I write, speak, invest, network, and question to stimulate fruitful conversation. Let's talk about human flourishing! It begins with freedom. Holy leisure is the key to human being, freedom and generativity. Please join me in the adventure of realizing Christ!
Talking About My Talks
Here are blog posts about some of my favorite talks.
He Must Increase
I’ve just met Jason Nunez, of the John 3:30 podcast. Thanks to a listener who recommended me as a guest on his show, we had a lovely chat this morning. It’s now available here, and on Apple Podcast, Spotify, and anywhere podcasts can be found. Look for Episode #94 for my interview, and stay tuned for Jason’s big surprise in Episode #100, soon to come!
Here’s a bit more about Jason, from the John 3:30 site:
The John 3:30 Podcast is hosted by Jason Nunez. He is a Catholic Husband and Father who is doing everything he can to help get his Family to Heaven. Jason loves to watch movies with his family and he is a huge Dave Matthews Band Fan. He and his Family are Parishioners at The Church of The Holy Spirit in San Antonio TX. Jason was raised Catholic, but as most, he went through the motions for most of his Teenage, 20s and early 30s. After attending an ACTS Retreat in October of 2012 has been “on fire” for his Catholic Faith. Jason began to feel that God was calling him to spread the word on how “everyday” people keep their fire burning for our Catholic Faith. So The John 3:30 Podcast was created!! Join him as he shares the many ways our Faith can keep your fire burning. Thanks for listening and God Bless you all!!
“He must increase; I must decrease.” – John 3:30
Jason was interested in the resource I have available for free here: How to Plan a Great Catholic Event
We discussed the books Souls at Rest (endorsed by Dan Burke) Souls at Work (endorsed by Stratford Caldecott), Upschooling (endorsed by Joseph Pearce), and the Freedom Trilogy (You, Free , Full Spectrum Freedom, and 3D Freedom…endorsed by those I counsel personally). (These link to Amazon sales pages.)
He asked what one thought I wanted to leave with listeners, and that is: “If you need anything, please contact me. I actually respond!!!” Here’s a contact form for anyone reading or listening, who might have questions, need a phone chat or a correspondence or a speaker or help realizing their creative ideas, or who just wants to connect for conversation or some other adventure:
Joseph Pearce Likes My New Book!!!
“I can think of no better guide for homeschooling parents …”
Even if very few copies ever sell (think: zero marketing budget), the esteem of Joseph Pearce is satisfaction enough for me. Don’t get me wrong: I do wish copies would sell, too! But I am content to leave promotion in the hands of the Holy Spirit. My fondest hope is that groups of parent educators would get together and discuss a chapter now and then, and that I might be an encouragement to them in their profoundly important work.
Please help me welcome Upschooling into the world of print (cue applause):
Here’s a link to Upschooling on Amazon.
Here are all the goodies from the back cover:
If a thing is worth doing, it’s worth doing badly. So says Chesterton. Homeschooling is so worth doing that it’s worth doing badly. It is, however, better to do it better. Charlotte Ostermann shows us how we can do it better. She shows us how to think so far outside the box that we can throw the box away. Even more important, she shows us beauty and how we can show beauty to our children. I can think of no better guide for homeschooling parents than Charlotte Ostermann.
Joseph Pearce, author of Frodo’s Journey, Catholic Literary Giants, and Literature: What Every Catholic Should Know
Charlotte Ostermann, veteran homeschool speaker, provides stimulating ‘teacher in-service training’ for parent educators. Each chapter is a meaty and inspirational seminar meant to challenge and encourage readers in their vocations. Parent, educator, evangelist, communicator, and anyone with an interest in the integral development of the human person will find this a rich resource for continuing education and intellectual growth.
If you missed the packed rooms where these talks were given in person, don’t miss this second chance to engage with the material. The author’s goal is to help you cultivate freedom for yourself and your students. Each workshop stands alone, so you may pick and choose to good effect. Pick one to read with a group if you love a great conversation!
“Charlotte Ostermann is a fine practitioner and excellent theorist of education. Those who read these chapters will find them winsome and wise; they are a source of potential delight and instruction for anyone interested in the nature and purpose of education or in practical strategies for educating one’s children or students well.”
–Benjamin V. Beier, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Education, Hillsdale College
“Charlotte has a way of communicating reality in a succinct yet rich way. Sometimes I remember her talk on flatitudes and floatitudes and it still helps me to have a lens through which I can analyze my choices and behavior on a day-to-day basis. She makes concepts that really are quite sophisticated accessible and exciting, as well as deeply personal and meaningful for my heart. Thank you Charlotte for being a missionary of Truth in today’s context! Anyone, not just home educators, can truly benefit from her work.” Brooklynn S.
“Charlotte’s talk left me with food for thought. It was well structured, thought through and presented.” Anna T.
“Her breadth of preparation and understanding, coupled with her unusually fine speaking skills, have made her a popular speaker for age groups from ages 18 to 80, from a variety of backgrounds.”
– Nancy Yacher, Department of English, University of Kansas
Praise for Souls at Work – An Invitation to Freedom
“Charlotte Ostermann’s Souls at Work is an engaging and beautifully written book that is particularly important for parents and home educators. I have been teaching my children at home for the better part of two decades, yet the ideas proposed about freedom and the life of the soul are new to me and have left me feeling refreshed and inspired.”
– Alice Gunther, author of Haystack Full of Needles
“If you are a teacher, or a homeschooler, or if you simply want to be ‘fully human, truly free,’ you will find what your soul needs in Charlotte’s gentle wisdom.”
