Category: General Learning

Every four years, FSPA, the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration, elect a new leadership team to guide their community. A President, a Vice President, and three Mission Councilors. This team takes on issues including corporate relations, canonical relations, community vision and direction, and individual and collective spiritual well-being. They make tough decisions about right-sizing, where to allocate resources, and in some cases, declining membership. 

This past weekend Teresa Posakony and I continued our work with FSPA, hosting a Discernment Weekend for the twenty sisters that remain nominated for the new team. Discernment is an ongoing process. Sisters were nominated last fall. They are required to meet in discernment circles with their local communities. They can opt out an any point. Formally, after this weekend, they will need to declare their intent for the upcoming Election Assembly. 

So, how to you help a group of people get clarity on this? To taste some of the excitement? To be honest about the sacrifice required? Teresa and I led them through processes that focused on six questions.

1. What is the yes that brings you here now? — It is not enough to be assigned to these leadership positions, though most of them would be willing to do so. What we wanted to encourage in them was clarity. A clear yes. Or a clear no. Not just a response from obligation. This question began to tease this out, the respect and appreciation that they have for each other and their community.

2. What needs to move now in the FSPA community?  — This question helped to animate the momentum experienced from their General Assembly last summer. The theme then was Risk Boldly the Future. This is the leadership climate that they are potentially signing on for. 

3. How do you match up with this leadership landscape, gifts and challenges? — I loved this circle. It was a time to be honest about what each person brings, what energizes them. And, what context each of them feels challenged in, or feels depleted in. Really important to witness in front of each other.

4. What are your interests in relation to the jobs? — We used simple dots. What do you feel excited about being a part of. It gave a visual indication of who likes to do what so that they would have a better chance of organizing around strengths.

5. What are your interests in relation to the leadership qualities? — Similar to the above, this one also gives them a view of what qualities they have, and an honest assessment of what they don’t have.

6. Is there anything that needs to be cleared? — It is not uncommon for groups to have unspoken elephants that need to be given some attention. To keep the process real, they spent some time on this. 

With these questions, held primarily in circles and small knee to knee huddles, we left them in their discernment. Within two weeks, they will declare if they are in or not. And then, we will engage their larger group of delegates into a voting process in March. I’m happy to be a part of it with them.

• From Canadian Essayist, John Ralston Saul, “We move on because we are able to debate issues, not because we have left them behind.”
• I love the Canadian Geese that have claimed my neighbors yard. pic.twitter.com/W5OaPMMZPJ
• Wow! Shane Koyczan and Hannah Epperson: Remember How We Forgot http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBVJuA0jr6Y …
• A letter from a 10 month old to Santa. Funny. Thanks Heather. http://theuglyvolvo.com/2013/12/10/a-ten-month-olds-letter-to-santa/ …
• Just get mesmerized. The intricacy of ant colony underground. Structure. Created by the super organism. http://www.myamazingearth.com/2012/10/giant-ant-colony-excavated-you-wont-believe-what-they-build-underground/ …
• @Narrative_Ink @chriscorrigan @AmandaFenton @TPosakony @Caitlinfrost Great to see your reflections Megan. Yes to wandering.
• Will Durant, American Historian: From barbarism to civilization requires a century; from civilization to barbarism needs but a day.
• Straight talk on citizen engagement (11 min) from Yarmouth, NS Mayor Pam Mood. Thanks Tim Merry for sending: http://bit.ly/19CjyeQ 
• Love this from poet Mary Oliver (thanks Chris Mann): “Instructions for living a life. Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.”
• Inspiring story of community reforming abandoned house to space for arts. York, Alabama Open House: http://youtu.be/hh_RB6uWQ-c 
• “To be fully alive, fully human, and completely awake is to be continually thrown out of the nest.” ~ Pema Chodron
• My partner Teresa is hosting a group in Washington State on death and grieving. Good, good perspectives here: http://youtu.be/xLQWM2j3AVg 
• “Activism is the rent we pay for the privilege of living on this earth.” The role of art to remove a damn in WA. http://bit.ly/142Mopn 
• I really like this, The Rule of Six, from Joy Hosey. To loosen the grip of certainty. http://bit.ly/19hgc7b  Thanks Jerry Nagel for sending.
• 7 minutes of presence, focus, balance, beauty: http://bit.ly/18cNVdR . Miyoko Shida.
• Now there is a video on humanness and empathy in healthcare. Thanks Jerry Nagel. http://bit.ly/112pZtg 
• On intuitive intelligence & practice from Institute of Heart Math: http://bit.ly/YH3oQH . Learning fields is essential. Thx @tposakony.

 

You know how you sometimes have themes that pop up in the day, week, month that are a just-right fit for the life that seems to be happening? They aren’t consciously planned. But they are consciously welcomed? Something like that. Today is one of those days for me. “Let it be unknown.” That’s the theme.

This morning my daughter called me. She’s in tears. It was a “what should I do” call. She’s been sick with bronchitis. Wearing her down. Something shifted into her sinuses. She’s at the start of a new semester in college. New classes. She is starting a new job, without really clear directions on when to start, etc. She’s concerned about disappointing others and herself. She’s frustrated to the point when it feels like everything is going wrong.

I talked with her. My tone is careful and thoughtful I’d like to think. With brief pause and inner search for what I could offer that would be helpful, I start with, “If it were me, I’d….” I want to be helpful. In compassion and kindness. Not the same as rescuing, though there is a part of me that wants to do that also. I gave her a few of those. Call your boss. Leave a message. Apologize for the awkward timing. Let them know that you are excited about the work. Speak honestly. This isn’t the first or the last time something like this will happen. She is not the only one that this happens too. It is important to myth-bust, no?

