Brandon Andress's Blog, page 5

Deep Calls to Deep: Naked

It is interesting to me that humanity’s first impulse was to cover their nakedness. Since then, we have just added more layers. We hide to keep from being seen, either by others or ourselves.

Of course, I speak metaphorically. But it is no wonder we have such difficulty dealing with our wounds. 

We wrap ourselves in busyness. We shroud ourselves in noise and stimulation. We envelop ourselves in distraction. We live fabricated and curated lives to hide (or not have to deal with) what is bel...

Deep Calls to Deep: My Friends of Misery

As a 17-year-old, I did not know that I could do anything else with my pain than live out of it and transmit it. 

As a result, my wound festered. 

Rather than attend to the infection, I ignored it and allowed it to become more toxic. 

Metallica joined me there, though. They seemed to understand what I was feeling. James Hetfield sympathetically sang the song, My Friend of Misery, to me at least a hundred times a day. While he allowed me to join his angry refrain, I completely missed the...

Deep Calls to Deep: The Me I Want to Be

After getting cut from the basketball team my senior year of high school, I remember only attending one game that season. As much as I would like to believe that I went to the game for some benevolent reason, I only went to berate the coach.

Sitting in the student section, just fifteen feet from the bench, I booed as loudly as I could when the announcer mentioned his name during team introductions. While I don’t remember everything I yelled that night, I know it was an ugly representation of ...

Deep Calls to Deep: In the Wake of Regret

In Greek mythology, Kairos is the god of opportunity, portrayed as a man with winged feet who is always on tiptoe, indicating constant movement. Kairos adorns a long, single lock of hair that extends from an otherwise bald head. As Kairos passes by, there is a fleeting moment when one can seize him by the hair before the opportunity passes. 

Standing in the wake of a missed opportunity is a shadowy, cloaked goddess named Metanoia. Metanoia symbolizes the regret of missing an opportunity. In t...

Deep Calls to Deep: Thriving in Our Antarctica

My favorite story is that of Ernest Shackleton and his expedition to Antarctica in the early 1900s.

Shackleton and his crew desired to be the first to reach the southernmost continent. But, as the autumn months passed and temperatures plummeted, his ship froze in the sea and was later crushed between ice floes, forcing him and his crew to live upon the ice for two years. Their only hope of escape was to use the wooden rescue boats to cross the ocean once the waters were navigable. 

Just mi...

Deep Calls to Deep: Hyper Stimulation Zero

The sun was already blazing in the near cloudless early morning sky. All but a single, lowly shade tree remained as we approached Horseshoe Mesa in the Grand Canyon. We thought it would be the perfect spot for a quick drink and reprieve from the sun before our big climb.

As we stood there, one of the guys asked me if I had any music on my phone. Usually, I clear everything off of it to make room for the pictures I take during the trip. But to my surprise, there was one single song in the queu...

Deep Calls To Deep: Recovering the Holy Ordinary

My daughters and I hiked a strenuous 2900 feet over six miles to arrive at the magnificent Gore Lake near Frisco, Colorado. We planned to stay two nights on the lake and then hike out. On the first morning, I awoke before the girls, grabbed my small stove, and made coffee by the lake. 

In the stillness, I watched the fog quietly creep over the pass and dissipate as it met the sun’s first rays. Concentric circles multiplied across the water’s surface from the opportunistic fish. And for an hou...

Deep Calls to Deep: Don’t Be a Sherry

I walked into an office to schedule an appointment with one of my business accounts. The lady managing the appointments called for me to approach her desk. I greeted her and asked if they had any availability. 

“You know better than this,” she said. I didn’t respond as I was attempting to ascertain her tone. She was wearing a mask, which made it impossible to see if she was smiling. I raised my eyebrows and opened my eyes wide, awaiting the punchline.

“You have been doing this long enough ...

Deep Calls to Deep: The Soul and the Bass Line

Writer and personal friend Seja Brumley joins us again to share how quieting the mind and being present helps connect to our souls and recover peace. Seja writes:

When my husband, Joe, and I were dating, his band would practice in the basement of the house we lived in. Matt would come in through the kitchen with his bass guitar, say hello, and head down to the basement. Dan and Joe were already playing their guitars with riffs warming up their fingers. 

Then there would be silence, and Mat...

Deep Calls to Deep: Invitation to My Divine Comedy

Jenny told me on March 4th (25 days ago) that she was over a week late on her period.

Let me tell you.

When you are an almost 48-year-old man who had a vasectomy over a decade ago and who has three kids (22, 19, and 10), the last thing you want to hear are those words.

Like a gray-bearded soldier, hoping he had already fought in his last war, I marched into Fort Walgreens and stealthily purchased a box with two tests. Walking out to my car, I began laughing out loud at the hilarity of m...