Clarence White is retiring this year after enjoying a rich career, a career that others predicted he could never have. Clarence also has a devoted wife and family, a family that others also predicted he could never have. Clarence has Cerebral Palsy, and the “others” who doubted his potential were proven wrong. He had possibilities they couldn’t see. In this piece he talks about embracing those possibilities even as new challenges present themselves. Clarence inspires us to focus on our dreams and goals and trust in our own subjective aims.

It all began with a walk. In this piece Kat Reeves describes the moment a shift in awareness occurred, and she began to feel part of the process-relational world rather than just reading about it as a philosophy. That moment is still affecting her possibilities many years later as she helps launch a new cohort at the Cobb Institute—Process Mindfulness. Could you be affected too? We invite you to find out.

In this piece we observe a conversation between a Pagan and a Christian about the meaning of their respective spring holidays and the theological significance for them. They are both influenced by process and relational thinking, and that approach has allowed their friendship to flourish in wonder and exploration. There are many lessons to be learned here but, most importantly, that a process-relational approach to friendship has many layers.

One way to reflect about a person’s contribution is to imagine what the world would be like now if she or he had not been part of it. In this post, John Cobb uses that method with David Griffin. He frames his reflections around two speculations: one, there would now be no substantial movement seeking truth about what happened on September 11, 2001; two, there would be only fragmentary and scattered interest in Whitehead and the implications of his thought outside the church.

Scout Reina Wiley was always destined to be the Freak Priest. As above, so below. she does not ask whether or not all things are related—she only asks how. And if all things are related, of which she is arrogantly convinced, it matters not that God is dead. It matters not that lives appear to unfold in linear fashion towards a seemingly endless void. It matters not that death is, because there are no endings in this world—only changes.

In this piece we observe a conversation between a Pagan and a Christian about the meaning of their respective December holidays and the theological significance for them. They are both influenced by process and relational thinking, and that approach has allowed their friendship to flourish in wonder and exploration. They are two very different people, but their friendship is warm and full of discovery. There are many lessons to be learned here but, most importantly, that a process-relational approach to friendship has many layers.

We have, over the years, segregated sound into different buckets — Carnatic, Hindustani, Jazz, Folk, Western, etc. When pure sound is perceived only via such fragmentary walls of genres and strict disciplines, we lose touch with the fundamental experiential aspect of our own inner Naada (sound) and what remains is mere technique that doesn’t touch our souls. Srividhya Balaji weaves the sounds together infused in spirituality without boundaries. She moves beyond the confines of traditions and norms of classical forms of music into an adventure that asks us to embrace the novelty that she is creating and walk on uncharted territory, where neither the path nor the destination is clear.

Tennessee to Alaska seems like a long way. Parts of Alaska are still wild and untamed. This retired Presbyterian minister moved to be near his Grandchildren. He became a photographer and poet in order to spotlight God, the poet of the world. Process theology gave him a language from which to communicate with in those moments of pure awe and wonder. Join us as the Rev. Dr Dwayne Cole takes us on an adventure to beautiful and wild Alaska.

Drawing is seeing. Seeing is understanding. Understanding is the beginning of wisdom. This is Steve Thomason’s approach to life. In each interaction between art and viewer something new happens that is unique to that moment. Hans Georg Gadamer calls it the fusion of horizons where the interaction creates something new that expands the viewer into a new way of being in the world. We invite you to enjoy Thamason’s own fusion of horizons.

Comedian turned poet John Roedel takes on his journey of “becoming” with a surprising number of vocations. Roedel has been changed along the way. He is going with the flow because as Heraclitus said, “No man ever steps in the same river twice. For it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.”

Uvalde. Buffalo. Tulsa. Sacramento. Indianapolis. Boulder. Charleston. Orlando. Aurora. Columbine. These are just a select few of an ever-increasing list of places we have come to associate with mass shootings in the United States. Each time, we ask ourselves, “Why?” In this post, Sheri Kling considers the question through a process-relational lens to understand how the illusion of separateness and mistake of a mechanical world contribute to the problem.

To understand the truth about reality is a common human impulse. And one of the many ways to satisfy that desire is the creation of and reflection on religious symbols. The most powerful sacred symbols have the capacity to illuminate not only the meaning of our lives but also the nature of our world. This piece considers one such symbol, and the beautifully tragic truth that it evokes.

In this wonder-provoking piece filled with fascinating photos, Dave Huth invites us to see with fresh eyes, learn from, and feel into the lived experience of creatures. His view is that developing deep empathy, care, and love for the non-human world is “one of the very important things that might save us.”

We all have memories and places that inspired wonder and adventure in our childhood. As time passes we grow and change and so do the places of our younger years. As the world around us becomes more developed, some of the wild places from our formative years get paved over. This is a story about one of those places, and why we should grieve such losses.

There is always a way to find hope as long as we believe in something. If we don’t have hope, we have limited our possibilities. In the new year, we have 365 possibilities at the very least.

On Christmas, we recall that certain places more fully reveal divinity, enlivening and enlightening. The true light shines in a child’s birth, and from that shining the universe is illuminated. From this moment on, nothing is ever the same.

What did I receive from others today? What did I give to others today? What difficulties did I cause others today? The practice of Naikan reflection invites us to carefully consider these three questions.

If you wish to cleanse the world, cleanse yourself first. If you wish to cleanse the world by fire, then know that this fire can, must, and will work in and through you as well.

What does it mean to be a process farmer? According to the Reverend Farmer Stephen Yorba, it’s about understanding our place in an ecosystem. It’s about remembering our relationship to the earth. It’s about being brought into right alignment with our food. It’s about slowing down, paying attention, and understanding how we’re all interconnected.

The Cobb Institute promotes a process-relational way of understanding and living in the world. One area in which the Institute’s openness and relationality is most evident is in its support of and work with the many streams of religious faith. This essay is but one example of our engagement with the world’s many traditions.

We often talk about putting process in praxis, and try to explain what that would look like. Can process philosophy be a practice? How do you practice process? Increasingly I have come to understand process not so much as things to do, but, rather, as an awareness. Process philosophy is not just a field of study or a theological approach. It is about seeing the world in a process way.

Love! How to know what it is? What kind of LOVE do we speak of when we use the word LOVE? Is it a feeling, a presence, a noun, a verb? Can it be drawn out from its dark cave of unknowability by the deliberate poverty of the pure soul, and romanced into the bright glare of noon, for all to see?

The practice of a process philosophy in daily life has been the topic of many discussions within the Cobb Institute. What better way to focus on putting process in praxis than to explore it through a blog? We hope to include many voices on this topic over time.