Contributed by Rev. Dr. Trish Hall
“The mysterious path of spirituality is a path to the intangible. Human beings are used to the tangible. From tangible to intangible and knowing to the unknowable, the path is quite treacherous and often winding. There are many trials and errors possible. Many falls and rises. Tenacity and conviction plus the will to survive against all odds will keep us going. It is a long and winding road by itself.”
The Path of Pathlessness … Mohanji
We humans spend most of our time living circumstantially, reacting to our environment – physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. Feeling a sense of discontentment, we are drawn to search, to what Ernest Holmes called “The Great Search.”
“The world seeks a solution of its great riddle—the apparent separation between God and man; between life and what it does; between the invisible and the visible; between the Father and the Son—and until this riddle is solved, there can be no peace. Peace is an inner calm, obtained through man’s knowledge of what he believes and why. Without knowledge, there is no lasting peace. Nothing can bring peace but the revelation of the individual to himself, and a recognition of his direct relationship to the Universe. He must know that he is an eternal being on the pathway of life, with certainty behind him, certainty before him, and certainty accompanying him all the way. Peace is brought about through a conscious unity of the personal man with the inner principle of his life—that underlying current, flowing from a divine center, pressing ever outward into expression. But this can never come by proxy. We can hire others to work for us, to care for our physical needs, but no one can live for us. This we must do for ourselves.”
We intuitively seek Peace. Both Dr. Holmes and Mohanji caution that we should not assume that it will be easy, yet we have within us everything we need to make the journey. We must make the journey for ourselves – we are the only ones who can.
The challenge that I lay before all of us is, are we willing to release the known, the visible, that which we believe with certainty in order to experience Divine Peace? Do you trust the process deeply enough to venture into the realm of the pathless?
This blog post is the expressed opinion of its writer and does not necessarily reflect the views of Tysons Interfaith or its members.
Contributed by Rev. Dr. Trish Hall
At Centers for Spiritual Living, our core belief is Oneness – the inseparability of all creation.
“We believe in God, the Living Spirit Almighty; One indestructible, absolute, and self-existent Cause. This One manifests Itself in and through all creation but is not absorbed by Its creation. The manifest universe is the body of God …”
All Creation is the result of the Creator expressing Itself in form. Its activity is Love. Within the One we are inseparable from one another – those we love and like and those we don’t like and yet are called to love.
We believe our world is the manifestation of God. There is nothing else so the Allness of God includes everything. Everything is within this One Creation. Within this creation are people and things we love and try to understand, and people and things that we find incomprehensible. It includes people we do not like and those we deem to be unlikable.
The task of loving those we have labeled unlikable varies from relatively insignificant to paralyzingly daunting. Our world view tends to dictate how we relate to all people – the likables and the detestables. Our emotional responses may vary from casually acknowledging that some people do not appeal to us or hold views that are incompatible with ours, to finding ourselves triggered having gut-level reactions and fear. The call to love our neighbors isn’t subject to our emotional responses. The call is clear and is not to be ignored.
Before looking at loving “the unlikable” we need to consider “unlikability.” How is it determined and by whom? The dictionary tells us that unlikable is detestable, despicable, contemptible, worthless. I ask based on what criteria? I invite you to contemplate the difference between UN-likable, which seems to focus on the nature of the person, versus DIS-likable which seems to relate more to the temporariness of behaviors. So far, I have not met a parent who hasn’t shared that there have been times when they really didn’t like their offspring yet never wavered in their love for that child. They didn’t declare that child unlikable, they disliked the behavior and loved their kid. Dislikable then seems to be redeemable, whereas someone deemed unlikable is inherently flawed.
