Aldea Spiritual Community

Enjoy Roger's meditation from the services on June 28, 2026.

What does it really mean to “hold space” for someone?
Many of us were taught that love means fixing, rescuing, or solving another person’s pain. But what if one of the greatest gifts we can offer isn’t advice or answers...it’s our presence?
In this message, we look at grief as a natural expression of love, why our impulse to fix often comes from our own discomfort with pain, and how healing frequently begins when people feel safe enough to be fully seen.
 
Quotes:
 
“To love the world through all its falling apartness—to cradle it even now.” — Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer
 
“The soul would have no rainbow if the eyes had no tears.” — John Vance Cheney
 
“When we hold space for other people, we open our hearts, offer unconditional support, and let go of judgement and control… It means that we are willing to walk alongside another person in whatever journey they’re on without judging them, making them feel inadequate, trying to fix them, or trying to impact the outcome.” — Heather Plett
 
“The basic question in relationships is: Are you there for me?” — Sue Johnson
 
“The greatest and most important problems of life are all fundamentally insoluble. They can never be solved but only outgrown.” — Carl Jung
 
“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” — Maya Angelou
 

Enjoy Robyn's meditation from the services on June 21, 2026.

What if your purpose isn’t something you have to discover, but something you’ve already been living?
 
This week at Aldea, we explore the ancient ideas of medicine and dharma as the unique gifts, perspectives, wounds, and strengths that make you you. Drawing from Indigenous wisdom, the Bhagavad Gita, poetry and psychology, we reflect on how our pain can become compassion, how our uniqueness becomes service, and how even the smallest acts ripple outward into the collective.
 
Quotes:
 
“A medicine man is not a doctor. He is a man who helps people find harmony.” — John Fire Lame Deer
 
“Better one’s own dharma, though imperfectly carried out, than another’s dharma well performed.” — Bhagavad Gita 3:35
 
“No one else has ever lived your life. No one else can bring the particular gift that you were born to offer.” — John O’Donohue
 
“The things that break our hearts are often the very things that open them.” — Francis Weller
 
“All flourishing is mutual… In giving to the earth, we are given.” — Robin Wall Kimmerer
 
“By healing ourselves, we heal the world.” — Mark Nepo
 
“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” — Howard Thurman

Enjoy Mary's meditation from the services on June 14, 2026. 

What does it mean to "do your part" in a world that seems overwhelmed by problems too large for any one person to solve?
 
In this message, we explore the tension between personal responsibility and collective transformation. Drawing from wisdom traditions, consciousness studies, and the idea of a modern “poly-crisis,” we consider how meaningful change happens - not through any one individual carrying the weight of the world, but through ordinary people faithfully offering their unique gifts.
 
At Aldea, we believe that transformation begins within us but never ends there. As we become more loving, aware, and grounded, we help shape the collective future together.
 
Quotes:
 
Ken Wilber“The problems facing the world today are not merely political, economic, or technological. They are problems of consciousness.”
 
Rabbi Tarfon“You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it.”
 
Tao Te Ching (Chapter 9)“Do your work, then step back. The only path to serenity.”
 
Parker J. Palmer“Self-care is never a selfish act—it is simply good stewardship of the only gift I have, the gift I was put on earth to offer others.”
 
Damon Centola et al.“When the committed minority is below the critical threshold, the majority of the population maintains the old convention. Once the committed minority exceeds the critical threshold, there is a rapid transition to the new convention.”
 
Margaret Mead“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

For our Sunday with Michael Gungor, we had some fun by doing a semi-improvised interview for each service - which means that the conversation for each ended up coming out quite different. We’ve decided to release the interview from first service, along with Michael’s meditation here as a bonus episode! 

Check out this eclectic & poignant conversation with Michael Gungor - musician, author, podcaster, and more - as we dive deep into evolving faith journeys, non-duality, and creativity as a spiritual practice. We also discuss the Mystic Hymnal project, which we later experienced that evening at Aldea as an immersive & heartfelt group singing event. 
 
Check out Michael's work:
https://www.michaelgungor.com/
https://www.mystichymnal.com/

Join Kathleen - plus special guests Arianna & Kris - for a wide ranging conversation that touches upon personal stories and heartfelt examples of the transformative power of gratitude. 

As we conclude our series Doing The Work, we arrive at a surprising realization: perhaps all of the healing, reflection, emotional awareness, and courageous inner work has not been about becoming someone new — but about uncovering who we truly are underneath it all. This week, we explore the idea of the “Self” through spirituality, mindfulness, and Internal Family Systems (IFS).
 
Quotes:
 
“I am conscious of a certain doubleness by which I can stand as remote from myself as from another.”— Henry David Thoreau
 
“I contain multitudes.”— Walt Whitman
 
“You are the sky. Everything else—it’s just the weather.”— Pema Chödrön
 
“Feelings come and go like clouds in a windy sky.”— Thích Nhất Hạnh
 
“Thoughts are like passing clouds. Feelings are like passing weather. Neither defines the vastness of what you are.”— Adyashanti
 
“The beauty of the Self is that it is already there. It just gets eclipsed… The Self is in everybody. It can’t be damaged and it knows how to heal… Self is not a part. Self is the essence of who you are…”— Richard Schwartz