[Note: Today’s guest blogger is Theresa Tensuan-Eli. Theresa faithfully joins the livestream of Spiritus’ Sunday 9:30 mass from Ardmore, PA. She is a member of the Across the Miles cohort and the circle that maintains the Prayer Line, and teaches writing and advises students at Haverford College. Theresa will also be facilitating a lenten program for us on Monday, March 31st called: Poetry, Prayer and Practice. You can register for that here. Thank you Theresa!]
My friend Pato Hebert is an artist, teacher, and community organizer who has worked with communities ranging from students and teachers at Placencia Elementary School in Los Angeles, to young adults in LGBTIQ communities, to folks contending with the effects of Long Covid. Pato has a special gift for forging community among people who may be gathering for the first time, as well as for long-standing groups that may be working to address crises and conflicts within their circle, or who are trying to figure out how to work together most effectively in service of a shared cause.
Pato taught me that short, simple prompts are really wonderful ways of enabling participants in a circle to surface what is in their hearts. One extremely effective exercise that I’ve adopted from him is to ask people at the outset of a class (or another venture) to share “Hopes and Fears” for whatever lies ahead.
I often do this as a “snowball” exercise where people write their hopes and fears on a half sheet of scrap paper, crumple the paper up in a ball, and toss it into the middle of the circle. We each then grab one of the balls of paper, smooth it out, and read it aloud to the group. It is sometimes easier for us to be open about a dream or concern if we can share it anonymously, and a great way of building group solidarity is to begin to literally as well as figuratively hold one another’s cares and concerns.
The prompts that Pato offers for “Hopes and Fears” are “What are you looking forward to?” and “What is making you feel tense or tight?” People really get into that second prompt – it helps you to quickly identify whatever it is that is jamming you up or making you feel anxious. Hence, I love the invitation at the outset of each Mass at Spiritus to “drop your shoulders” – a reminder to let ourselves relax, and begin to let go of whatever may be blocking our ability to be fully present to the Spirit.
In today’s first reading from Jeremiah, the people who are being admonished for not listening to God are described as ones who have “not obeyed me nor paid heed. They have stiffened their necks and done worse than their fathers” (Jeremiah 7: 26). I was curious about this call back to something that the ancestors had done wrong, and learned that this is a reference to Exodus: the Israelites are tired and thirsty and start quarrelling with Moses, berating him for leading them into the desert and putting them into a position where they fear that their children and livestock will die of thirst.
Here, I’ve always found myself on the side of the Israelites – it seems completely logical that you would petition your leader for what you simply need to live. When I look at the Exodus passage a bit more closely, I realize that what is at issue is that, driven by their fear and anger, they’re about to stone Moses. Moses – who must himself be terrified – turns to God, who gives him the miraculous ability to get water from a stone.
So now I’m rethinking this incident – seeing it as a story about a group of people who, wracked by fear, are starting to turn on one another. And, Dear God, I can relate! As the year has been unfolding, I have been in so many conversations in which the upshot has been “where are our leaders in this time of crisis? Don’t they have some kind of plan?” It is scary to be in a situation in which those to whom we usually turn for guidance may themselves be frozen with fear, and I understand that “deer in the headlights” feeling that comes from not knowing whether a decision will help or hurt the most vulnerable.
So I turn to a passage from Mab Segrest that resurfaced for me this morning. In her collection of essays Born to Belonging she writes of being part of a group of 40,000 women who gathered outside of Beijing in a forum that was running parallel to the United Nations’ Fourth World Conference on Women in 1995. This experience leads Segrest to a revelation: “Do your work and step back: the secret of wu wei, effortless action. This detachment is not the polar opposite of engagement, as perhaps I once suspected. On the contrary, I have learned, such detachment allows for deeper engagement because I know the effects are not really up to me, although the work is. Do each thing as if it were worship and the rest should more or less take care of itself” (227).
Segrest’s words resonate with those of Audre Lorde who in her essay “The Transformation of Silence to Language and Action” writes: “ I am myself — a Black woman warrior poet doing my work — come to ask you, are you doing yours?”
Thus, I’m thinking of this as a time to remind ourselves of the work that we are called to do, and to do that work as prayerfully as possible in right relation to others who are doing their own work.
