Witnessing Faith

MY FRIENDS! Hi! How are you? I think of you all often. I hope you are well.

I’ve been thinking a lot about what I’m going to post about witnessing faith. I wasn’t quite sure what I wanted to post so I searched for some videos and articles but came up empty handed.

I’m working on an organic urban farm close to my house in Cincinnati. The farm is 200 acres but we do most of the farming on 8. The “crew” is made up of 4 people- Me, Ellie, Gretchen, and Dan. We do most of the everyday garden work. We harvest vegetables (dudes- I picked green beans for like 2 hours today), we plant seeds, we take care of the gardens, we hoe, we use badass farm equipment, etc. Sometimes we talk to each other and have conversations and sometimes we don’t. The silence never feels awkward or cumbersome, but I sure do find myself humming a lot of really bad 90’s rap songs.

So today, while working—picking beans, actually, I was thinking about why I was having trouble posting about witnessing faith. And then I realized that it’s because “witnessing faith” is completely ambiguous, which shouldn’t have been a shocker, given the whole “embrace ambiguity” motif during orientation.  But with the ambiguity of faith, comes difficulty of communication. How can we express our faith to each other and to our communities when it is so interwoven with who we are and the work we have chosen to do? To talk about faith like it’s something separate from ourselves, like it’s something tangible might be impossible, for me, anyway.

I think we can witness our faith in every aspect of who we are. We can witness faith in the mere work we are about to embark, the people we are going to meet, this time of waiting and anticipation. I can find faith in the silence that sits between me, Ellie, Gretchen, and Dan. I can find faith in the ambiguity of faith itself. I think witnessing faith means opening your eyes, taking a step back and realizing that where you are, what you see, and who you’re talking to is in itself an act of trusting God (I’ll try to remember this tomorrow when I’m yelling at the hose for getting tangled into an impossible knot for the 40^th time).

Faith is literally everywhere. Recognizing it, however, becomes our responsibility, and our commitment as volunteers.

This, too, will pass...

...is a lens through which I have felt myself trying to view life, especially pertaining to specific situations that have come up these past few weeks.  As a few of you might remember, our fellow JV in Micronesia Chris Pieterick has this phrase tattooed on his body.  Thanks to Chris, Big-Orientation was the first time I had come into contact with this exact phrasing.  However, as profound as I knew it to be, it didn't shift my life in anyway during that first interaction.  Looking back, that quote alone was not enough to provide a formative moment in my life - I had not yet consciously used this framework to guide my thoughts and sensations during any particular life experience.

Lately, I've been reading A New Earth: Awakening to your life's purpose by Eckhart Tolle, which speaks to the idea of raising one's awareness of one's ego in order to begin cultivating a stronger relationship to the present as well as one's true presence.  This book, given to me as a graduation gift from a college professor, has been helpful to me in so many ways.  In regards to interacting with a difficult supervisor and the anger that would frequently arise within me this summer, I find myself reflecting back on what I might have recently read in this book.  For example, there's a section  called "Allowing the diminishment of the ego" that has been the most helpful.  In the section, Tolle says "one of the most common ego-repair mechanisms is anger, which causes a temporary but huge ego inflation."  One way to allow for the diminishment of the ego is "when someone criticizes you, blames you, or calls you names, instead of immediately retaliating or defending yourself - do nothing.  Allow the self-image to remain diminished and become alert to what that feels like deep inside you.  For a few seconds, it may feel uncomfortable, as if you had shrunk in size.  Then you may sense an inner spaciousness that feels intensely alive."  Let's be real, I may not know what it feels to be "intensely alive," but the "do nothing" part is what I practice when my supervisor unreasonably scolds me or criticizes me on my work.  