Likeability is subjective. It is an opinion formed by an individual that then is spread to that person’s circle and ripples out coalescing the perceptions of greater numbers of people. Interestingly, the process works whether positive or negative. It is used by celebrities of all kinds. The process is impartial. History is fraught with examples of how the same process has been used destructively. Instead of uplifting someone or moving some great cause forward, it has been used in the opposite direction to impose misery and injustice. The process can engender mob mentality. All it takes is someone deciding something about someone and spreading their opinion about that person (aka gossiping), stirring up mobs of like-minded people into acts of violence. You may say those are extreme examples, and I will challenge that the pattern that conducted witch hunts in the 15th to 18th centuries, is as alive and well today as it was then. It was a demonstration of raging prejudice then. It remains a demonstration of raging prejudice now. The focuses of the prejudgments may have changed; the resulting behaviors have not.
How is unlikableness determined? By whom? On what criteria? Is there an unlikableness scale? Where do you get the information on which you have formed your opinions?
I invite you to examine your own beliefs – to challenge them – to form your own opinions whether or not they are compatible with your family and friends.
Let’s start fresh. Let’s begin by honoring what we are and why we have the ability to decide what is right for us personally. As Jane Goodall said, “What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.” It is your right to choose to not examine your beliefs, to conform to some external expectations and remain as you have been. And you have the right and the privilege to decide to change radically or anywhere in between. We are blessed that we have those options. We have those choices because we are endogenous beings – our origin is internal rather than dependent upon external forces. We are thinking beings that have the power to choose our own courses of action. I believe that exercising that privilege is our responsibility.
As believers in Oneness, is there a space for anyone to be judged unlikable? Perhaps, very dislikable?
Preparing for this self-examination, a first step might be to look closely at our own criteria. Is it a reflection of the society in which we live or our personal values? Have you reviewed the input of others (media, relatives, etc.) to determine whether it is in alignment with your values – with how Spirit within you is calling you to be?
Oneness assumes that everyone and everything is the expression of One Creator. Different traditions have given this one creator myriad names. The names can limit our perceptions – our assumptions about it. They cannot limit the Creator. Oneness asks us to accept that it includes what we understand and what we don’t, what we like and what we don’t, what we love and what we don’t. Oneness calls us to be so open that we can be in the midst of apparent disparities and contrasts and learn strategies to live in peace celebrating diversity within the Oneness. Oneness invites us to be in integrity and live into the change we want to experience. Some tough questions remain: Are our hearts big enough to hold a space for those whose behaviors appall us without judging them to be inherently (perhaps permanently) flawed? Can we expand our concepts of being present with those we do not understand so that we can learn from them while remaining grounded in Love? Are we willing to be open to the possibility that we can create a world that works for all especially when it requires collaboration with the dislikables? Are we bold enough to be peace makers in the midst of the antithesis of peace?
Jane Goodall declared, “What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.” I ask, Do you have the courage to stand as Oneness, as a Peace Builder … to be a change-maker?
To learn about the Centers for Spiritual Living’s Global Heart of Peace Initiative, please visit: https://csl.org/spiritual-community/heart-of-peace/.
This blog post is the expressed opinion of its writer and does not necessarily reflect the views of Tysons Interfaith or its members.
Contributed by Stephen Wickman, St. Thomas Episcopal, McLean
Spurred by a comment to my blog post on “comfort,” led me to take a historical and philosophical dive. In 2014 Philip Jenkins wrote a deliberately provocative article to argue there was “a genuine and epochal decline in the number and scale” of religious movements like the Church of Scientology and the Unification Church, both of which date from the 1950s and early 1960s.
But others have mushroomed in Asia, where I lived and worked for years. Daesoon Jinrihoe, founded in 1969, is the largest “new religion” in Korea, while the Church of Almighty God – you can’t make these names up — was established in 1981 in China and claims millions of followers at home, and because of persecution and emigration in some 20 other countries. Indonesia, Vietnam, Africa, Puerto Rico, and Columbia have spawned “new” religions or neo-Pentecostal groups. Mexico’s La Luz del Mundo has spread despite COVID-19 and the arrest of its leader for a sexual crime.