That helped.

It was the follow-up text that led to the theme. It is me searching for what is underneath for her. There are unknowns. Fear of crappy outcomes. Fear that they’ve already happened. My best guess — “Let it be unknown. It won’t always be that way. For now rest. Be gentle with yourself and others.”

I have the thought that this helped. The hope. If even only a little now, it is likely to help a lot in the future. Get comfortable with not knowing. The world you, we, live in requires this. And in fact, an unknowing landscape, distressing as it can be, is pretty good birthing ground for new awareness, shift, hell, even transformation.

Let it be unknown came up again later in the morning. Talking with my partner Teresa, we were in one of those conversations about things unseen. I read from a book I’m reading now about how the world is much bigger and weirder that we are lead to believe. Yup. My best way to get into all of that, which feels utterly important as the kind of human that I am, perhaps many are, is to let the unknown be itself for a while. Let it breath. Let it be in it’s own and natural gestation period. Rumi writes something about that that I like, about being comfortable with not knowing the answers. They come to you when it is their time.

It was Rumi that also wrote, “Run from what’s comfortable. Forget safety. Live where you fear to live. Destroy your reputation. Be notorious. I have tried prudent planning long enough. From now on I’ll be mad.”

Let it be unknown.

Tom Brackett is one of the people I most love and respect in this world. He is a minister within the Episcopalian tradition. He is also a free spirit. His creativity makes me laugh and cracks me open, pretty much each time we are together. There are some people that at the end of the day you just give thanks for. Whether to god, the gods, the stars in the sky, the void, or just in your own heart. Tom is one of those people for me.

Below is a post from his Facebook presence, as well as a follow-up reflection. I love it all. That it comes from a a dream. That it points to vision, yearning for the vast and endless. That it creates such a profound and contemporary sense of sorrow and possibility — a 757 meant to fly, yet pulled from one end of the runway to another.

One morning, not long ago, I awoke from a vivid dream that has really stayed with me. The day before, several of us were exploring that Antoine St Exupery quote that says, “”If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.”[1]I guess it stayed with me.

In this crazy dream, a few of us were hiking out of a lush forest – so thick that we could hardly see five feet in front of our faces. A little time passed and soon we came to a broad clearing. As we stepped into it, we could hear beautiful singing and chants – the sounds of children and happy people. As we left the forest, we could also smell fresh asphalt and, just over the rise, a brand new runway stretched off into the distance, shimmering in the heat. On this end of the runway sat a shiny new Boeing 757. As I watched, happy people began climbing the jetway stairs into the open doorway. They were dressed beautifully and the conversations sounded joyful, even from that distance. We watched as the last passengers came up the trail, loaded their luggage into the cart and joined the rest of the passengers already seated. We could see them through the windows as they found their seats and one of them closed the door. We could hear them singing traveling songs, even with the doors closed. What follows astonished me!

While I watched, twelve strong men emerged from the woods with coils of thick ropes over their shoulders. They walked ceremoniously to the jet, threw their ropes over the wings and with great flourish, they began singing and chanting – heaving and swaying – living into a ritual they’d obviously perfected. Within a few moments, the beautiful new jet began to roll . . . ever so slowly. From inside the jet there arose a cheer – a joyful outcry of celebration. Even in my dream, I noticed that my mouth was hanging open – in shock! I watched as these twelve pulled this jet into a jogging roll down the runway until it stopped all the way at the other end. Then, much to my wonder, everything I had just witnessed was repeated, but in reverse. A tiny figure rolled the stairs up to the open doorway and the same beautiful people emerged – still singing – still grateful and so intentional. They walked to the back of the jet and retrieved their baggage from the cart hitched to the real wheels. They joyfully and appreciatively found their way down the path to that dayeir errands and their day’s work.

Then, as the dream’s day ended, I watched as the same 12 men returned this jet ever so slowly back to my end of the runway. It now towered over me – a beautiful and massive creation with incredible potential. The same lovely people disembarked, gathered their baggage, sweetly said their goodbyes and disappeared down the path towards their homes. In my dream, the sun set and the sky went dark. The sounds of night descended and I could see the moonlight glinting on the wings of the silent jet. In that moment, I woke up and wrote this out, as best I can remember it.

[1] Antoine de Saint-Exupery (French Pilot, Writer and Author of ‘The Little Prince’, 1900-1944)

Just finished a conversation with friends about this dream. On reflection, what stands out to me is that so many of our trained religious leaders get their version of a pilot’s license only to steer their 747 from one end of the runway to the other, year after year. They will privately confess that they dream of starting those jets and and actually soaring over Antoine St Exupery’s “vast and endless sea.” They know there are probably plenty of others back in the passenger compartment who yearn, as well. Question they ask is usually some version of “How do we renegotiate the terms of our deal? Most of my passengers climbed on to ride in safety and gratitude but only to the other end of the runway. And besides, what would we do with all that baggage dragging along behind?” Those are very personal questions and only to be asked and engaged, jet by jet! Nonetheless, so many of my colleagues are clear and courageous. They are renegotiating the terms of what it means to be a faith community that soars. They are shifting expectations, lending courage, compassionately coaching folks to fasten their seatbelts and get ready for the ride of their lives. I honor you Peggy Holman, Chris Corrigan, Caitlin M Frost, Tenneson Woolf and Teresa Posakony