Contemplative Learning Solutions

COVID-19 and the contemplative dimension

The last two months have presented extraordinarily unexpected challenges for people all over the world as we have dealt with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Chief among these challenges, we have found ourselves at home, unable to go to our workplaces, our places of worship, or even to visit friends.

Such a scenario is stress inducing, and the risks of loneliness, depression, substance abuse, and other social ills have probably never been higher as a result. But happily, many people have found a silver lining in this COVID cloud. The time at home has also presented an opportunity for more quiet, rest, prayer, and meaningful family activities. Relationships have been renewed, if facilitated by digital media, as we have rediscovered the importance of our social connectedness.

The quarantine can, if we choose to allow it, reconnect us to the "contemplative" dimension of life. Thomas Merton (1915-1968), the Trappist (Cistercian) monk who serves as the unofficial patron saint for this venture, Contemplative Learning Solutions, defined contemplation this way:

Contemplation is the highest expression of our intellectual and spiritual life. It is that life itself, fully awake, fully active, fully aware that it is alive. It is spiritual wonder. It is spontaneous awe at the sacredness of life, of being. It is gratitude for life, for awareness and for being. It is a vivid realization of the fact that life and being in us proceed from an invisible, transcendent and infinitely abundant source.

Contemplative Learning Solutions is a consulting team, but we've always aspired to be more than that, to be the medium by which a larger community of contemplative spirits might come together and share the journey toward more authentic workplaces, faith communities, and personal relationships. We are inspired by the Trappist tradition of which Thomas Merton was a member and the "conversion of manners" to which its monks and nuns are called, and which we think defines the elements of a contemplative life: silence, solitude, simplicity, stability, and service.

The COVID-19 crisis offers a chance to rediscover each of these elements in an immediate sort of way. Writing for America magazine, Gregory Hillis declares that, "We're all monks now." That may be a bit overstated, but the article offers some rich wisdom from some of the brother monks at Merton's Abbey of Gethsemani monastery near Bardstown, Kentucky. Likewise, Fr. Joseph Kerrigan, Cistercian of Mepkin Abbey, provides guidance on how life in quarantine can renew our commitment to all the contemplative dimensions, including and especially the element of service.

Can we look at our reduced social circle as nevertheless being that center of Christian charity that we have been called to now serve, whether in direct human needs or in encouraging wellness? And through the far-flung effects of intercessory prayer or the internet, can we continue to lift up or materially support those beyond our immediate reach? We might find that in the very midst of caring for others in this way, a mindfulness and poise may sprout within us that we previously associated only with times of solitude.

Mindful magazine has offered a helpful set of articles for navigating these times, including five ways to reimagine life in quaratine, how to be gentle with ourselves during lockdown, and, especially as we navigate extra time with immediate family, how the power of forgiveness can be so valuable during shelter in place.

Of course, at CLS we believe the Enneagram personality typing system is one of the most powerful tools for personal growth and development we've encountered. Everyone is likely responding to the challenges of this time with type-specific strengths and weaknesses. We have found a new Twitter account, Just My EnneaType, run by a couple named Josh and Liz, and recommend the posts they've offered over the last several months as they've curated a lot of helpful insights about how different personalities can effectively manage the current crisis.

Speaking of, we recently offered our first virtual Enneagram workshop, a follow up for faculty and staff of Richardsville Elementary School in Warren County on how to use the system to improve our personal and professional communication and feedback. Of course the discussions often turned toward how we manage our emotions and reactions to the pandemic  more effectively using the self-awareness the Enneagram provides. Besides the value we hope the workshop brought its participants, it has opened up a new avenue for CLS to offer our services, and so we're happy to announce that our full array of coaching, consulting, and workshop opportunities can now be adapted into fully online formats. 

Read more about us and what we offer and reach out if you'd like to know more. You can email Gary at [email protected]. We offer fully customizable workshops on all topics related to education, reflective practice, and contemplative leadership.

Regardless, we pray that you are happy and well during lockdown, and especially that as we begin to grope toward our new "normal," that we might all do so with authenticity, boldness, and compassion.

Centenary

All this attention.

Is it good? Pure? Authentic?

Or does that matter?