The new Korean religions usually cite Christianity as a source and are often more successful abroad than at home. Just so, the World Mission Society Church of God claims two million members in Nepal, Latin America, and even in the United States, where the Unification Movement has dwindled to 65,000 members but controls the wholesale sushi supply industry and a newspaper. Won Buddhists and Jeungsanists have recently translated their texts and begun missionizing abroad, which some see as unprecedented in religious history.
Why do we need religion, new or old?
In 1949, Karl Jaspers posited the idea that there was an “Axial Age” from roughly BCE 800-200 when humans, across vastly different regions and without direct contact, simultaneously came up with new ways of thinking that lay the foundations for the world’s enduring philosophical, moral, and religious traditions. These included China, where Confucius and Laozi (Taoism) reshaped ideas on ethics and governance; India, where the Buddha, the Upanishadic philosophers, and the Jain tradition emphasized liberation, compassion, and self-realization; Persia, where Zoroaster, introduced dualistic cosmology and moral responsibility; Greece, where Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle explored reason, ethics, and metaphysics; and Palestine/Israel, where figures like Isaiah and Jeremiah deepened the moral and spiritual vision of Judaism.
Jaspers has been criticized for simplifying things, but many agree there was a process if not an “Age” where a new layer of morality emerged that featured the following principles:
1. Moralistic punishment: violations of “natural” morality will be punished by higher authorities, in this life or the next.
2. Moralizing norms: peers and other members of a relational network are obliged to monitor and deter deviance.
3. Pro sociality: cooperative behavior should be actively encouraged and rewarded.
4. Moralizing supernatural beings: an “eye in the sky” watches over everyone, punishing sins and rewarding virtuous behavior.
5. Rulers are not gods: worldly leaders are merely human, just like everyone else.
6. Equality: moral rules apply to both elites and commoners, regardless of birth and social status.
7. Ruling morality: The rules apply to the rulers as well.
8. Formal legal code: the rule of law is explicitly formulated.
9. General applicability: the law applies to all citizens equally.
10. Constraints on the executive: decisions are constrained by formal rules—such as a veto—or informal (but powerful) ideological constraints, e.g. requiring the tacit approval of a priesthood.
11. Bureaucratization: administration of a system of governance requiring specialist skills, training, and salary.
12. Impeachment: excessive and arbitrary exercise of power by rulers can lead to their removal.
This new morality replaced “archaic” systems where rulers could act with impunity. Again, however, there were exceptions. In the Italian Peninsula, Christianity created a pronounced moralizing dimension, but it was accompanied by an increase in social inequality – still not as bad as in the old Roman Empire — and the emergence of a religious autocracy. Moreover, the greatest concentration of axial principles was not in the first millennium BCE, but in the 2,000 years that followed. Because of the emperors’ strong association with the divine and a lack of tension between secular and sacred order, Japan remained pre-axial until the modern era despite early introduction and adoption of Buddhist and Confucian ideas. And in what is now Cambodia, Buddhism and the Hinduism that preceded it did not exercise a moralizing effect until much later.
Archaeological and historical research in the decades since Jaspers, moreover, has unearthed evidence for “sustained, impactful connections between all of these regions.” Zoroastrianism, Rabbinic Judaism, and Greek philosophy not only developed through the exchange of ideas, but also owed much to earlier Hittite, Mesopotamian, and Egyptian ideals and practices.
But what about the newest religions? Several theories share the idea that after the French and Industrial Revolutions, rapid change and the feeling of an “accelerated history” provided fertile ground for such movements. They argue that it is not a coincidence that Spiritualism and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints appeared first in 19th century New York and that some Asian countries, faced with imperialism, colonization-decolonization, war, and sudden economic development have similar experiences.
Fast forward to Korea, where the social unrest caused by Japanese, Chinese, Russian, and Western imperialism helped spread the idea that Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism were outmoded. Christianity and Ch’ŏndogyo, Daejongism, and the branch of Jeungsanism known as Bocheonism gained followers because they opposed Japanese occupation. After the devastation of the Korean War, new groups proliferated and became even larger. And they continue to this day.
