“May this home be a place of discovery, where the possibilities that sleep in the clay of your soul can emerge to deepen and refine your vision for all that is yet to come to birth…”
—John O’Donohue, “To Bless the Space Between Us”
Welcome to Big Stone House: a hub for people who wonder what it means to be and bring a bit more human into the world…or at least, into their little corners of the world. Here you’ll find inspiration, guidance and support for the good work of tending the soul, cultivating connections, and growing good in everyday, ordinary places in everyday, ordinary ways.
Meet Angie Arendt and Peter McGaugh—co-founders, project builders and people connectors of Big Stone House.
This is Angie.
She’s a storyteller, reverend and mentor who has found awe in the simple stuff of life for most of her life. For more than thirty-five years, she’s been helping all kinds of people in all kinds of places do the same: find a bit more awe, feel a lot more connected in the good and gunk and grief of life.
As an ordained minister (United Church of Christ, USA), Angie led, taught, engaged, blessed, and shared the big and little moments of life with congregations small and large for over two decades. For the past fifteen years, she has been doing the same kinds of things with people outside of the institution of the church: engaging thousands of folks from all walks of life in conversations and explorations about The Bigger Picture of Life and their place in it. Angie has taught courses, provided one-on-one counsel, and practiced the kinds of things that grow good in everyday, ordinary (and even the once-in-a-lifetime extraordinary) moments in classrooms and board rooms, living rooms and conference centers, around kitchen tables and across computer screens…making this world (or at least the little corners where we live) a bit more human.
Along with her work at Big Stone House occasionally consults and facilitates with Peter McGaugh at Deep Life. She taught with the Enneagram Institute (New York) for a number of years before creating the Big Stone House curriculum and community. Angie has been guest faculty in a number of leadership programs over the years as well as a presenter at multiple regional and national conferences, speaking on (among other things): the benefits of and need for contemplative practices in the cyber age, the good and grace of grief, and the Enneagram as a foundational component in connection and community care.
Along with her theological and contemplative studies and experience, Angie is certified in Integral Developmental Coaching (New Ventures West), brain-based teaching and leading (Jensen Learning), and the Enneagram (The Enneagram Institute).
Angie blogs every now and then and is ever so slowly scratching out a book on good, grief and grace. She joins Trudy Chapman twice monthly for “The PauseCast”, too (listen to one of Angie’s favourite episodes here).
(that photo? It’s Angie’s cat watching her present on Grief and the Enneagram at the Healing Broken Hearts Conference in the Fall of 2020)
This is Peter.
Peter has been—and still is—a mentor, teacher, writer and dot connector. He’s been helping people do good work in the world for over thirty years.
In his 20+ years as a senior executive in a global corporation, Peter learned that when human systems are tended to, a workplace thrives. In 2010, he stepped away from that line of work and founded Deep Life: an organization committed to supporting executives and teams in strengthening the human spirit in the workplace. He’s mentored and coaches and provided counsel for thousands of people since that time in places like Shopify, Alcon, Kimberly Clark, Keurig Coffee, and the National Research Council of Canada. Peter has also had the privilege of supporting huge healthcare and other not-for-profit organizations across Canada, small town hospital boards, local hospice teams and church communities…all kinds of leaders in all kinds of places who simply want to create healthier systems for communication and collaborations so they can better do their work in the world.
Peter brings that wealth of wisdom and experience to his work at Big Stone House. Here, he teaches and trains people ways to tend the human spirit at home and in their communities, supporting people in growing more good in their day-to-day life. Together with Angie Arendt, he created Another Way with the Enneagram—a series of workshops that provide food for thought and practices for transformation. He is also co-creator of Using the Enneagram in the Workplace—an ICF certified program developed to support leaders, coaches, therapists and others who want to bring out the best in the people around them.
Peter is a Master Enneagram Teacher (Enneagram Institute, New York) and an Integral Development Coach (New Ventures West) and has 20+ years of experience as a senior executive in a global organization. He has appeared on MarketWatch (that’s the photo here—taping the MarketWatch episode in New York), served on the Board of Directors for the International Enneagram Association, taught with the Enneagram Institute, been visiting faculty for the Masters of Arts of Organizational Leadership (MAOL) and presented at a number of regional, national and international conferences and settings over the years. Peter has a Substack column for his poetry and he is currently in the process of penning a book, too.
