really where we need to start.
That's a hard ask for me.
[00:50:15] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:50:16] Speaker B: I am not a fundraiser, but I am passionate about this, so I'm learning to be a fundraiser.
And there's.
[00:50:23] Speaker A: There are people, I'm sure there are people that think, wow, I see the need for this.
I. I respect how it's being done properly, transparently. And, hey, I'd like to be a part of it. And it's an invitation.
[00:50:37] Speaker B: I hope so. Yeah. And we're starting to have conversations with some of those people, and it really is a challenge at this stage of growth.
People like to invest in things that are happening. Sure.
And you need investment to make things happen.
I think part of the difference now between for now and other early pushes is that I have been the last three years actively engaged in spiritual direction. And, you know, I am part of this community. And we are able to, you know, do some work with the Recovery Cafe. There are things in motion, and so we have some momentum that we're building on.
So, yeah, the financial support.
Things in motion. If you're local to Indianapolis, we just want you to be part of the community. Yeah. We're going to be doing these monthly gatherings and we want musicians, we want poets and readers, and that's going to.
[00:51:45] Speaker A: Be the thing that's going to be sad for me is that I. I'm not going to be able to come through the doors very often.
[00:51:51] Speaker B: No. But we're going to get your frequent flyer miles up.
I need to figure out a way for this to be on the way to New Orleans.
[00:52:01] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:52:02] Speaker B: If Indianapolis was on the way to New Orleans, I would see you a lot more often.
[00:52:06] Speaker A: Truth?
Truth. I feel called out, too.
Laura Beth's like, yeah, I'm going to expect you at these monthly gatherings.
[00:52:17] Speaker B: Right.
Every time you go to New Orleans, I'm going to be like, yeah, no, that is absolutely not true. I love that you have Nola, but, yeah, come, you know, come join us for that and just follow us. I mean, follow us on Instagram.
[00:52:38] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:52:38] Speaker B: Peace and restoration.
[00:52:40] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:52:41] Speaker B: Is who we are there.
Follow us on Facebook as CP&R.
[00:52:50] Speaker A: And we'll have links in the show notes.
[00:52:52] Speaker B: We'll have links in the show notes to all those places. We have a website.
It's not pretty.
[00:52:58] Speaker A: I don't know if our listeners can hear this, but there's something exciting happening in this building.
[00:53:03] Speaker B: So it's about 4 o'. Clock.
[00:53:05] Speaker A: It's a little after 4.
[00:53:06] Speaker B: Okay. Yeah. So literally what is happening is the Recovery Cafe downstairs is having their moment of celebrating each other.
[00:53:12] Speaker A: Okay. Yeah. And we heard that. Celebration.
[00:53:14] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. So this, they have a moment of silence from like 4 to 4:05 and then they come back together and.
Yeah, they goop and holler and live it up.
[00:53:26] Speaker A: Yeah. That's what you may have just heard.
[00:53:28] Speaker B: Yeah. So probably. I don't. Probably not, but that's okay.
[00:53:32] Speaker A: Yeah, it was just cheering. Just.
[00:53:34] Speaker B: It was some cheering. I can add some cheering. And just for fun. Yeah.
[00:53:39] Speaker A: So I think we've come to the part of our discussion where I ask you what should I have asked you that? I did not.
[00:53:49] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. I mean, we talked about what our needs are. We talked about, you know, one of the things that I hope to be able to create space for is, Is more of my writing.
You know, I think you asked about the five and ten year plan. We talked earlier. And my, you know, my dream is to pass this off to new leadership and new folks. I'm not putting a timeline or anything on that.
[00:54:22] Speaker A: Working yourself out of a job again?
[00:54:25] Speaker B: Well, not working myself out of a job, but like I say, I don't have to be. I don't have to wear all the hats.
[00:54:30] Speaker A: Right? Yeah. It's too many hats.
[00:54:32] Speaker B: It's too many hats.
[00:54:33] Speaker A: Not a great look.
[00:54:34] Speaker B: Yeah. So I would much rather be in a position of, you know, director emeritus or something, you know, where I'm speaking to the vision. I'm helping coordinate all of the pieces and parts. But it's something that I could do floating around the great loop, working on my writing, you know, as I'm. As I'm in those spaces, the.
Yeah. So there's. I mean, there is a.
A hope and a prayer that this is moving sooner rather than later to be bigger than me. Yeah.
[00:55:20] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, that's.
That is a lofty goal, but an important one. And I'm for one, looking forward to watching this develop and grow.
[00:55:32] Speaker B: Yeah. Will you get a front row seat? Yeah.
[00:55:36] Speaker A: Literally.
[00:55:37] Speaker B: Yeah. You are about as adjacent as they come.
[00:55:41] Speaker A: I am queer adjacent.
[00:55:45] Speaker B: Yeah. I was talking with somebody the other day and they're like, well, how. You know, who's queer adjacent? Like you like it or not.
There you go.
[00:55:57] Speaker A: And. And those listening, some of you are likely queer adjacent.
[00:56:01] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:56:02] Speaker A: Yeah. So this is for you too.
[00:56:04] Speaker B: Yeah. And. And you might not even know it. No more people are queer adjacent than they are aware. So. Yeah.
Yeah. I just I think there is.
You know, this is a passion project, but it is. Is so much deeper than that. Just a quick story.
I was. We had our first board meeting, and first board meetings are hard because there's a lot of tedious stuff that has to be approved and sent in for incorporation stuff and everything. And so it's. It's tricky. So it was a very. I had it laid out pretty solidly, and we need to make this motion. And here's why. This motion, and here's why. And one of the things that we needed to do as a board was hire me.