This blog post is the expressed opinion of its writer and does not necessarily reflect the views of Tysons Interfaith or its members.
Contributed by Lois Herr — First Church of Christ, Scientist, McLean
Many people set aside time in their day for prayer, reflection, or meditation. As a Christian Science practitioner, I often find inspiration in daily audio reflections presented by members of our church, called the Daily Lift.
A recent Daily Lift by Madora Kibbe, a Christian Scientist Practitioner and teacher from New York, New York, is entitled, “Why Would You Love An Enemy?” In this segment, Madora notes that the Sermon on the Mount (the manifesto for peace) in the Christian Bible directs that we love our enemies – “and that is hard!” To illustrate her point, Madora shares a touching vignette about her father, who served in World War II. She concludes that because we are all manifestations of the spirit of our creator, it is our duty to separate wrongdoing from people. For Madora, loving our enemy, is indeed, the only real answer.
The Daily Lift is comprised of audio presentations contributed by Christian Science church members worldwide – with the majority coming from the U.S. This particular Lift will remain on the website for thirty days before being retired.
May this segment bring you peace and encouragement.
This blog post is the expressed opinion of its writer and does not necessarily reflect the views of Tysons Interfaith or its members.
Contributed by Stephen Wickman: St. Thomas Episcopal, McLean
“What would they do if they were tested with a great tragedy, wouldn’t they need God for comfort?”
That was the question asked by one of our Baha’i friends at last week’s Interfaith Coffee House (please come!) in response to my snarky suggestion that, looking at the lives of my son and his wife and daughter at least, one doesn’t have to believe in God or practice a particular faith to lead a good and contented life. It got me thinking.
It’s not always the need for comfort that brings us to God, although there’s a long strain in Christianity that sees this. In fact, listening to a BBC broadcast about prison conversions the other day, I was struck by how these events occur most often when a person is at their lowest ebb.
But then there is the case of Saul on the road to Damascus: the man who became Paul knew in his heart that persecution was not God’s will. Justice, humanity, and love for one’s enemies – not comfort – was the basis for his conversion. Of course, when Paul was imprisoned in what is now Turkey, he led his fellow prisoners in hymns to God even as they experienced a massive earthquake. He told them to take comfort in the Lord and not to escape and ended up converting their jailor!
If you examine the life of Christ or Buddha or perhaps of other religious leaders, “comfort” is not the first word that comes to mind. They struggled often, and almost as frequently they called us to live a life of discomfort. As Jesus put it in Matthew 10:
‘Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.
For I have come to set a man against his father,
and a daughter against her mother,
and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household.
Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.’
Not exactly a message of comfort.
But I’m sure our Baha’i colleague had something else in mind when he used the word “comfort.” In the face of adversity, one can indeed take comfort in the assurance that God is with you and that someday soon this will be overcome. That’s what motivated Paul in captivity, and that’s what has helped so many in the world overcome injustice.
This blog post is the expressed opinion of its writer and does not necessarily reflect the views of Tysons Interfaith or its members.
Contributed by Stephen Wickman, St. Thomas Episcopal, McLean
“Why Have Empathy for Those Who Never Extend It?” is how Qasim Rashid begins a brave essay that reflects on the death of Charlie Kirk Reflections on the Death of Charlie Kirk. It is well worth the time to read his thoughts in full, but here is a summary:
Rashid argues that Kirk rarely extended empathy and often poured contempt on many groups of Americans, including Muslims, engendering hatred.
And he returns to a verse from the Qur’an for guidance:
“O ye who believe! be steadfast in the cause of God, bearing witness in equity; and let not a people’s enmity incite you to act otherwise than with justice. Be always just, that is nearer to righteousness. And fear God. Surely, God is aware of what you do.” — Chapter 5, Verse 9
Rashid detests and works ferociously to counter what he views as the hatred that Kirk engendered but at the same time does not allow these injustices to make him retaliate in kind. As he puts it: “I will not allow his fear of the other infect my ability to see the humanity in every person.”
