Episode 17: Life in the Process (Visiting Voice: Ryan Thomas Neace)

Podcast - Life in the Whirlwind

This week I've got a real treat for you...a visiting voice! (An artful one, at that.) But first, let me whet your whistle.

In the 1999 movie The Big Kahuna one of the characters named Phil (played by Danny DeVito) says to another character these words:

"If you want to talk to someone honestly, as a human being ... find out what his dreams are. Just to find out. For no other reason. Because as soon as you lay your hands on a conversation to steer it, it's not a conversation anymore, it's a pitch. And you're not a human being, you're a marketing rep. ... [One day] honesty will reach out from inside and tattoo itself all across your face. Until that day, however, you cannot expect to go beyond a certain point."

For this episode one of my dearest friends, Ryan Thomas Neace, joins me to talk about process. Process, as we talk about it in this episode, is one way to choose to experience, expand, and exchange our awareness of human life's many layers in order to nourish the space inside us (personally) and between us (relationally). Since Ryan and I became friends almost entirely because we both love to practice process in our own lives, this seemed like the best choice for a visiting voice episode like this. The aim of this episode is to hopefully deepen your sense of one of the most (if not the most) quintessential aspect of what it means to be human: to know and be known. Come join the conversation as we look at the value, practicalities, barriers, purposes, etc of process as a way to find life in the whirlwind.

Production note: In my constant pursuit to practice authenticity in this podcast, this episode contains some "sound blemishes," including some crackling, some cell phone interference, and (best of all) a very human moment between us where Ryan thought his audio had stopped recording and we had a brief moment of fear. I chose to leave these in, hoping you'll enjoy our humanness as much as I did.

Any questions or comments? Please email me at [e-mail]. Feel free to copy Ryan in on any emails about this episode as well. His address is [e-mail]. If you love Life in the Whirlwind, you are sure to enjoy reading Ryan's deep and multitudinal wisdom he shares on his own website by clicking here: Ryan Thomas Neace. Also check out his bio for his St. Louis counseling practice's website here: Change, Incorporated.