Love and serve others
If you've come to help me, you're wasting your time,
but if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine,
then let us work together.
~ Lilla Watson
The outward work will never be puny
when the inward work is great.
~ Meister Eckhart
The people I love the best
jump into work head first
without dallying in the shallows
and swim off with sure strokes almost out of sight.
They seem to become natives of that element,
the black sleek heads of seals
bouncing like half-submerged balls.
I love people who harness themselves, an ox to a heavy cart,
who pull like water buffalo, with massive patience,
who strain in the mud and the muck to move things forward,
who do what has to be done, again and again.
I want to be with people who submerge
in the task, who go into the fields to harvest
and work in a row and pass the bags along,
who are not parlor generals and field deserters
but move in a common rhythm
when the food must come in or the fire be put out.
The work of the world is common as mud.
Botched, it smears the hands, crumbles to dust.
But the thing worth doing well done
has a shape that satisfies, clean and evident.
Greek amphoras for wine or oil,
Hopi vases that held corn, are put in museums
but you know they were made to be used.
The pitcher cries for water to carry
and a person for work that is real.
~ Marge Piercy
If you've come to help me, you're wasting your time,
but if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine,
then let us work together.
~ Lilla Watson
The outward work will never be puny
when the inward work is great.
~ Meister Eckhart
The people I love the best
jump into work head first
without dallying in the shallows
and swim off with sure strokes almost out of sight.
They seem to become natives of that element,
the black sleek heads of seals
bouncing like half-submerged balls.
I love people who harness themselves, an ox to a heavy cart,
who pull like water buffalo, with massive patience,
who strain in the mud and the muck to move things forward,
who do what has to be done, again and again.
I want to be with people who submerge
in the task, who go into the fields to harvest
and work in a row and pass the bags along,
who are not parlor generals and field deserters
but move in a common rhythm
when the food must come in or the fire be put out.
The work of the world is common as mud.
Botched, it smears the hands, crumbles to dust.
But the thing worth doing well done
has a shape that satisfies, clean and evident.
Greek amphoras for wine or oil,
Hopi vases that held corn, are put in museums
but you know they were made to be used.
The pitcher cries for water to carry
and a person for work that is real.
~ Marge Piercy
We create vitality-centered learning communities to more courageously respond to the world’s emerging needs. We align with life so that we can fill up to spill out. The world needs more love and life. We generate this vitality within ourselves and our communities to give it away. We know that in the giving away we also receive.
Orienting around Center
We have more love to give when we know it, and orient around it, within ourselves. That capacity increases with a community when it is doing the same. A community, an organization, and a person is stronger and more unified when oriented around a life giving center. This applies to creativity too. When making a melon basket, the first thing we do is make the God’s eye. The God’s eye holds the basket together and has to be centered. If it is not, the whole basket is off. It is the same thing when throwing a pot. If the clay is not centered on the wheel, the pot will lean. The more off center, the more the lean. In a music jam, if the guitarist does not hold the beat, the rest of the musicians have no center to travel from in the song.
We know what center is when we know what it is not. We learn how to weave a God’s eye by first learning how not to do it. Many of us learn how to be human sustainably, by first learning unsustainable ways to manage our humanness rather than live from a deeper, surrendered, more vital place. Many of us in Western cultures have been taught to avoid difficulty, rather than lean into it. We privilege comfort and ease and there is a cost to us collectively. To live a vital life means to live courageously from the whole of our human experience. To do this, “we have to talk about the things that get in the way–especially shame, fear, and vulnerability” (Brene Brown, 2010, p. 36). We have to be aware of what “off center” means and learn how to integrate, or love it in. When we do this, we cultivate more love, individually and collectively, to both be nourished by and to give away, particularly to those in deep need. This is the reason why a vitality-centered community exists–to fill up with life and love, only to give it away.
When we are aligned with the whole of our lives, we are more likely to hear the call to service with greater clarity. Being in touch with the whole of oneself means being present, aware, and listening closely to “what is”, regardless of our preference. To see every experience as worthy of our attention, including our brokenness, is to live from wholeness. We do this by creatively and courageously turning our attention toward what is real. Underneath the surface, “there is in all things...a hidden wholeness” and as Parker Palmer, pioneer in the field of holistic education, writes “Wholeness does not mean perfection; it means embracing brokenness as an integral part of life. Knowing this gives me hope that human wholeness...need not be a utopian dream, if we can use devastation as a seedbed for new life.” There are many ways to realign with that wholeness or vitality; it is the returning, or realigning, that is the important part. This alignment with vitality that runs through all that is, restores us to a sense of personal integrity that affects the world in which we live. It is from this place that our very presence becomes a gift.