And here is an important comment from the niece of Rev. Martin Luther King:
‘And now while his family and this nation grieve, some are calling him a racist. A white supremacist. Even a fake Christian. Such accusations are conversations unbecoming to a Christian,” she continued. “In the final analysis, Charlie stood for life, for faith, and biblical truth. He wasn’t afraid to say the name of Jesus in the public square, and he paid a price for it. Now is not the time to attack Charlie. It’s the time to lift up the banner of Christ as the member of the one blood human race Charlie Kirk did. His legacy of public discourse of bringing difficult conversations to the table mattered. He caused us to think and to pray. Charlie has gone to meet his maker. May he rest in peace. May we honor him today by praying for his family and by answering this question: Where will you spend eternity?’
“Such empathy or hard “love” is a basic premise of all our faith traditions. I disagree with Kirk on most things, but especially on his treatment of the LGBTQ community, Muslims and “progressives,” but like Rashid’s, my faith requires me to respond with kindness even as I express my disagreement.
In the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church, there is a prayer for one’s “enemies” that carefully balances responsibility on both sides of a conflict:
“O God, the Father of all, whose Son commanded us to love
our enemies: Lead them and us from prejudice to truth:
deliver them and us from hatred, cruelty, and revenge; and in
your good time enable us all to stand reconciled before you,
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”
In that spirit and in the spirit of Islam and other faith traditions, let us extend our empathy and love, without prejudice, to the Kirk family and his supporters.
This blog post is the expressed opinion of its writer and does not necessarily reflect the views of Tysons Interfaith or its members.
This past summer at McLean Baptist Church we did a series of Sunday morning group studies titled ‘Kaleidoscope of Faith.’ I had the pleasure of presenting the last session of the series and the topic I chose was Faith & Gratitude. Some of the other sessions included Faith & Travel, Faith & Science, Faith & Storytelling and even Faith & Spies.
I began by giving this specific definition of what I mean by gratitude – the feeling you experience when you acknowledge having something that’s valuable to you and that came to you as a gift. Whatever it is, you did not get it through any kind of transaction and it’s not anything that you feel is owed to you.
The first slide in my presentation was the image at the top of this post. This is a picture my son took of me on the evening of 8/25/25 on the shore of Lake Anna at sunset. The view was particularly beautiful that evening and if you look closely, you can see the crescent moon that was setting behind the sun. As another person in our group moved closer to the water to get a different view I noticed his silhouette so I quickly gave my phone to my son and asked him to take a picture of me as I struck a pose at the water’s edge. Looking at this picture now I see myself in a posture of gratitude.
10 minutes of my presentation was showing this video, a Ted Talk from 14 years ago by Louie Schwartzberg on gratitude. It is filled with beautiful time lapse photography and is narrated by Brother David Steindl Rast. Here’s a quote from Louie – “Gratitude unlocks the beauty of life. It turns what we have into enough.” and here’s a quote from David – “It’s not happiness that makes us grateful, it’s gratefulness that makes us happy.”
I also took a few minutes to point out the connection between remembering and gratitude. At some point in your life, someone taught you the spiritual disciplines that you practice today. That person may have been a leader, a friend, a grandmother, a pastor, or someone who is no longer with us. We should never forget them and the influence they’ve had on us. In the midst of the pace of work, errands, new friendships, and personal challenges, it can be easy to forget our roots.
Remembering is a form of humility and gratitude. We honor the efforts of those who have invested in our lives when we live with purpose, when we seek to grow, when we share what we learned. Today, think about the person or persons who left an imprint on your spirit. Perhaps it is time to write to them, to pray for them, or simply to give thanks in silence. Their influence is still alive in you, and now you can be that voice for someone else.
P.S. World Gratitude Day will be celebrated on Sunday, 9/21/25
This blog post is the expressed opinion of its writer and does not necessarily reflect the views of Tysons Interfaith or its members.
