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 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 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.
In this design, we focus on two aspects of loving and serving others. Those include:
Orienting around Center: Wholeness and Welcoming Brokenness and Suffering
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 clay, the more it will lean, affecting its usefulness. 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. Center is important and to cultivate center within, we turn to the second design principle of cultivating personhood. To do this within a collective, we build beloved community.
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 by first engaging in unsustainable ways to live this human life. It takes practice, a community, and mentorship to 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, as Dr. Brene Brown writes, “We have to talk about the things that get in the way–especially shame, fear, and vulnerability”. We have to be aware of what “off center” means and learn how to integrate, or love it in. This is practicing wholeness. We get stronger when we do this, individually and collectively. When we do, we grow our capacity and resiliency to show up and love this world in the ways that it needs. We are not here to save, but to serve from a deep and vital place of love and connection.
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” (Thomas Merton) 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 to Serve
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 life that connects us all. This surrender involves not knowing, aligning our own desires with a source of life beyond just our own individual life. 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 personal preference and emotion, to serve in ways that aren't self serving, surrender to the guidance of this deeper knowing is needed.
The stories we tell ourselves, born from our life experiences, can help or hinder us when 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.
When we do our own work to know ourselves and our communities in place more deeply, we begin to experience connection so deep that these words from Aboriginal activist, Lilla Watson spoke, become a lived experience:
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.
We are here to be of service, not by changing the world, but by embodying what we hope for, one day at a time.
Foundational Resources
Orienting around Center
Following the Call
Springhouse examples
Reflection questions
In this design, we focus on two aspects of loving and serving others. Those include:
- Orienting around Center and,
- Following the Call to serve
Orienting around Center: Wholeness and Welcoming Brokenness and Suffering
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 clay, the more it will lean, affecting its usefulness. 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. Center is important and to cultivate center within, we turn to the second design principle of cultivating personhood. To do this within a collective, we build beloved community.
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 by first engaging in unsustainable ways to live this human life. It takes practice, a community, and mentorship to 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, as Dr. Brene Brown writes, “We have to talk about the things that get in the way–especially shame, fear, and vulnerability”. We have to be aware of what “off center” means and learn how to integrate, or love it in. This is practicing wholeness. We get stronger when we do this, individually and collectively. When we do, we grow our capacity and resiliency to show up and love this world in the ways that it needs. We are not here to save, but to serve from a deep and vital place of love and connection.
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” (Thomas Merton) 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 to Serve
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 life that connects us all. This surrender involves not knowing, aligning our own desires with a source of life beyond just our own individual life. 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 personal preference and emotion, to serve in ways that aren't self serving, surrender to the guidance of this deeper knowing is needed.
The stories we tell ourselves, born from our life experiences, can help or hinder us when 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.
When we do our own work to know ourselves and our communities in place more deeply, we begin to experience connection so deep that these words from Aboriginal activist, Lilla Watson spoke, become a lived experience:
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.
We are here to be of service, not by changing the world, but by embodying what we hope for, one day at a time.
Foundational Resources
Orienting around Center
- Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior, Chogyam Trungpa
- The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher's Life, 10th Anniversary Edition, Parker Palmer
- A Hidden Wholeness: The Journey Toward an Undivided Life, Parker Palmer
- Shadow and Leadership | Parker Palmer
- The Wounded Healer: Ministry in Contemporary Society, Henri Nouwen
Following the Call
- Pedagogy of the Heart , Paulo Friere
- A Pedagogy of Love, Dr. Joan Clingan
- Love as the Practice of Freedom, bell hooks
- What is Servant Leadership?, Robert Greenleaf
- The Descent: Leading from the Fire Within, Dr. Jenny Finn
- What is mutual aid, anyway?
- Our liberation is bound together
Springhouse examples
- Springhouse Adult Program
- Imagining a World Without White Supremacy
- 2020-2021 Community Internship & Apprenticeship Program Manual
- Community Internship Program as Open Walled Learning
- An Open Walled Journey: A Conversation with Jenny Finn and Sarah Merfeld
Reflection questions
- What does it mean to serve? Why 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 do you not accept within yourself? In others?
- 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 motivates you in your life? What motivates your community?
- What scares you and excites you when it comes to being of service in your community?
- Can we design culture in such a way that takes care of every person's gifts and gives opportunities to offer them in their communities?
Quick Links
Regenerative Culture
Vitality-Centered Education
Take care of vulnerability
Cultivate personhood
Build beloved community
Respect the wisdom of the Earth
Regenerative Culture
Vitality-Centered Education
Take care of vulnerability
Cultivate personhood
Build beloved community
Respect the wisdom of the Earth