Gaining perspective on solitude
A meditation from the new Isaiah Collier album out today
Isaiah Collier and the Chosen Few’s album “The Almighty,” out today.
What’s good everyone,
It is a beautiful intersection, the cross streets of contemplation and performance. One whispers “why” while the other exclaims “HI!” When held together, they illumine the spiritual lives we all walk. This week, I drew from their shared well.
In terms of my whisper, from Sunday to Tuesday Ruth Haley Barton led other Christian leaders and me on a retreat of solitude and silence. Her mission is to help Christian leaders reconnect with our souls, the truest part of ourselves. The retreat centers on the idea that God invites us to rhythmically steal away from normal routines in order to reflect on the honest state of our lives. In doing so, God transforms us. The silence of that retreat was a tender whisper that asked me about who I was behind my ministry - such a vital question for any performer.
In terms of my exclamation, today I am delighted to announce the release of The Almighty, an album I played on from my dear friend and collaborator Isaiah Collier. The project focuses on humanity’s relationship to the spiritual realm and thus to ourselves. I am excited about our release show tomorrow in LA.
My favorite track from the record is the single, Perspective (Peace and Love). To date, it’s one of my favorite solos recorded and released, and a solo in 7 at that. (To play in 7 means there are 7 beats per measure. For context, most Western music is 4 beats per measure.)
But truth be told, I struggled a lot with this song, particularly the solo piano intro. I kept mistakenly playing it in 6 instead of in 7, because the feel of 6 is more familiar to me than is 7. (For context, many dance tunes, gospel songs, and lullabies are written in 3 or in 6.) Granted, when the band joined me after the intro, I was fine. It was just the solitude at the beginning that threw me off. Time is a funny beast to keep alone.
The investment of the community around me helped me learn how to walk alone. Brothas Isaiah (sax and vocals), Jeremiah (bass), Michael (drums), and Sonny (producer/manager) all helped me hear this African ancestral rhythm that the song channeled. This community of Black care encouraged me to enter the solitude with confidence.
Pairing The Almighty’s release with Ruth’s invitation to retreat gives me perspective on the challenge and grace of solitude as it relates to community. In true solitude we wrestle with our vulnerabilities. Sometimes we may want to hide from the questions it raises - the pesky “why” of contemplation. In fact, playing with others prematurely is a way of doing just that. This is a challenge of solitude. (Lord knows I wanted the band to play that intro with me, but Isaiah wouldn’t relent: he knew there was something I had to hear on my own.)
But a grace of solitude is that it can shift your understanding of healthy community. In The Almighty’s case, my bandmates helped me walk the road alone that God had for me to walk before I was to rejoin them in collective sound. God used them to help me gain perspective on who I was a pianist and as a steward of thee sacred Black musical traditions. I don’t know how this works, but I think my wrestling alone at the top of the tune led to my fiery solo later on, buoyed by the supportive community that had been cheering me on the whole time.
Ruth is after the same in her Transforming Community retreats. Calling leaders to wrestle alone with God leads to transformation in us that will improve our soloing back home. Being in a community of cats who weren’t allowed to network or be on their phones for almost 48 hours was a healthy exercise in hearing the whispered questions of God behind the exclamations of our public ministry.
When I listen back to Perspective now, I hear the transformative work of solitude. It is a transformation that bell hooks puts well: “Knowing how to be solitary is central to the art of loving. When we can be alone, we can be with others without using them as a means of escape.”
Depending on your personality, you may relish private wrestling more than the public engagement, or vice versa. The Spirit called Jesus, and calls us, to embrace both sides of the dance - to show up fully at the wedding at Cana and in the Garden of Gethsemane. With this backstory in mind, I pray that as you listen to this record, you too can gain perspective on the transformation that awaits us all in God’s peace and love.
abundantly,
Julian
What’s Next
Apr 27 Notes of Rest at Princeton Theological Seminary’s Center for Contemplative Leadership (virtual) EMAIL ME BACK ABOUT SCHOLARSHIP INFO
Apr 27 Isaiah Collier & the Chosen Few (Los Angeles, CA)
Apr 30 Notes of Rest for InterVarsity Staff (Chicago)
May 10-11 Julian Davis Reid’s Circle of Trust at Andy’s (Chicago)
May 12 Notes of Rest at First United Methodist Church Oak Park
Other Happenings in the Contemplative World
The “Nap Bishop” Tricia Hersey (a fellow Candler grad) is teaching a 3-week class on her famed project The Nap Ministry through Candler’s online platform the Foundry starting Apr 17. This too has been transformative. I look forward to sharing with you about it in future posts.
I’m one of the faculty teachers for the Academy of Spiritual Formation hybrid model, an 18-month spiritual formation journey held here in Mundelein, IL. My module will be on Spirituality and Creativity. I invite you to sign up today.