Contributed by Stephen Wickman, St. Thomas Episcopal, McLean
There is an ongoing debate in the Christian community about the “sacraments,” or what is essentially necessary to be a Christian. All of our communities agree on two: Communion (Eucharist, the Great Thanksgiving, the Mass) and Holy Baptism. Some traditions (primarily the Roman Catholic) claim you must be baptized in order to partake of the former. My church practices an “open table” theology, which is discouraged by some Episcopal Bishops. In short, the “open table” approach allows anyone to join in the Communion.
This is a sensitive matter for me, since I was “conditionally” baptized on August 19. You see, near the end of her life, my mother admitted to me that I may not have been properly baptized in the Pilgrim Holiness (now Wesleyan) tradition since they frowned on infant baptism. This was startling news because I was confirmed as a Methodist and then an Episcopalian on the basis on what I thought had been my infant baptism. But my mother said I may have just been “dedicated, not baptized.
If you believe all this mumbo jumbo, it’s a big deal. Hence my last-minute conditional baptism, which neither of my parish priests had ever administered. The only difference, is when the priest lays on hands he/she says “if you have not been baptized, then” etc.
It was an emotional moment for me. Adults are very different from infants. They can consider the surroundings, the few parishioners who joined a Tuesday noon mass at my church, the candles, the liturgy, the water on one’s head, the scent of the chrism applied to the forehead.
My rector, the Rev. Fran Gardner-Smith crooked her arm in mine as she presented me to our Assistant Rector. I was very moved. After all, I had served on the vestries of two Episcopal churches and I’m a certified lay Eucharistic minister.
But now I am “properly” baptized. This coming Sunday, we will baptize several Iranian converts. As I recite the baptismal vows, I will rededicate myself to some of the most extraordinary promises that any human can utter. If you are interested, please read What We Believe As Episcopalians, Starting With The Baptismal Covenant
This blog post is the expressed opinion of its writer and does not necessarily reflect the views of Tysons Interfaith or its members.
Contributed by Rev. Dr. Trish Hall
We have, in plain sight, an opportunity to create a world that works – a world that supports itself by connecting and nurturing all aspects of creation. The common phrase “hidden in plain sight” applies to much of our human experience. Life in all its messy diversity is blatantly in front of and all around us. We are immersed in it. We can pretend that it is not, and such pretense will only cause greater and greater rifts.
The idiom “hidden in plain sight” used by Edgar Allen Poe in his short story, “The Purloined Letter,” demonstrates the limits of human perception and the importance of observation, suggesting that something can be both conspicuous and inconspicuous at the same time.
Buddhism addresses the concept of “hidden in plain sight” by suggesting that the path to awakening is not about seeking something external or extraordinary, but about recognizing the truth that is already present in our experience.
Christianity guides followers to see the “hidden things of God” that are hidden in plain sight for those who have opened their eyes to see and their ears to listen.
Similarly, we often miss opportunities, such as the possibility of changing the whole world, because we go through life so preoccupied with routine activities. We miss the richness that is constantly presented to us. The admonition, “slow down and smell the roses,” advises us to take respites from our busyness to appreciate what is right in front of us.
Within current times that are often described as “tumultuous,” some of us withdraw into our personal cocoons, isolating from others, resulting in loneliness. Alternatively, we join communities with which we have a lot in common, and which exclude people unlike ourselves. To insulate from perceived dangers, these groups can take on the nature of gangs clustering together against assumed enemies.
With either approach, barriers emerge that block our ability to connect with the richness of Creation. The sense of separation – separateness –arises as fear and loneliness. Loneliness has been labeled a pervasive epidemic. Whether individuals isolate or withdraw into the assumed safety of cultural/community bounds, a shared fixation on contrast and differences, causes “othering.” Hostility and aggression ensue, and the chasms between peoples grow.
The opportunity presenting itself “in plain sight” is to become cultural connectors – bridge builders.