Thomas Merton icon by Br. Robert Lentz OFM and available for purchase here: http://bit.ly/1CC2Rnt

 

Standing on the Edge of Grace with Flannery O’Connor

On the fiftieth anniversary of Flannery O’Connor’s death, I am reflecting on her body of work, but mostly on my own sustained, and maybe even strengthened, interest in her life.  She has been on my shortlist of favorite writers since I was aware that I had favorite writers, and I appreciated her personal theology long before I converted to Catholicism.

I get that others do not necessarily share my level of interest, and I think this primarily stems from her writing’s polarizing effects.  Scenes that elicit laugh-out-loud moments from me tend to have an opposite effect on some other readers … but I knew these characters.  I grew up with them in small-town, rural America. 

I liked that O’Connor wrote honestly, but treated these people with compassion, too.  Navigating the morbidly humorous landscape of her South, her characters – and her readers – ultimately arrived at redemption.  This redemption was always personally difficult, though, and came at a great price.

Misfits on the edge populated O’Connor’s work:  the edge of society, the edge of madness, but also, importantly, the edge of grace.  And in that way, to paraphrase the doomed but redeemed grandmother in “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” we’re all included among O’Connor’s “children.”

Flannery O’Connor wrote, “All human nature vigorously resists grace because grace changes us and the change is painful.”  Her characters resisted this grace mostly because they had been able to convince themselves that others needed it instead.  Their forced self-awareness, though, proved them wrong every time.  And their own self-awareness acts as a mirror, and therefore of a grace-conduit, for the reader

Is this the heart of O’Connor’s appeal and/or repulsion?  I’m not sure.  But I do know that when I read her work, I am encouraged to keep walking (and occasionally stumbling) toward grace myself.  And I can occasionally have a good laugh along the journey.

(Image: www.slate.com)

Commemorate Flannery O’Connor today with any of these – or other – works:

Short Stories

• Everything that Rises Must Converge
• A Good Man is Hard to Find
• Greenleaf
• Revelation

Essays and Non-fiction

• The Habit of Being: Letters
• Mystery and Manners
• A Prayer Journal
• The Province of Joy: Praying with Flannery O’Connor (by Angela Alaimo O’Donnell) 

The Way

I accidentally watched the 2011 movie The Way on the Feast of St. James the Apostle while on retreat.  (I mean, of course, that I intentionally viewed the movie, but it was a happy accident that I saw it yesterday.)  Admittedly, I have never been a huge fan of either Martin Sheen or Emilio Estevez (except in Repo Man … and, okay, The Breakfast Club), the star and director, respectively.  However, the spiritual undertones of the film caused me to load it on the iPad and bring it along with me.  On my own “way.”

Explicitly, the title refers to a literal path:  the Camino de Santiago – or the Way of St. James – a 500 mile journey close to the north coast of Spain.  Implicitly, though, it also references the various ways in which a human being can live a life.  (One of the movie’s tag lines is “You don’t choose a life, you live one.”)

The Way combines beautiful location scenery with a challenging story of complicated relationships, and ultimate redemption and reconciliation. 
It struck many chords with me, and I highly recommend it. 

I hope we’re all living our lives today.  I hope we’re carefully discerning life’s vocations.  I hope we’re treating each other with compassion and understanding.  And I hope we’re joyfully (and healthily) engaging in authentic relationships.  And if we’re not doing these things, I hope we … I hope I … have the courage to start.

Waiting to Wait: Patience

In this time of great waiting, we were recently reminded of waiting’s connection to patience – that elusive quality for which we strive, but often fail, to possess.  

Father Dave Dwyer operates “The Busted Halo” website, and hosts a call-in radio show by the same name.  As proponents of contemplative leadership, Fr. Dave’s masterful blend of candor, compassion, and practicality resonates with us.  In an interview yesterday he referenced resources on his website to foster patience during the Advent season.

Caitlin Kennell Kim’s blog post, for example, discusses the beauty of patience with children in Mass while also giving all pew-sitters (not just parents) positive ways to react to behaviors and proactive ways to assist parents and children.

Additionally, Fr. Dave encourages looking for life-specific ways to practice patience during Advent.  (Are you impulsive, for instance?  Do you send emails before thinking them through?  Do you respond immediately to text messages?)

We could not help but make a connection to our work as university professors and educational consultants.  