– Stratford Caldecott, author of Beauty for Truth’s Sake
Resolving Tension Creatively
There is tension inherent in the process of appropriating Reality.
The imperfection of Persons and Forms causes tension.
The attraction/delight and vulnerability/repulsion felt in the encounter with Form cause tension.
The need to resolve the implications of multiple goods, or multiple Realities causes tension.
In order to grow better able to handle tension, we need practice.
Growth in the capacity to bear and resolve tension is growth in freedom, interior spaciousness, maturity, correspondence to Reality.
Higher Forms cause higher tension. We need them in order to grow.
Lower Forms are more likely to be flawed and de-formational. We need them in order to grow.
Poets Can Be Troublemakers
The Place of Poetry
I so enjoyed this and hope you’ll pass the word that I am ready and willing to offer this workshop elsewhere!
See the Place of Poetry brochure.
Contact me to discuss how I can serve you:
Happy Birthday New Book!
Full Spectrum Freedom is ‘live’ and available at Amazon!!
Your Next Free Act May Be Your First
You’re Free, Right?
We live in a free country. You’re free to do whatever you want. The stuff you want is yours for next to nothing – free.
Focus on the Right ‘Free’
Let’s set two of these ‘frees’ aside quickly and focus on the one that matters most to you, personally – or should.
It’s a free country, right? Nope. A nation that is systematically killing off hundreds of thousands of its children and now pushing its elders into early graves is in bondage to sin and death, not ‘free’.
All that free stuff? Not so free. Many of the costs of producing it are externalized – damage to the Creation, for example – borne by the human laborers fed into the manufacturing process as ‘resources,’ put off onto future generations – or are unquantifiable opportunity costs we are less and less capable of counting. Free stuff has a price.
It’s YOU, Free
But, at least YOU are free. Not so fast. Not if your definition of freedom is wrong. Not if you aren’t putting up a fight for freedom. Not if you aren’t supported in freedom by external and internal structures. Again, let’s consider two of these ‘freedoms’ briefly so as to focus on the one that matters most to you, personally – or should.
But if You’re Wrong…
If you are wrong about what freedom IS, then you are not free. It is essential to know the truth about freedom in order to pursue it, achieve it, and set others free. If you think freedom is a right conferred by law; is a choice about which button to push, or which shoe to buy; is a quality of life you can enhance with money; is an escape from obligation, space, time, physics, or other constraints, or has nothing to do with virtue, you’re simply wrong. And your freedom is dangerously compromised as a result.
Or if You Lack Support for Freedom…
Can you be free without the support of divine grace, human organizations and institutions, excellent education, taboos and social norms, friendships and family bonds, physical and moral laws, an accurate historical narrative, demands and duties, or hard work? The answer is no in every case.
Your external atmosphere must be THICK with all these supports. Otherwise, you will inhale the illusion of freedom, but not experience the reality of freedom. Your infrastructure for freedom is generated by all that hard work of adjusting to and appropriating the external structures.
No Freedom Without a Fight
Freedom grows by every act of freedom, so let’s turn to that condition for freedom.
Fight for Your Freedom
Fulton Sheen said, “Free will is a gift, but freedom is a conquest.” Are you engaged in a battle for your own freedom? You’d better be, or you’re already losing it. Who is fighting against you? Demons, and those who have given over to demons the gift of their own free will. You resist your freedom yourself. Every support for freedom but one can be its enemy – your enemy – in this fight.
You are Fighting for Your Life
Though demons shouldn’t be minimized – as they are actual, active hostile forces arrayed against you – if you stand under the constant protection of Christ in His Church, they will not prevail against you. Since every human support is, well, human, the air you must breathe to be free is full of toxins.
Your Freedom Invites Others to be Free
Notice the broken families, distorted narratives, utter confusion of social norms and standards, institutionalized bondage, education for impotence. The bad news is, your freedom is under assault from every possible angle. The good news is, Christ in His Church promises victory, if you will fight the fight. In fact, the fight, the work, the struggle is the making of you, free.
I Invite You to be You, Free!
You, Free is my attempt to come along side as your companion in that struggle. May God bless you readers!
Three-Part Retreats
Need a 3-Talk Retreat?
I was asked to suggest possibilities for a three-part retreat. Here are my ideas: [Read more…]
Flatitudes and Floatitudes
Do You Suffer from PERS?!?!?
In a recent talk – Home Schooling to Rock the World – I mentioned some symptoms that a person may be suffering from ‘post-Enlightenment reduction syndrome,’ (PERS) or ‘flattening’. This is the atrophy of one’s analogic sense – a reduction in the metaphoric dimension of human being. The problem is a disconnect in the person’s capacity to relate concrete and abstract reality. Its source is the cultural vacuum caused by man’s attempt to believe there is no God. Man without a context for being (In Him I live and move and have being) is like an astronaut untethered from the space ship – dying for lack of a life-supporting atmosphere.
Rock the World!!
I thoroughly enjoyed creating this new offering for our regional home educators. It is now Chapter 12 in Upschooling, which I hope you’ll buy from Amazon and recommend to friends (THANKS)!
“I can think of no better guide for homeschooling parents than Charlotte Ostermann.”
Joseph Pearce, author of Literature: What Every Catholic Should Know
Need Help Getting Into Poetry?
They Loved It!
Loved the Chesterton Conference!
Link to the whole talk on YouTube, here.
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