Enter the Chaos
By Nancy Sylvester, IHM
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Dear Friends,
This weekend, Mercy by the Sea was looking forward to welcoming Nancy Sylvester, IHM, Margaret Galiardi, OP and Vernice Solimar for their program, Enter the Chaos: Engage the Differences to Make a Difference. Sadly, the Covid-19 outbreak has caused us to postpone this important and timely program until August 26-29, 2021. In the meantime, Sr. Nancy Sylvester offers us a glimpse into the wisdom of entering the chaos through contemplative practice and the theory of spiral dynamics inviting us to reflect on this time and its meaning for each of us, as an individual and as “We.” Here is Nancy’s invitation to us:
We are living at a significant evolutionary moment. For probably the first time in history, the arrival of the novel COVID-19, has the entire planet experiencing the same things at the same time. We might be able to say that no one is going to escape the consequences of this pandemic, although those with fewer resources will feel it to a greater degree.
It is a moment when the “I” is becoming a “we” as we are dependent on each other and on nature to go forward together. But how we understand this experience is critical to how we emerge from this. Can this pandemic become the soil for a new way of being and doing so a “WE” emerges from this crisis? A “WE” that as it grows moves our planet closer to becoming a just, loving and sustainable Earth community!
Although the pandemic forced the postponement of the program: Enter the Chaos: Engage the Differences to Make a Difference, the experience of the virus underlies the importance of this work even more.
We are experiencing the breakdown of so many of our institutions even as they grapple with how to respond to the crisis. There continues to be a growing polarization among ourselves politically and culturally even in relation to this reality and its seriousness. It feels as if we are a nation in search of its soul.
The Institute for Communal Contemplation and Dialogue (ICCD) believes we can respond to this crisis rooted in contemplation integrating our commitment to social justice in all its dimensions and belief in our interconnectedness as a planetary community.
These beliefs may not be main stream, but they are shared by a significant percentage of people who, like us, are trying to figure out how to respond to this historical time in ways that foster and deepen the best within ourselves, our democratic tradition and our faith traditions. We are not alone.
Enter the Chaos: Engage the Differences to Make a Difference is the way that (ICCD) is responding. This program is organic to how the Institute for Communal Contemplation and Dialogue (ICCD) has evolved since its beginnings in 2002. From the start, the Institute, has as its purpose to bring a communal contemplative response to those situations of impasse which we experience in both the societal and ecclesial arenas of our lives.
Over the last couple of years as I traveled the country, I kept encountering people who said that they couldn’t talk with some members of their families, friends or co-workers about the political situation and the issues they most cared about. For some the personality of Mr. Trump was seen as antithetical to how a President is to behave in a democracy; for others, he was seen as exactly what was needed. These attitudes hardened after the elections and the polarization intensified and continues today.
This polarization is quite deep and is offering very different worldviews of who we want to be as a nation. We understood that as you approach the question: What can we do? From a contemplative heart it is no longer an either-or answer. Looking at the situation from either one of the poles, a dualistic approach which is so prevalent today only maintains the divisions.
I found myself wondering how can we exercise our contemplative power in the midst of such chaos and polarization? Can we try to engage others who hold different positions in such a way as to heal some of these negative effects and create a space for future deliberations?
I continued to pursue these questions with Margaret Galiardi, an Amityville, Dominican, who joined me in 2011 to guide the ICCD Exploring Exercising Contemplative Power workshops around the country. We both felt that there was something more that we could do to assist people in getting in touch with new ways of seeing and then imagining being and acting from a contemplative heart. We knew it had something to do with deepening our contemplative practices and had a suspicion it had to do with the insights of integral theory and spiral dynamics.
When Margaret and I were trying to figure out our next steps I contacted Vernice Solimar whom I met during one of my presentations in California. She had worked directly with Ken Wilber and Don Beck who developed the Spiral Dynamic Integral Theory (SDi). To my great delight she said she could help us and in fact was willing to be part of developing this program.
SDi was the missing element. This theory explains how people’s worldviews or the different ways they think about issues are not contradictory of each other but are simply different stages of psychological development. This framework offered us a new way to work with our differences which was compatible with the insights we were gaining from our ongoing contemplative practice. Click here for more information about spiral dynamics.
What emerged from many hours, days, ZOOM calls and face-to-face meetings is Enter the Chaos: Engage the Differences to Make a Difference, the program you will be experiencing here at Mercy by the Sea Retreat Center in August 2021. In this program we weave together the transformative power of contemplation with the insights of Spiral Dynamics Integral as critical parts of our evolutionary journey.
We know these next months are going to be extremely important for each of us and for our planet. It is both a time of waiting and a time of readying ourselves to respond to the future. I invite you to prepare for our emerging future by joining with over 1,000 others in ICCD’s Contemplative Sitting Network (CSN). CSN is a virtual community whose members sit in contemplation for twenty minutes every day between 7:00-8:30 AM in whatever time zone one lives. It is a time to open one’s self to the Divine Mystery dwelling within and to deepen one’s commitment to the transformation of our world. Click here for more information about the CSN.
I also invite you to take time to begin or to deepen your contemplative practice. You will find many reflections on the ICCD website. They include practicing contemplation, engaging impasse, and dialoguing from a contemplative heart. You may want to journal during these months before we come together capturing your insights and questions.
A question you may want to ponder and discuss is What Are You Learning from COVID-19? In a Global Sister’s Reflection with a similar name I wrote: “As the Earth settles down to heal… perhaps we can come together across the ideological divide to sit together in silence. In that space we would begin to share our deepest longings and hopes for how to be an Earth community for this millennium. Having stopped doing so much of what we take for granted, we may be willing to emerge from our healing in new ways — creating structures to provide a more equitable distribution of revenue and resources for all.”
The three of us don’t pretend that we have the answers but we believe deeply that as we go inward in deepening our contemplative practice, we find ourselves willing to be open to go outward with new possibilities of action so that we can move forward together. I look forward to being with you in 2021.
Nancy Sylvester, IHM, President and Executive Director
Institute for Communal Contemplation and Dialogue
www.iccdinstitute.org