Creation is immeasurably diverse. Whether you count insects, reptiles, birds or mammals including humans there are myriad individuations – each unique – each one-of-a-kind! When we hide among those with whom we have an affinity, a resemblance or cultural connection, we rob ourselves of the opportunity to experience the richness of the creation.
Cultural blindness refers to the lack of awareness and understanding of cultural differences, often leading to the imposition of one’s own cultural values on others. It’s a state of being unaware of, or actively ignoring, the diverse cultural backgrounds, beliefs, and practices present within a group or society.
The practices of ignoring and/or othering are, unfortunately, exceedingly common. If we ignore those who are different from us, not only are we denying them recognition, we deprive ourselves of opportunities to learn and connect. If we engage in othering – labeling – we are judging, devaluing and relegating them to something unacceptable. We are separating them from us. We are denigrating and discarding them. Who are we to judge others based on our assumptions?
Whether you consider yourself a humanist, deeply religious or somewhere in the middle, it makes sense to interact with everyone and everything for the betterment of all. Inclinations to divide stem from fear based on biases, preconceived notions, or a lack of critical thinking.
I am inviting you to consider enhancing how you see the world. Even if you already embrace the concept of oneness (not to be confused with “sameness”), hidden biases probably are lurking within you. The way we humans learn is to observe, compare and store all our experiences. The moment we compare we are filtering our observations. That filtering function is the imposition of unconscious biases. Unless such biases are addressed at the conscious level, they alter perceptions like bugs in software that can cripple our operating systems. Although people often assert, “I’m not biased,” their internal controller adds: “provided people live their lives within my comfort zone.”
Does your heart yearn for a world composed of individuals, families, neighborhoods, cultures and communities living together in peace? Mine does. John Lennon’s song, “Imagine,” immediately comes to mind.
Wayne Dyer taught, “When we change the way we look at things, the things we look at change.” Life is composed of myriad cultures so cultural differences are ubiquitous. You may encounter communication disconnects within your own family, neighbors, religions, partisan perspectives, ethnicities or internationally. It’s important to acknowledge that gaps exist everywhere and all too often within our closest relationships. Many disconnects have taken on proportions that seem wider than the Great Rift Valley in Kenya.
When we shift how we see our world, we shift the world – we radically change relationships: interpersonal, interfaith, intercultural and international.
A Colleague stated, “How you see them is how you serve them.” How we see each person in our lives impacts how we relate to/with them!!
The opportunity to change the whole world by shifting how we relate to our fellow humans and all creation, is right in front of us, in plain sight.
Cultural diversity abounds around us. We get to be trail blazers changing the world by starting conversations even when we feel scared and especially when we feel unsure about whether our presence will be welcomed. Actually, our internal dialogue is a bold indicator that a situation is the perfect one to enter.
To foster and strengthen healthy intercultural connections requires that we step out of our own comfort zone to offer new ways of connecting. Such an approach requires sensitivity to bridge the gaps.
It doesn’t matter what your color, geography, ethnicity, nationality, gender identity, age, station, economic/community, or any other way in which you identify yourself, everyone is different!
Bridging such divides requires that we enter our pursuit with compassion, gently gleaning a sense of how it is to be someone. The task is huge and complex.
It requires commitment, determination, kindness and compassionate perseverance. The process requires delicacy and loving boldness.
The components are surprisingly simple. The application of those components can be challenging. The arena in which we need to apply those components is fragile. The essential element is trust undergirded by Love. Trying to reassemble trust, if broken, is much like trying to put Humpty-Dumpty together again, so let’s avoid breaking trust.
To build a bridge, we must assess the current situation:
- What are we moving from? Feeling discontent
- What are we spanning? Perceived differences/separation
- What is our desired outcome? Supportive interconnection
Peace and equity will only come to pass when we learn from and with people of other perspectives.
Together, we get to be bridge builders – to be initiators. Now is the perfect time to establish new patterns and new ways of relating – to embrace oneness boldly so that an observer would never doubt our belief in it nor our commitment to create a world that works for all.
