Walking Each Other Home (Part 4): The Way Of Presence | Roger Pierce & Jake Haber
Mon Feb 02 2026
What does it really mean to walk with someone through life’s hardest moments?
In this conversation, Jake sits down with Roger, a member of the Aldea community whose life’s work has centered on presence in moments most of us instinctively try to fix, explain, or escape. Drawing from decades of experience as a naval officer, military chaplain, and hospice chaplain, Roger reflects on what it looks like to accompany people through grief, trauma, uncertainty, and death—not with easy answers, but with steady presence.
Rather than offering spiritual formulas or tidy conclusions, Roger invites us into a deeper understanding of companionship—one rooted in listening, humility, and belonging. Whether you’re caring for someone else, facing your own threshold moments, or simply wondering how to be more present in a fragmented world, this conversation offers a quiet, grounded wisdom for the walk.
Quotes:
“When we dare to stay with someone in their pain, without trying to take it away, we discover that love is stronger than suffering.”— Henri J.M. Nouwen
“To accompany someone in their dying is not to remove their fear, but to refuse abandonment.”
— Christina Puchalski
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What does it really mean to walk with someone through life’s hardest moments? In this conversation, Jake sits down with Roger, a member of the Aldea community whose life’s work has centered on presence in moments most of us instinctively try to fix, explain, or escape. Drawing from decades of experience as a naval officer, military chaplain, and hospice chaplain, Roger reflects on what it looks like to accompany people through grief, trauma, uncertainty, and death—not with easy answers, but with steady presence. Rather than offering spiritual formulas or tidy conclusions, Roger invites us into a deeper understanding of companionship—one rooted in listening, humility, and belonging. Whether you’re caring for someone else, facing your own threshold moments, or simply wondering how to be more present in a fragmented world, this conversation offers a quiet, grounded wisdom for the walk. Quotes: “When we dare to stay with someone in their pain, without trying to take it away, we discover that love is stronger than suffering.”— Henri J.M. Nouwen “To accompany someone in their dying is not to remove their fear, but to refuse abandonment.” — Christina Puchalski