For example, yesterday I commented to a colleague that my patience was “gone.”  And when I find myself in those situations, I tend to be much more impulsive (and much less compassionate).  In my defense, this is a stressful time of the semester for everyone … and we all tend to react by taking our frustrations out on each other.  However, I frequently find that acting on impulse results in the absolute least productive outcome for all involved.  If I allow myself (sometimes will myself) to be patient in such situations, though, the results are almost always healthier.

Similarly…

• Classroom teachers and school-level administrators who practice additional patience with students and colleagues potentially build healthy relationships resulting in effective teaching, learning, and collaboration.
• District-level administrators who practice patience with research-based reform initiatives experience potentially greater and lasting change, and avoid the sort of “initiative-hopping” that leads to bandages on educational ills that beg cures instead.

The way we see it, there are two ways to wait:  the patient way (in joyful anticipation of things to come) and the impatient way (in fretful anxiety of possible impending doom).  As teachers and school- and district-level leaders we have experienced both ways.  We do not have to tell you which way we feel is exponentially healthier, and ultimately more effective for all stakeholders.

Patience and impatience are contagious.  Practice one, and ultimately your colleagues and students will, too. 

Today, let’s choose patience … and experience the joy of waiting for amazing results. 

 

Speaking a Common Language

In the 1960s and 1970s there was a wave of interest in adopting the comparatively young language Esperanto as a common form of international communication.  Conversely, around the same time the Catholic Church began celebrating the Mass in languages other than Latin. 

In recent years, the influx of non-English speakers (primarily, but not solely, Hispanic dialect Spanish-speakers) into United States parishes has prompted various responses, the most common being offering separate and/or bilingual Masses.  This blogger offers an analysis of the matter, with which we mostly agree.

This new perspective on a Latin Mass defense intrigues us.  Mass should be celebrated in the “peoples’ language,” but what happens when the “people” speak multiple, and not necessarily similar, languages?  Bilingual Masses happen.  Separate, language-specific Masses happen.  And because Masses are separate, so are the people. 

Is it time for a regular, consistent return to Latin in the Church?  Maybe.  It isn’t exactly the “peoples’ language”; however, it eventually could be … again.

A singular language – like Latin in the Church – brings humanity together in other ways, too.  Like a strong, diverse culture that might really form in a parish if everyone attended the same Mass, healthy cultures form in schools and organizations when we somehow achieve mutual respect, understanding, and in some cases even love.

We fly the Enneagram flag primarily for this reason:  to help individuals and leadership teams achieve, or at least strive to achieve, that feeling of community … that one-ness that comes from “speaking the same language.”  Sure, our Enneagram studies and workshops have resulted in varying levels of implementation, but most, if not all, have prompted colleagues to sincerely say to each other, “I understand.” 

And because it’s uttered in a common language, they really do.

Interested in learning more about how an Enneagram workshop might help you and your colleagues begin to speak a common language?  Contact CLS today at [email protected] for more information.

 

Neuroplasticity and Contemplative Practices

Today Tom shares our Contemplative Leadership Academy model at the Association for Contemplative Mind in Higher Education Conference at Amherst College.  This morning, Dr. Gaëlle Desbordes, Research Fellow at Massachusetts General Hospital-Harvard-MIT Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, shared her work on neuroplasticity. 

Dr. Desbordes’ research suggests that participation in an eight-week intentional meditation/contemplative practices routine demonstrated a measurable increase in hippocampus gray matter.  Generally, since the hippocampus is that area of our brains that fosters learning and memory, that’s a positive finding.  It also initially supports our own Contemplative Leadership Academy work.  All school leaders value enhanced memory and learning, right? 

Here’s another interesting point:  Dr. Desbordes’ research subjects did not participate in day long, or even extended in any way, meditation sessions.  How long were they?  No more than 30 minutes to an hour each day. 

One thing we regularly hear from school leaders is that they don’t have time to practice mindfulness during the workday, and that by the time they get home it’s too late and/or they’re too tired.  We sympathize.  (Admittedly, we also occasionally fall into that trap ourselves.)

However, Gaëlle Desbordes’ research reminds us that we do have time, and that there is emerging scientific evidence of mindfulness practice’s positive effects on our physical beings. 

And that has the potential to transform our schools and work environments.

*Watch for upcoming announcements about our new Contemplative Leadership Academy study and learn how you can participate free of charge.