Contemplative Learning Solutions

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.