Given all this, I am embracing Rev. Celie’s insight that one very “underappreciated antidote to anxiety is community.” In caring for one another, and simply doing what we are called to do, we can move together in continuing to create the Beloved Community that can sustain us all.
8 Comments
Annie OReilly
Wow. Thank you, Theresa. I hear what you are saying. The Buddhist monk, Thich Nhat Hanh has said, that a long time spent drinking tea mindfully is resistance to the wrong that is being handed out today. I like to email my representatives. I make it short, to the point and courteous. I want to be at a rally for Hands off Day, but I can’t physically be there. I can pray for everyone’s safety. Another action I take is to do all in my power to pay less taxes because half of them go toward the US military which is by far the most funded in the world. If there is need to trim the budget and make an entity accountable, the military, in my mind, comes first.
May you be well,
Annie
Theresa Tensuan-Eli
Annie, thank you so much for sharing Thich Nhat Hanh’s invitation to respond to times of disorder by engaging in a peaceful action that enables you to be fully present. I love the examples of your own moves to engage and uplift others from a place of care and compassion, and to dismantle those structures that sow violence.
As I sit here drinking my coffee feeling anxious about the number of emails that have accumulated while on the road, you thoughtful reflection encourages me to take a breath, savor the aroma of the beans that were cultivated, harvested, roasted, ground, packaged, and transported by so many whose names I may never know but whom I hope are able to do their work for a fair wage that serves their families’ needs, and to attend to the questions, needs, and requests in those messages with the spirit with which you move through the world.
So grateful for your good wishes – hoping that this finds you well! – Theresa
Sarah Brownell
Thanks! I like this very much. In addition to trying to find the “right” work to do, it is important to do God’s work where ever and with whatever ability I have right now. I am often frustrated that I am not able to do the work I prefer, but need to remember that I can still make a difference where I am. I can think, in every situation, what is the most loving thing I can do at this moment? How can I move the Kin-dom forward? Maybe that is just by helping my colleagues not turn against one another in this stressful moment, to encourage and reassure them, to remind them of mutual aid and history and the resiliency of people. I will try to remember this as I complete the endless paperwork of bureaucracy in order to good work, resist injustices as they come up, etc. or even just reconcile the bank statement with all the ridiculous accounts in order to make the other things possible… How to do the work God calls me to do in this moment?
Theresa Tensuan-Eli
Sarah, I’m inspired indeed by your queries: “What is the most loving thing that I can do at this moment? How can I move the Kin-dom forward?” which are beautiful correctives to how I often respond to those daily tasks that I experience as bureaucratic bean counting (with a generous side helping of surveillance).
I worry constantly that I’m not attuned to something that really needs/deserves my attention because there is so much noise and background static, so I’m deeply appreciating the reorientation that can come from asking myself “How to do the work God calls me to do in this moment?”
Grateful to/for you, and hoping that you have a good day and weekend ahead of you – Theresa
George Dardess
Very helpful! Thank you. I know I’m like many others, feeling panic rise in me because of what’s happening to us as a free society, but also conscious that causing such panic is part of the plan. So it takes a combination of courage and trust to let go of that defensive reflex and allow the spirit to work, not one’s jangled mood. And bd.uilding support for others is the best way to achieve that en
Theresa Tensuan-Eli
George, I’m appreciating your naming of “courage and trust” as those qualities that enable us to open ourselves to the spirit, which makes me think of the deep and abiding power that comes from doing the work that God is calling us to do, as Sarah reminds us.
Here thinking of Joy Harjo’s words from an earlier cycle that are resurfacing for me: “We’ve always been taught that leadership qualities include humility, compassion, a sense of fairness, the ability to listen, preparation and carry-through, a love for the people, and a strong spiritual center which begins with a connection to Earth” and embracing your insight that a strong and supported/supportive community amplifies our collective power.
Sue Staropoli
Thanks for the beautiful message, Theresa!
It resonates with one of my favorite quotes: whatever the problem, community is the answer.
Theresa Tensuan-Eli
Sue – yes, yes, and yes! Grateful indeed for Spiritus for bringing me into contact with your own buoyant and joyous spirit, which is feeding me and energizing me for the work ahead – maraming salamat! – Theresa
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