Brandon Andress's Blog, page 4

Deep Calls to Deep: An Awakening

“I heard what sounded like a choir. Everything around me was singing. The sun. The waves. The trees. Even that little bird that shared its song with me earlier. They were all joining together in one song, Odigo. And I could see the gentle and loving invitation of the waves continually beckoning the rocks to join the song, as they are. That is when it hit me. The invitation is not only for the rocks. The invitation is for everything and everyone. And these waves are all around us. They surround u...

Deep Calls to Deep: A Mom’s Wish, Let Me Die Alone

I spoke with one of my best friends by phone the other day. She was seeking advice from my wife and me about a difficult situation in which she finds herself with her mom, who is older and essentially wheel-chair bound.

Her mom owns a house but is unable to live independently and care for herself. Seriously concerned about her mom’s well-being, my friend welcomed her into her own home and began caring for her.

Unfortunately, this is not what her mom wanted. She insisted upon returning to h...

Deep Calls to Deep: An Epiphany in South Haven

I have been vacationing in South Haven, Michigan this week. The house in which I am staying sits next to a church building. As I went for a run on the first morning, I noticed a sign inviting others to join their morning meditation and centering prayer on Tuesday and Thursday mornings.

I decided to go both mornings.

As I entered, I took off my sandals and walked barefoot into the sanctuary. Chairs and pillows were arranged in a circle around a candle. I sat quietly and closed my eyes. Afte...

Deep Calls to Deep: More Than An Ocean

There is something I learned when navigating through the vast wasteland of car-sized boulders at 12,750 feet while making my way up the final ascent to Long’s Peak in Colorado.

People are less than microscopic.

As we climbed and then turned back to survey the boulder field, 1000-feet below us, our tents had become colored dots in a broken sea of browns.

Above the Boulderfield. Also, see man in the red shirt in the bottom left corner.

After hitting the summit, we looked down again. Ou...

Deep Calls to Deep: A Lesson in Being Hangry

Even before hangry existed, I discovered the intuitive nature of my body. 

As a young man in my twenties, I would regularly fast, or abstain from eating food for a duration for spiritual purposes. This discipline quickly taught me how my body communicates with me when it is hungry and how that may affect me.

It turns out that this principle applies to much more than food. 

Over the years, I have continued to develop a sensitivity to my body communicating with me. I usually experience a ...

Deep Calls to Deep: From Muck to Wonder

When Will was four years old, we drove an hour away from our house to the Hoosier National Forestry in south-central Indiana. This area is beautifully wooded, hilly, and perfect for a young first-time hiker. I could tell Will was excited based on how much he talked during the hour it took to drive there.

When I pulled into the parking area, Will was already out of his seat and standing by the car in wild excitement. He put on his jacket and asked me to help him with his backpack. I helped him...

Deep Calls to Deep: To Forgive a Murderer

I was a junior in high school when a devastating and horrific crime rocked my hometown of Madison, Indiana.

In 1992, four teenage girls (three of whom I went to school with) tortured and murdered a twelve-year-old girl named Shanda Sharer. 

It is by far the most heinous and gruesome event I have ever been close to, and there is no way to fully capture how traumatic it was for everyone involved and for our small community. Despite attending the trial and following what I believed was every ...

Deep Calls to Deep: Breaking the Monster

I remember talking to a lady several years ago who had been abused by her father as a young girl and who was, understandably, still dealing with the mental anguish of the abuse as a middle-aged woman. She had finally reached a point where she no longer wanted to live in bitterness and anger toward her father or live out of her wound. She was ready to forgive him. But he had died a decade prior.

I explained to her that forgiveness can happen at any time. It does not require two people to come ...

Deep Calls to Deep: The Last Circle

Today’s post is an excerpt from my novel What Can’t Be Hidden and explores one character’s realization that inner peace is essential for relational and communal peace. Here it is:

I’m the one who admitted to being the sick system, Ochi thought. I’m the one who said I take it with me everywhere I go. I’ve been so preoccupied with everyone else’s ills and wrongs and misgivings that I built up a wall around my heart. And if I can’t even look behind that wall and change myself, how do I expect an...

Deep Calls to Deep: Wounded Healers Unite

I read a story from the Washington Post about a seventh-grader named Brody Ridder. Having transferred to a school in Westminster, Colorado two years prior, the young man has had difficulty fitting in and finding friends. To make it worse, he has been the target of significant bullying.

More recently, as the students received their yearbooks and ceremoniously signed each other’s pages, Brody’s remained largely untouched. Despite asking classmates to sign his yearbook, they refused. While every...