Mike Wolanin | The Republic Author Brandon Andress poses for a photo while showing the mockup of a previous book cover on his tablet at his home in Columbus.
Although Brandon Andress had not planned on publishing any more books after 17 years of writing, the pandemic in 2020 had other ideas for him. Somewhat as a form of therapy, he began writing short essay-like stories about his lived experiences and published them on his Substack page.
After noticing how many of his subscribers resonated with these essays, and with motivation from his wife, Andress decided to compile these stories into a book titled “Deep Calls to Deep: Meditations for Your Spiritual Journey, Volume 1,” to be published by Quoir Publishing.
“It’s a little bit different from the other books I’ve written in the past where an idea is generated and then over the span of four, six, eight months I’m creating something from nothing,” Andress said. “This one really just was writing for two-and-a-half years one essay at a time, one meditation at a time.”
According to the book’s Substack page, “Deep Calls to Deep” takes readers through seven key areas consisting of divine love, practices, healing, peace, mindfulness, transformation and community. The book serves as a guide for individuals and groups who yearn for deeper spiritual connection, healing and growth, according to a description of the book.
“Deep Calls to Deep” consists of 77 weekly stories, reflections, anecdotes and introspective meditations, covering a wide range of topics from hilarious stories to those that break Andress’ heart. Some focus on healing and transformation, while some center around stories from his family or his experiences working through grief. A number of stories also focus on his time spent outdoors and putting nature into perspective of humanity.
“And so, a lot of times, I would say really the majority of the time, the writings are coming from a place of either what I’m feeling and experiencing myself or what I’m needing myself in terms of just a better practice, some discipline,” Andress said. “So, the writing really comes out of my lived experience.”
While there are many stories he could pick as his favorites, one story that sticks out in his mind, and one of his more popular, is when he and his wife believed she was pregnant. After two positive pregnancy tests, she went to the doctor, only to find that she was not pregnant.
“In that essay, I don’t reveal that until the very end, so whenever that one came out, it was so shocking for so many people,” Andress said. “But that was a memorable story and it really lends itself to what kind of disposition or temperament do we have in unexpected situations. You know, are we angry and bitter about our circumstance? Are we cultivating some sort of joy and happiness even though it may not be the cards that we thought we should be dealt?”
Each story concludes with an introspective question and daily practices encouraging readers to live out the principles they have taken in. In addition, at the end of each section, the book asks a week of daily embodiments so readers can apply what they have been meditating on in their heads into their real life. Andress hopes his book helps people become more peaceful and less hostile.
”There’s so much that divides us in our culture and so many things that pit us against one another,” Andress said. “I think my hope is one, that an individual can find peace within themselves and then secondly, my hope would be they can take that peace and that love and then manifest that into their relationships and into being more generative in their communities and in the world. And ultimately, it’s just really about, I think, people transforming and that’s really it.”
