Books by Dale Harris

Books by Dale Harris
A Feast of Epiphanies

Though I Walk, A Novel

Daytime Moons and Other Celestial Anomalies, a book of poems

Second Wind

Second Wind
An album of songs both old and new. Recorded in 2021, a year of major transition for me, these songs explore the many vicissitudes of the spiritual life,. It's about the mountaintop moments and the Holy Saturday sunrises, the doors He opens that no one can close, and those doors He's closed that will never open again. You can click the image above to give it a listen.

The Song Became a Child

The Song Became a Child
A collection of Christmas songs I wrote and recorded during the early days of the pandemic lockdown in the spring of 2020. Click the image to listen.

There's a Trick of the Light I'm Learning to Do

This is a collection of songs I wrote and recorded in January - March, 2020 while on sabbatical from ministry. They each deal with a different aspect or expression of the Gospel. Click on the image above to listen.

Three Hands Clapping

This is my latest recording project (released May 27, 2019). It is a double album of 22 songs, which very roughly track the story of my life... a sort of musical autobiography, so to speak. Click the album image to listen.

Ghost Notes

Ghost Notes
A collections of original songs I wrote in 2015, and recorded with the FreeWay Musical Collective. Click the album image to listen.

inversions

Recorded in 2014, these songs are sort of a chronicle of my journey through a pastoral burn-out last winter. They deal with themes of mental-health, spiritual burn-out and depression, but also with the inexorable presence of God in the midst of darkness. Click the album art to download.

soundings

soundings
click image to download
"soundings" is a collection of songs I recorded in September/October of 2013. Dealing with themes of hope, ache, trust and spiritual loss, the songs on this album express various facets of my journey with God.

bridges

bridges
Click to download.
"Bridges" is a collection of original songs I wrote in the summer of 2011, during a soul-searching trip I took out to Alberta; a sort of long twilight in the dark night of the soul. I share it here in hopes these musical reflections on my own spiritual journey might be an encouragement to others: the sun does rise, blood-red but beautiful.

echoes

echoes
Prayers, poems and songs (2005-2009). Click to download
"echoes" is a collection of songs I wrote during my time studying at Briercrest Seminary (2004-2009). It's called "echoes" partly because these songs are "echoes" of times spent with God from my songwriting past, but also because there are musical "echoes" of hymns, songs or poems sprinkled throughout the album. Listen closely and you'll hear them.

Accidentals

This collection of mostly blues/rock/folk inspired songs was recorded in the spring and summer of 2015. I call it "accidentals" because all of the songs on this project were tunes I have had kicking around in my notebooks for many years but had never found a "home" for on previous albums. You can click the image to download the whole album.

random reads

Deep Economy and the Economy of Jesus

Yesterday I needed a new stapler. Simple item, simple solution: I drove down to the local Stuff-Mart, found the stationary section and grabbed the cheapest one out of a selection of about ten. I turned it over in my hand and paused for a fatal moment. Imported by Wal-Mart Canada, it said. Made in China.

And I started thinking about how strange a world we live in, one where we can drive down the street and, for the price of about 10 minutes labour, satisfy our slightest need, buying some whimsical item that a faceless stranger snapped together in a place we’ve never seen, and more faceless strangers shipped thousands of miles to us from somewhere we have absolutely no connection to, to be set on a shelf next to ten others just like it. We take this arrangement for granted, but when you compare it to the overall history of human economy, this is one of the most bizarre and unnatural systems our kind has ever set up. (I stood there for a second, trying to imagine the actual hands working monotonously in some huge factory somewhere in China, assembling this particular stapler—and then imaging it actually sitting in a cargo crate on a ship somewhere in the middle of the Pacific coming to Moose Jaw—sort of gives you shivers).

It’s bizarre and unnatural. I just finished this book, Deep Economy, by Bill McKibben, who claims that it’s also unhealthy and unsustainable. McKibben critiques Western culture’s “economy of growth,” documenting the dehumanizing consumerism, the ever-growing pile of junk, and the environmental exploitation that goes along with it. He argues pretty lucidly that what we need most of all, for the health of our planet and our souls, are economic practices that intentionally build rich community, not an ever growing pile of stuff. And the whole time I read it, I kept thinking over and over about the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus might point us to Matthew 6:19-34 and say: “I told you so.”

McKibben’s call for economic practices that emphasize community and human-scale over the unsustainable myth of unlimited growth, is forcing me to imagine what a Christian economy might look like. The vision is still pretty hazy, but I’ll try out some concrete details here: simplicity—we’d live on less and stop buying stuff we don’t need; human scale—we’d share more, lend more, repair more, grow more and create more of the things in our lives; connectedness—we’d start buying local as much as we can, and develop meaningful relationships with the actual flesh-and-blood hands that supply us our food, furniture, clothing, entertainment and so on; community—we’d live in homes and neighbourhoods and market-places that made room for life together, not just cavernous spaces for our piles of stuff.

As the world tries desperately to stimulate a flaccid economy, maybe the Church has a vital opportunity to speak prophetically, by pointing people to the economy of Jesus. If only we could figure out how to live it ourselves.

5 comments:

Dale D said...

Good thoughts, Dale. I read "Being Consumed: Economics and Christian Desire" while I was in India. Challenging stuff.

Dale

TomLind said...

Yeah, I think it sounds good, but do you really think mankind can reverse the tide of consumer stock piling? Let's face it, we like going to Staples and getting our gadgets. Even if I decided to stop buying things, I will still need to get stuff to keep going. We may be able to reduce, but I can't see all of culture going in that direction. This brings me to another question, that you might want to comment on...Jack Van Impe talks about the world never ending, I.e. quoting Is. 45:17, Ep 3:21. I was wondering what you think is the future of our earth. Do you believe it will continue on forever? 2 Peter 3:7 says, "But by His word the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire..." I take this that the present world will be destroyed. I have talked to others who say that God will redeem this earth, i.e. reverse pollution, ozone, etc. What are your thoughts?

Jon Coutts said...

glad to have you blogging dale!

my first word verification here is "supecab".

dollar stores make me sick.

i do shop at walmart though.

Taylor Family said...

Yes, I think of these things all the time, especially when I look at my credit card bill and see the "Stuff Mart" entries, typically a few each month. Cheap, yes, useful, debatable. We are such a consuming society we sometimes (often) forget the need to live as you suggest... with simplicity.

Bradley Penner said...

Hi Dale,

Welcome to blogworld! A really good book on consumerism and Christianity is Paul Louis Metzger's "Consuming Jesus"(ISBN9780802830685). Although he takes a very American persepctive (he is American after all) it does hit home to us Canadians as well.

I have a blog too, if you are interested in my meanderings: http://bradleypenner.blogspot.com/ Stop by if you like.

Brad