Following the Call: Living from Center
Wholeness rises from the center, whether that is a pot, a basket, a song, or a life. When a compass is set to its true north, the other directions are precise. If north is off, the rest of the directions are off. There are infinite ways to come to center and the journey is one with no arrival. It is forever unfolding. Center is always shifting; moment by moment. A centered God’s eye makes a stronger basket, and like a basket, when we are centered, we are stronger vessels for the love that longs to be carried into this world.
Living from center is brave, takes practice, and involves risk. The risk is in the surrender. Surrender is not bypassing one’s experience but going straight through it, to the light and the life that connects us all. This surrender involves not knowing, aligning our own desires with a will greater than our own. This not knowing can be very frightening for many understandably, and is therefore avoided at all costs. Through the eyes of Native American wisdom, the west represents death, mystery and darkness and is “the direction of self discovery and...introspection” (Plotkin). When we learn how to move competently through the dark and cold of the west, we gain a unique wisdom from within that cannot be gained otherwise. Depth psychologist Bill Plotkin writes “It takes knowledge, skill, and fortitude to thrive in the cold and dark, so the north is linked with intelligence , competence, endurance, and strength”. The north is the seat of sacred knowledge and is the most “esteemed social and spiritual quarter of life.” To live from the whisper that is deeper than the turbulent waves of preference and emotion, we must surrender to the guidance of this deeper knowing. As we have said earlier, this is not something we can put too fine a point on. To know it, it must be experienced. Vitality-centered design invites this, because it is the vitality, the life source, that is at the center.
The stories we tell ourselves, born from our life experiences, can help or hinder us whe it comes to living from center. When we tend to wounds from the past, we can choose to rise from those wounds, and offer them as gifts. The gifts we give in service to a more connected world are often what we need the most. We foster connection because that is what we needed. We facilitate creativity because that is what will heal us ourselves. The study of the self is not just about self. It is about more deeply knowing the sacred in oneself to walk with others as they awaken to their own sacredness. We seek to create designs that invite us closer to the vitality that moves through all life. When we do this, we naturally share it with the world.
Resources
Orienting around Center
A Pedagogy of Love- Dr. Joan Clingan
Love as the Practice of Freedom- bell hooks
Nature and the Human Soul: Cultivating Wholeness and Community in a Fragmented World
Experience And Education
Pedagogy of the Heart
A Hidden Wholeness: The Journey Toward an Undivided Life
Following the Call
Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation
What is Servant Leadership?
The Descent: Leading from the Fire Within
The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher's Life, 10th Anniversary Edition
Center for Courage & Renewal
Shadow and Leadership | Parker Palmer | #14 Reboot Podcast
Liberation
What is mutual aid, anyway?
Our liberation is bound together
Reflection questions
Orienting around Center
We have more love to give when we know it, and orient around it, within ourselves. That capacity increases with a community when it is doing the same. A community, an organization, and a person is stronger and more unified when oriented around a life giving center. This applies to creativity too. When making a melon basket, the first thing we do is make the God’s eye. The God’s eye holds the basket together and has to be centered. If it is not, the whole basket is off. It is the same thing when throwing a pot. If the clay is not centered on the wheel, the pot will lean. The more off center, the more the lean. In a music jam, if the guitarist does not hold the beat, the rest of the musicians have no center to travel from in the song.
We know what center is when we know what it is not. We learn how to weave a God’s eye by first learning how not to do it. Many of us learn how to be human sustainably, by first learning unsustainable ways to manage our humanness rather than live from a deeper, surrendered, more vital place. Many of us in Western cultures have been taught to avoid difficulty, rather than lean into it. We privilege comfort and ease and there is a cost to us collectively. To live a vital life means to live courageously from the whole of our human experience. To do this, “we have to talk about the things that get in the way–especially shame, fear, and vulnerability” (Brene Brown, 2010, p. 36). We have to be aware of what “off center” means and learn how to integrate, or love it in. When we do this, we cultivate more love, individually and collectively, to both be nourished by and to give away, particularly to those in deep need. This is the reason why a vitality-centered community exists–to fill up with life and love, only to give it away.
