Our Story
Some years ago, a small group of friends recognized our need to slow down. Like many people, we felt overwhelmed by the speed of life and found little space for reflection. We tried to create a space where we could explore an important question we all shared: How are we going to be in the world? We found a rhythm for reading books, watching films, eating meals and taking walks together. We discovered stories, songs, poems, paintings and nature that helped us open our own personal stories with one another. Our shared encounters evolved into this movement we call Nexus.
Today Nexus is spread across more than fifteen countries in Europe, North America, The Middle East and Asia. On this site you will find articles inspired by encounters with books, films, music, poems and life events. Each article serves as a stimulus, either for a conversation with others or your own personal consideration. Some invite you to participate in a first-hand encounter with a specific creative work (watch a film, listen to a song, read a poem, study a flower, etc). We hope you find these resources helpful. Our contribution is to share generous ways of being together that people can practice with their friends.
We also provide coaching and resources to local groups such as book and film clubs that may or may not be formally related to the Nexus organisation and help people create local events in their own contexts. Please feel free to Contact Us, read more About Us and explore our online Resources.
Image by Johannes Plenio on Unsplash
🇨🇳 中文简体
🇩🇪 Deutsch
🇪🇸 Español
🇫🇷 Français
🇮🇹 Italiano
🇭🇺 Magyarul
Podcast
We’re excited to invite you to our podcast Opening Life!
Follow us on Facebook & Instagram for updates and info. In 2024, our new Season 3 episodes will be dropping on the first weekend of each month, from March to December. This season we’ll be exploring what NYC-born and Spanish poets, feminist author bel hooks, favorite life-changing songs of Chinese friends, timeless children’s stories, and more, have to say to our lives.
All episodes can be streamed on Spotify and Apple Podcasts or check out the latest episode below:
Our Five Key Words
Space
Our lives are crowded, both inside ourselves and in the world. We all need space to listen, reflect and speak, without fear of judgement.
Story
Like a mirror, stories provide reflections of our human experience from different perspectives. Stories can be told not only with words, but also with sounds, images and movements.
Conversation
Life-opening conversations happen when each person is invited to show up as they truly are. Wisdom can emerge from listening to many voices, each one beautiful in its particularity.
Connection
Human beings long for connection, to our deepest selves, to one another and to the transcendent. We flourish when we stay connected to sources of life and love.
Beholding
To behold is to see with the heart, to look through your life experience towards meaning. Beholding takes us wider, higher and deeper into reality.
More on Key Words
Our Story
Some years ago, a small group of friends recognized our need to slow down. Like many people, we felt overwhelmed by the speed of life and found little space for reflection. We tried to create a space where we could explore an important question we all shared: How are we going to be in the world? We found a rhythm for reading books, watching films, eating meals and taking walks together. We discovered stories, songs, poems, paintings and nature that helped us open our own personal stories with one another. Our shared encounters evolved into this movement we call Nexus.
Today Nexus is spread across more than fifteen countries in Europe, North America, The Middle East and Asia. On this site you will find articles inspired by encounters with books, films, music, poems and life events. Each article serves as a stimulus, either for a conversation with others or your own personal consideration. Some invite you to participate in a first-hand encounter with a specific creative work (watch a film, listen to a song, read a poem, study a flower, etc). We hope you find these resources helpful. Our contribution is to share generous ways of being together that people can practice with their friends.
We also provide coaching and resources to local groups such as book and film clubs that may or may not be formally related to the Nexus organisation and help people create local events in their own contexts. Please feel free to Contact Us, read more About Us and explore our online Resources.
Image by Johannes Plenio on Unsplash
🇨🇳 中文简体 🇩🇪 Deutsch 🇪🇸 Español 🇫🇷 Français 🇮🇹 Italiano 🇭🇺 Magyarul
Podcast
We’re excited to invite you to our podcast Opening Life!
Follow us on Facebook & Instagram for updates and info. In 2024, our new Season 3 episodes will be dropping on the first weekend of each month, from March to December. This season we’ll be exploring what NYC-born and Spanish poets, feminist author bel hooks, favorite life-changing songs of Chinese friends, timeless children’s stories, and more, have to say to our lives.
All episodes can be streamed on Spotify and Apple Podcasts or check out the latest episode below:
Our Five Key Words
Space
Our lives are crowded, both inside ourselves and in the world. We all need space to listen, reflect and speak, without fear of judgement.
Story
Like a mirror, stories provide reflections of human experience from different perspectives. Stories can be told not only with words, but also with sounds, images and movements.
Conversation
Life-opening conversations happen when each person is invited to show up as they truly are. Wisdom can emerge from listening to many voices, each one beautiful in its particularity.
Connection
Human beings long for connection, to our deepest selves, to one another, to the natural world and to the transcendent. We flourish when we stay connected to sources of life and love.
Beholding
To behold is to see with the heart, to look through your life experience towards meaning. Beholding takes us wider, higher and deeper into reality.
More on Key Words
Recent Posts
A Nexus Book-Hug for Rinus
For several years, Alberto and Dan have met regularly to discuss art and life with Rinus and other Nexus friends. We have covered topics such as art, literature, religion and history, yet most of all, our interactions are about life, usually over a good meal in a friendly environment. Recently we 3 spent a few days together on the Mediterranean coast, visiting art museums and taking in select films. In an open, honest and friendly interaction about a topic that has fascinated us, Pucela Team (Alberto and Dan) presented Rinus with a series of essays triggered by Rinus’ key text, “Dreaming.”
A Poem by Billy Collins: Osprey
I am a latecomer to the poetry of Billy Collins, but after reading one of his poems for the first time this April, I wondered how I could possibly have missed him! He is a former Poet Laureate of the United States and Poet Laureate of New York State. His poetry is presented as simple observations that are insightful and powerful, often tinged with wit and humour, with multiple layers of meaning. I get the impression that for Collins everything in life, regardless of how mundane, has a poem embedded in it, and is worth being curious about.
Further Beyond – All Journeys Begin with a Dream
Lately I have become more and more captivated by the work of the Irish co-directors Christine Molloy and Joe Lawler. They started their film-making under the production title Desperate Optimists in 2004 with a number of short films leading to Joy in 2008. Joy is a 9 minutes film about a girl who has gone missing after a farewell from her friends in the local park. Their next production was their debut feature film Helen (2008) about a classmate of Joy who is asked to play the Joy part in a police-organized reconstruction. Seeing this film Helen and their next one Mister John (2013) with similar themes made me fascinated by their unique approach to filmmaking and to their original, somewhat mysterious, grasp of identity themes.
A Girl Returned (L’Arminuta) by Donatella di Pietrantonio
This book is a riveting story of a 13 year old girl who, after having been raised in an affluent home in the city by a couple she knew as her parents, was suddenly returned with no explanation to her poverty stricken birth family that she hadn’t even known existed. This novel is set in central Italy in the 1960s and is based on the author’s memories of hearing about poor families with numerous children who would give one of their kids to a relative unable to have children to unofficially adopt and raise.