[00:56:52] Speaker A: Oh, awkward.
[00:56:53] Speaker B: Yeah. And so, you know, here is the job descriptions. You all need to approve the job descriptions.
Here is an offer letter. You all need to approve the offer letter. Here is the salary that I'm hoping for to start with, which is incredibly modest by all standards.
[00:57:13] Speaker A: And not happening yet.
[00:57:15] Speaker B: And not happening yet. Yeah.
And here's the salary we hope to go to, which is based on some local economic benchmarks and everything.
And so I had all of these motions lined up, and I thought this. Then I'm going to step out and let you all talk about it, vote on it, and call me back in.
And so I have them all lined up. These are all yay or nay votes.
And I'm thinking this will take five minutes to go through these three or four or five motions.
Fifteen minutes later, I'm still sitting outside the room, and they come back out. I'm like, finally. And they're like, we have questions.
[00:57:59] Speaker A: Oh, no.
[00:58:01] Speaker B: And so they bring me back in, and they had questions about benefits and what are we prom. What are we committing to? And why this timeline? And how do we know when this timeline changes? And what's. Yeah, some. Some great questions. And they're like, okay, go back out.
So I was back out for another 10 minutes.
And the second time I was back at the first time, I was like, okay, this is. Did I get the wrong board? Did I. I recruited every one of these people, so if this goes bad, it's all on me. Back to awkward, right? The second time I went out, I was just like, I did recruit the right people, because they didn't just take what I handed them and say, they're not yes men. No, they're taking this. They're thinking about it. They're taking this seriously.
And as soon as I saw that, I had a board of directors who was taking.
Taking this seriously, taking it, I saw the potential for it to grow bigger than me.
This was no longer just my vision that I was sucking people into.
[00:59:09] Speaker A: No, you released it.
[00:59:11] Speaker B: This was something that could. Could truly, truly become something.
[00:59:15] Speaker A: You took this thing that you have nurtured for so long and you released it to the community, and now it belongs to the community.
[00:59:22] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. And the community so far in the form of that board. Our next step is.
So the board is for the Coalition for Peace and Restoration.
We will form an advisory council who is. Will have eventually be able to. To have a seat on the board. So the center for Peace and Restoration will be run by an advisory council who will have a seat on the board of the coalition.
And so.
Yeah. So if you're interested in leadership in that space.
Yeah. Come join us and we'll see.
We will find a place to celebrate who you are.
[01:00:07] Speaker A: Lots of opportunities.
[01:00:08] Speaker B: Yep.
Yep.
[01:00:11] Speaker A: All right. Well, I hope everyone has enjoyed being somewhere with us today.
[01:00:16] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah.
This has been fantastic.
[01:00:19] Speaker A: It's been beyond amazing.
[01:00:21] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:00:22] Speaker A: And I want for everybody to come and see this.
[01:00:24] Speaker B: I. I do, too. I mean, in it.
[01:00:26] Speaker A: If I take some video, can we put it linked in the show notes.
[01:00:30] Speaker B: And we probably can.
[01:00:31] Speaker A: Okay.
[01:00:31] Speaker B: All right. Yeah.
[01:00:32] Speaker A: All right.
There we go.
[01:00:35] Speaker B: We will do that. We'll have some videos coming out from the Flaming Grant concert. We're going to do an interview with her tomorrow with some surprises in there.
It's going to take us. We're going to actually produce those. A little bit more polished than we do. A lot of what we get out.
[01:00:48] Speaker A: But keep an eye on Instagram, Facebook.
[01:00:50] Speaker B: Whatever it is you follow. Keep an eye on the socials, both for the network and the podcast or for the coalition and the podcast. Yeah, yeah. And we'll move into this moving forward.
[01:01:06] Speaker A: All right.
[01:01:07] Speaker B: Oh, one thing I was gonna say.
I was about to say give us some time because it's not really built yet, but if you're ready, reach out to us. We'll arrange a tour and you can just be able to say, oh, I saw it was it, and it was a hot mess.
[01:01:23] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. And it's not a hot mess mess. I mean, this is hyperbole.
[01:01:29] Speaker B: It's not all that I want it to be yet. No.
[01:01:32] Speaker A: It's in many ways a really nice first layer on a canvas.
[01:01:37] Speaker B: Okay.
[01:01:37] Speaker A: For artists.
[01:01:38] Speaker B: I will receive that.
[01:01:39] Speaker A: Yeah. For artists, like, if you can visualize this, a picture is built up in layers. And this is a very gorgeous first layer.
[01:01:48] Speaker B: Yeah. We are working on donated furniture that we may fit for what we need right now.
[01:01:54] Speaker A: But it looks like it belongs.
[01:01:56] Speaker B: But yeah, there's. I want to build this space out to be.
Yeah, all the things.
All right.
[01:02:03] Speaker A: All right.
[01:02:05] Speaker B: Well, we will see you again soon.
[01:02:08] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, we don't have time in. In nowhere, so, you know. What is time?
[01:02:13] Speaker B: What is time?
[01:02:14] Speaker A: We'll see you when we see you, friends.
[01:02:15] Speaker B: Yeah. It's soul world.
[01:02:18] Speaker A: Yes. Yes, it is.
[01:02:19] Speaker B: Space for the soul.
[01:02:20] Speaker A: Space for the soul. Soul. And we will see you next time. We can be.
[01:02:47] Speaker B: Sam.
