Okay you’re going to love our next Candlelight Chat guest.
If you aren’t already familiar with the wise and hilarious Kate Bowler, I’m going to let her introduce herself to you in her own words:
“Writer. Professor. Small talk survivor.
I am a Duke professor, podcaster, and author with a single mission: giving you permission to feel human. (And letting you have whatever weird or boring hobbies you can’t explain to strangers. Do I love roadside attractions and exotic potato chip flavors? Yes. More than I should say.)
I believe that the world would be a gentler place if we took apart the well-meaning clichés we use when life is hard. (What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger? Maybe what doesn’t kill you might try again tomorrow. 🙂 )
I am determined to create a gentler world for everyone who wants to admit that they are not always “living their best life.” After years of being told I was incurable, I was declared cancer-free. But there’s no going back. I am forever changed by what I discovered: life is so beautiful and life is so hard. For everyone. And while we can’t always be happy, we can be joyful, anyway.”
We’ll be discussing Kate’s life and times and new book, Joyful, Anyway, including:
*Kate’s experience with cancer
*How to feel joy even when life isn’t going well
*The self-help and wellness industry
*Resentment, sadness and barriers to joy
and much more.
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If these topics (and Kate’s unique way of being in the world) resonate, this Sunday’s Candlelight Chat is for you. Please join us on Zoom, from 1-2 pm ET. We’ll send log-in instructions this Saturday. To participate, you must be a paid or scholarship member of The Quiet Life. Members can participate either live, or by watching the video replay, which we’ll send the following week.
As usual, we’ll also invite you to ask your questions of Kate. You’ll be able to talk to her either via the written chat, or by “raising your hand” and coming online to chat with her.
I really hope you join us!
I want to check out Kate's work and her perspectives are so refreshing. Feelings of longing, melancholy and wistfulness are among the most joyful emotions I have ever felt and it's so hard to explain why, even to myself. I stated in the comments of the candlelight chat that I visited an Amtrak station in San Antonio that is no longer in use that I recognized from the 1972 movie "The Getaway." In the movie, it was such a vibrant place and now, it is deserted. I had the thought as I was walking away that I had been waiting on a train that would never arrive. My eyes welled up after thinking that with me asking myself "Who thinks this way?" The moment was melancholy, but it brought me joy as I wandered off to other places to explore.
Oh yay!! The great Kate 🎉