Fully Alive by Elizabeth Oldfield
Newsletter (Digital)
Do you want, deep down, to live a good life? A really good one? Even if it sometimes feels like it might be the end of the world?
Me too.
My name is Elizabeth Oldfield, and I’ve spent five years interviewing public figures about their deepest values on The Sacred podcast. I’ve worked at the BBC and in Westminster, been an agnostic, then a Christian, then an atheist and now, though the language is complex, a Christian again. I’ve moved my family into an intentional community in search of a more meaningful, more connected life in South London.
Your journey will be different from mine, your sense of what a good life means different too. You will have your own sacred values, the half buried principles you want to orientate you in these dark woods.
What we might share is a sense that there are not enough places to think about these things, to surface what is buried.
By subscribing to Fully Alive you will listen in on my quest to to become braver, freer and more loving than I currently am. I don’t want to just bloviate about my values, but live them, and as it turns out, that doesn’t come naturally.
I hope that by being this earnest to give you permission to be earnest too. My intention is to help you clarify what you want to be growing towards, what kind of person you want to be becoming, and give you some ideas about how to stay loyal to that quiet whisper of your soul.
I draw on anything that helps me, primarily poetry, novels, my stumbling attempts at learning to garden, christian theology and my family’s experience living in community.
It sometimes feel like we are living at the end of the world. It will almost certainly be the end of the world as we have known it. Maybe it always is. I think we will need, indeed need now, people who are prepared to attend to their souls and not just their bodies and their careers. People with spiritual core strength even in turbulent times, who can take a deep breath and work out what loving their neighbour means now.
And none of us can grow up like this alone. I’d love us to do it together. Source
Actions
Media Outlet details
| Scope | N/A |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Country | N/A |
Similarweb UVM
|
Request pricing |
Comscore UVM
|
Request pricing |
Recent Articles
Search ArticlesHow to have 1,500 people for dinner
The power of a standing date with hospitality Article voiceover 0:00 -12:36 Audio playback is not supported on your browser. Please upgrade. I had a baby in 2014. The arrival of that little person totally transformed our lives, as they have a tendency of doing. Prior to their arrival, my husband and I had really made the most of London. We both worked in the world of ideas, and spent many evenings at talks, lectures and the theatre. We travelled to see our friends and felt very much part of the city.
Finding belonging in world of alienation
In conversation with Ian Marcus Corbin I and a group of paid subscribers had a wonderful conversation last week with philosopher Ian Marcus Corbin. The video and edited transcript are below. We spoke about humans as “home-seeking creatures” who have nevertheless built societies where a sense of at-homeness is hard to find. He argues humans need a deep sense of participation and interdependence with others, nature, and something beyond us, in order to flourish.
Settle for less, enjoy it more
Last week I went to a lovely birthday party. A friend had hired a band and organised some delicious food and even people to take care of the kids. I danced to Brixton Ska (follow the link to brighten your day) with friends and generally felt delighted to be alive. The other thing she had organised was a tarot reader, whose name I have forgotton (blame the cocktails) but was something like Carol.
Finding belonging in the modern world
Earlier this year I was glad to connect properly with Ian Marcus Corbin. I heard from several friends, no least Zachary Davis and Sam Pressler that we were thinking around similar themes, and when I got hold of Ian’s book I could see why. His fancy Harvard bio says he: All of which is impressive and everything, but less and less do I equate a glittering CV with actual wisdom.
Neighbouring is prepping (and I might not be very prepped)
Knowing their names would be a start….. Hello dear reader, Last week I was on the Radio 4 programme The Moral Maze in response to J.D. Vance’s much reported comments about the End Times. I used to work on that programme, in my BBC years, and so it was both nostalgic and right in my wheel house. You can listen here. Right before me was a guy running a prepping business in Wales and the difference between US and UK preppers did give me a little jolt of national pride, I’ll be honest.
Grieving for beauty
In East Anglia, the pregnant belly of these Isles jutting out towards Europe, there is a bridge. It crosses a wide section of the River Orwell just south of Ipswich, a few miles upstream from where the river mingles with the sea at Felixstowe. Below the bridge, out past the industrial estates, sailing boats zigzag gracefully in and out from their marina, fields dip their toes, trees sway and sandpipers wade at the shallow edges. Or at least, I think they do.
Practices for "inner prepping"
Earlier this year I was on BBC Radio 4’s Free Thinking programme talking about Foucault’s ‘Technologies of the Self’ (what is my life) alongside Anoushka Grose, a psychoanalyst and author. I was struck by the subtitle to one of her many books: The Revolution Will Be Internalised: On the unlikely politics of inner prepping. “Huh.
The Only Thing to Fear is Fear itself (?)
I recently had something go viral on instagram. This is my first time of watching my voice not just resonate but really travel. In the clip from a panel at a conference, I am expressing deep concern about climate change and the trade offs we seem to be making around AI. At one point, my voice cracked, and it was perhaps that, above all, which connected. The comments are largely people saying “thank you for expressing what I have been thinking; I am so scared”.
Riddle's Diary, Moloch, The Lorax: Stories to think about AI with
What a great question. You are clearly thinking deeply. Tell me more and I can help you figure out your feelings. In this essay I am going to explore what The Grail Myth (and Moloch) Tom Riddle’s diary in Harry Potter, and Dr Seuss’s The Lorax can offer us as we all try and figure out this radically new technology, at speed.
The Paradoxes of Being a Pack Animal
This is a gentle reminder that I am running an experiment: inviting readers to take out paid subscriptions, not in order to access ‘special exclusive high value paywalled content’, but to ensure that (almost) all of what I write is accessible to everyone. It is an old school patronage model and recognises that writers need paying too (a non-insignificant part of my families income comes from here), but feels slightly more aligned with the spirit of what I’m trying to do.