Like love, our embrace of oneness cannot be conditional. It cannot depend on our comfort. Knowing that, as cultural connectors, we are facilitating the emergence of a world that works – a world that supports itself by connecting and nurturing all aspects of creation.
Engage in “witness consciousness” – observe yourself and others without forming opinions and jumping to conclusions. Not easy yet incredibly rewarding!
Embrace “beginner mind” and open to how it is to be someone of another culture or perception. Be flexible and adaptable. Identify shared values and common concerns. Open to possibility.
Encourage others to join you by creating a tsunami of connections. Barge out of your comfort zone. Accept that any stories you are carrying about other cultures are rooted beneath your conscious awareness, so you need to consciously release the hold they may have on you.
Now is the perfect time to embrace that YOU are a Cultural Connector – a transformative force in the universe creating a world that works for all.
This blog post is the expressed opinion of its writer and does not necessarily reflect the views of Tysons Interfaith or its members.
Contributed by Stephen Wickman, St. Thomas Episcopal, McLean
When you travel this great country by car – and yes, IMHO, it’s already great – and stay in motels, getting up in the middle of the night to view the deer and the tall cornfields and meet others who are nocturnally inclined, you realize just how wonderful, inquisitive, diverse, and caring are your fellow Americans and other fellow creatures. And when you are retired in a sort of semi-permanent “staycation,” it’s invigorating to get out of town like we did last week, when I ferried my wife and Brooklyn-resident daughter to my sister-in-law’s place just outside of Asheville, NC in Weaverville. They went on to the John Campbell Folk School JCCFS | John C. Campbell Folk School while I, having nothing better to do, spent a week at the Swannanoa Gathering at Warren Wilson College for “Old Time Week,” their most popular event. Old-Time Week – Swannanoa Gathering They studied respectively, tapestry making, yarn dying, and making animals out of found objects. I sang, learning shape-note singing, unaccompanied Appalachian ballads, and singing in tight Southern harmony.
My shape-note teacher, a fellow “Whiskeypalian,” as he liked to dub our Christian denomination, was a walking, talking encyclopedia from Kentucky. And I have never seen so many fiddlers gathered in one place, along with guitarists, banjo players, dulcimer hammerers, mandolinists, bassists, cloggers, square dancers, concertina artists, and folks who played instruments I’d never seen before. The guest artists who guided us in the pavilion after lunch included a young Cherokee flautist from Cherokee, North Carolina. A banker by day, he spent his leisure hours keeping alive a musical tradition born on this sacred ground long before the settlers came. (When he played, he said it was okay to fall asleep, since he sometimes did while he was performing!) Their dance traditions, which mimicked the native animals they cherished, influenced the dance moves of the incoming settlers. Even as almost all of the Cherokee were “removed” to Oklahoma, the remaining natives somehow kept their traditions alive.
And there was the best fiddler I have ever heard, who hailed from Galax in Southwest Virginia, where country music was born, and where my son spent one high school Summer in the eye-popping Virginia Conservation Corps. Without getting too political, it is interesting to note that Galax is the only “blue” area in a sea of “red.” (There must be an interesting story there.)
Warren Wilson never set foot in North Carolina, but he was the most productive and progressive Presbyterian you could ever imagine. The college named after him started as a farm school for boys over a hundred years ago, and the 800 or so students who attend there still work the same farm as they study the arts, sciences, and humanities.
Needless to say, I came back to McLean “revived.” The highlight was on Saturday, when a local shape-note club that piggy-backs on the annual gathering brought their covered dishes to the pavilion and serenaded the bear that roam freely on campus. Our leader told us that one year a large bear emerged from the trees to sniff the dishes laid out on a table in the pavilion only to turn and walk up the steps to the dorms. He apparently respected the singing.
This blog post is the expressed opinion of its writer and does not necessarily reflect the views of Tysons Interfaith or its members.