When we are aligned with the whole of our lives, we are more likely to hear the call to service with greater clarity. Being in touch with the whole of oneself means being present, aware, and listening closely to “what is”, regardless of our preference. To see every experience as worthy of our attention, including our brokenness, is to live from wholeness. We do this by creatively and courageously turning our attention toward what is real. Underneath the surface, “there is in all things...a hidden wholeness” and as Parker Palmer, pioneer in the field of holistic education, writes “Wholeness does not mean perfection; it means embracing brokenness as an integral part of life. Knowing this gives me hope that human wholeness...need not be a utopian dream, if we can use devastation as a seedbed for new life.” There are many ways to realign with that wholeness or vitality; it is the returning, or realigning, that is the important part. This alignment with vitality that runs through all that is, restores us to a sense of personal integrity that affects the world in which we live. It is from this place that our very presence becomes a gift.
Following the Call: Living from Center
Wholeness rises from the center, whether that is a pot, a basket, a song, or a life. When a compass is set to its true north, the other directions are precise. If north is off, the rest of the directions are off. There are infinite ways to come to center and the journey is one with no arrival. It is forever unfolding. Center is always shifting; moment by moment. A centered God’s eye makes a stronger basket, and like a basket, when we are centered, we are stronger vessels for the love that longs to be carried into this world.
Living from center is brave, takes practice, and involves risk. The risk is in the surrender. Surrender is not bypassing one’s experience but going straight through it, to the light and the life that connects us all. This surrender involves not knowing, aligning our own desires with a will greater than our own. This not knowing can be very frightening for many understandably, and is therefore avoided at all costs. Through the eyes of Native American wisdom, the west represents death, mystery and darkness and is “the direction of self discovery and...introspection” (Plotkin). When we learn how to move competently through the dark and cold of the west, we gain a unique wisdom from within that cannot be gained otherwise. Depth psychologist Bill Plotkin writes “It takes knowledge, skill, and fortitude to thrive in the cold and dark, so the north is linked with intelligence , competence, endurance, and strength”. The north is the seat of sacred knowledge and is the most “esteemed social and spiritual quarter of life.” To live from the whisper that is deeper than the turbulent waves of preference and emotion, we must surrender to the guidance of this deeper knowing. As we have said earlier, this is not something we can put too fine a point on. To know it, it must be experienced. Vitality-centered design invites this, because it is the vitality, the life source, that is at the center.
The stories we tell ourselves, born from our life experiences, can help or hinder us whe it comes to living from center. When we tend to wounds from the past, we can choose to rise from those wounds, and offer them as gifts. The gifts we give in service to a more connected world are often what we need the most. We foster connection because that is what we needed. We facilitate creativity because that is what will heal us ourselves. The study of the self is not just about self. It is about more deeply knowing the sacred in oneself to walk with others as they awaken to their own sacredness. We seek to create designs that invite us closer to the vitality that moves through all life. When we do this, we naturally share it with the world.
Resources
Orienting around Center
A Pedagogy of Love- Dr. Joan Clingan
Love as the Practice of Freedom- bell hooks
Nature and the Human Soul: Cultivating Wholeness and Community in a Fragmented World
Experience And Education
Pedagogy of the Heart
A Hidden Wholeness: The Journey Toward an Undivided Life
Following the Call
Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation
What is Servant Leadership?
The Descent: Leading from the Fire Within
The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher's Life, 10th Anniversary Edition
Center for Courage & Renewal
Shadow and Leadership | Parker Palmer | #14 Reboot Podcast
Liberation
What is mutual aid, anyway?
Our liberation is bound together
Reflection questions
- What does it mean to serve? Does it matter from where we serve within ourselves?
- Can you sense when you are aligned with a deeper wisdom? How?
- What do we mean when we say your presence is a gift? Have you had experiences where you have experienced this, from you or from someone else?
- What hinders you from living a wholehearted and vital life? What stories do you tell yourself that don’t support you? What stories does your community tell to itself that support its service or not?
- What does Thomas Merton mean when he says a “hidden wholeness”?
- What are your gifts? What are those of your community?
- Where does your courage come from? Your clarity? Creativity?
- What are you devoted to? Drawn to? What scares you and excites you when it comes to being of service in your community?
- Can we design educational structures that take care of every person's gifts and that gives opportunities to offer them in their communities? Adults and youth included.