Community and change

A few blog entries ago I wrote about tribes, defining tribalism as something which limits individuals in their development for the sake of limited belief systems of a particular culture. Often tribalism implies a strong ideology of living in the us and them; causing separation instead of unity. Separation (specifically hostile separation) in my understanding, is something undesired in the larger scheme of the loving Cosmos.

The need for wholeness of each individual in order to enjoy wholesome community is unconditional for a healthy existence. An individual cannot be whole without community, nor can, a community be whole without individuals who are allowed to strive toward wholeness. Individuals in such a community need the freedom to express themselves without punishment. (shunning, belittleling, bodily harm, etc.) At the very least individuals have to learn and have freedom to stand up in the midst of adversity for the sake of justice. This requires everyone to learn to listen. Without being able to listen we cannot understand one another. The art of listening needs to be taught again. Teaching the art of listening must also go hand in hand with the ability to slow down, become aware of surroundings and choices unconsciously made affecting our lives. We are currently in a gigantic whirlwind missing most of what needs to be understood.

We could learn much from the Quakers who offer to persons discerning questions and paths, something called a “clearness committee.” Such a committee is a process in which the group refrains from giving advice but spends 3 hours asking a canditate honest open questions to help the person discover their inner truth. ( from: Let your Life Speak by Parker Palmer, pg. 44)

This is a process contrary to everything we learn in our western culture. Our society has become constantly pre-occupied with what to do that will make us become better (an outward better in stead of an inward better). If its not TV adds, than its friends, teachers, doctors, social workers and most everyone thinks they can better YOUR life because the very thing would better theirs.

It is important for all of us to understand that life does not work that way. We all need very specific things and understandings in order to fulfill our God-given destiny. As individualistic as someone having a destiny sounds, we all do have a destiny. Unless everyone is encouraged and allowed to fulfill their destiny our communities cannot become whole. (holy)

To become whole we need to be process driven not result driven. Having and fulfilling a destiny sounds like we ought to be result driven, in the larger picture. Unless destinies are fulfilled over time and space, over decades and millennia, we become stagnant.

We live in the liminal spaces of the temporary results of destinies and the ongoing processes of an ever evolving humanity and creation.

We live with the illusion that everything is stagnant when in reality, in order to be whole and healthy, changes must happen. Have you ever looked at a pond? It has stagnant water, algae and other organisms grow which can often be harmful to the swimmer. At the same time, flowing water is always fresh and regenerates its body frequently. The changes in the flowing water are the reason for a healthier water which can be used to sustain higher lifeforms.

A stagnant people envisions a stagnant God, an old man with a beard who carries out judgment.

A holistic changing people embraces a God of change, a God of becoming, as we are becoming. We live with the illusion that our paved roads, our landmasses will be there forever and their solidity will never change. Yet the earth is not that solid. It undergoes many changes. It is not a catastrophe, no evil, only natural that it all changes. The energies sustaining nature as I see them are constantly pulsating and fluctuating until one day that which we know breaks open or apart and reassembles itself as a different formation.

It looks like we are living at a time in which such changes are happening at an accelerated rate. Change is going to happen on every level. Some of them we have already started seeing, while others are still hidden.

Change is needed for every human being to be able to become what they are called to become.

These changes will create new forms of communities.

Change terrifies us, but we must not be afraid. Fear only comes when we are holding on to old concepts and have become stagnant. This refers to the fact that we hold on to old formulas, laws and ideas which were relevant for a particular time but are not relevant for the current time. The old ideas must re-align, in different ways to make the new. Often people say the new is really an old idea. In many ways, this is true. There are building blocks, all that is created in cosmos, our history and cultures, which as societies and the world changes reassemble to fit the new picture. Sometimes even earth will change and  participate in what we might see as upheaval. We do not need to be afraid but must entertain an open heart and mind and a deep God connectedness.

Meditation:

Imagine yourself swimming in a body of water. This water depicts your life. Is this water clear and clean, or like a pond filled with slimy alge? What does your water look like? Is it slimy or not what would you like it to look like? Then envision an illuminated waterfall of clear healing waters coming down at the edge of your pool but not entering your pool. You have been given the power to extend your pool so that the waterfall can be included. Do just that, extend the pool so that now you see the waterfall pouring into your pool. Then watch and see. What is that clean waterfall doing in your pool? What changes are taking place? What are you learning. Journal!

Biblical Scripture: Heb.1:10-12

...in the beginning, Lord, you founded the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands;

they will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like clothing;

like a cloak you will roll them up, and like clothing they will be changed........”

© 2012 Angelika Mitchell