There are a few things about myself that I would like to improve; anger is one of them and the desire for recognition is another - both of which feed the ego.  However, throughout these past 2-3 weeks, after experiencing on-going difficulties with a supervisor, cars getting towed left and right, a record-breaking rise and fall of a potential short-term fling with a guy, accomplishing tasks well at my internship but feeling under-appreciated, the philosophy of This, too, will pass in addition to a growing awareness of my own ego have kept me grounded in the present.  I grapple with the sense that these are small, insignificant moments in my own life while half-way around the world, war is at Syria's doorstep.  I'm not sure if this lens is helpful for issues of that kind of magnitude - from an individual on the outside looking in - I guess what I mean when I bring this up is that this this philosophy does have some drawbacks...It's something personal that an individual needs to realize his/herself, not something to be forced upon another.

Just to wrap such a long and (probably) confusing blog post up, I thought it would be helpful to share what Tolle wrote about "This, too, will pass" and I invite you all to share your thoughts or moments when or if this lens might have been helpful for you.

How to Build a Super Fantastic Community

Hi everyone,

I hope you are all doing well with the in-between time! Its been a good, challenging, and fun phase for me so far, I hope the same goes for all of you.

As all of you know, I possess all of the knowledge there is to know about living in community (I’ve done one year in a JVC community, so pretty much an expert right here). Ok, maybe not, but I thought I’d list a few of the most helpful practices that I came across in the past year. Big shout out to Maddie, Edwin, and Rose for already doing great, thought-provoking posts on community, so I’ll try to keep this one short and sweet.

Pin pricks – Everyone has their pet peeves. Dirty dishes left in the sink, using the blender at 6am, leaving hair in the drain, you name it. Set aside a quick, intentional time to voice what’s getting on your nerves (in a non-accusatory, I-statement format, of course). It’s a great way to air out the little stuff so that it doesn’t turn in to the big stuff. If there’s intentional time set aside for talking about little things that annoy you, it makes it a whole lot easier to clear the air and keep tensions low.

Fist to five – Making group decisions is hard. Deciding which movie to watch, where to go grocery shopping, and everything else can get tedious when there are a lot of people involved. A quick way to make sure everyone’s voice is heard is to use fist to five. For example, a community may have to decide whether they want to spend community night building a blanket fort or not. Everyone involved throws up fingers to accurately indicate their enthusiasm level (hopefully everyone would put five fingers up in this scenario). Obviously this is not applicable to some of the harder decisions your community will have to make, but its good for the everyday one’s that keep coming up.

The challenge jar – A great idea to keep challenging your community to grow in new ways throughout the year(s). Everyone writes a few challenges on slips of paper and puts them in to a jar. For example, this week we will have an energy fast. Each week the community pulls a slip and takes the challenge on. It’s a good way to experiment with creative challenges and it keeps it varied and interesting enough to not feel like a chore.

Pray together the community that prays together stays together! Ok, so maybe not that cliché – but the times that our community was strongest was when we kept coming back to spirituality night every week and getting vulnerable with eachother. If we kept it consistent, any tension that built up during the week didn’t stand a chance when we came together for Monday night spirituality nights – anything from examens, to collages, to meditation.

Be silly – I don’t have much of an explanation for this one. We’re all making a serious commitment, working in challenging situations, and trying to do a really good job at it. Community has to get silly or it gets way too serious. Have fun, we all know how to do that!

3 months and counting, love to all of you!

Emily

The Danger of a Single Story

So I thought I would post a couple of thought provoking videos and an article for this week's post. Yes they are a bit lengthy and you don't have to watch them all if you don't want. But even if you do watch just one or part of one, I hope it can spark some inner dialogue. The first deals more with cultural perceptions. I would recommend watching the video first before reading the article in order to have some background.

This is the article: http://thoughtcatalog.com/2013/educating-america-diminishing-africas-single-story/


This next video is by Brene Brown. You may notice she is also the author of the book Hierald gave everyone at orientation. Her talk on vulnerability was actually very inspirational to me in college and helped influence the way I view vulnerability and what it can mean.

 Again, I hope these videos and their themes will spark dialogue with people you interact with or even just inner dialogue. My challenge to all of you is to see how we can begin practicing vulnerability or the awareness of different stories in our own lives and communities right now. One of the biggest human temptations is to say "I'll do it tomorrow. Tomorrow I'll start being a better person. Tomorrow I will smile more. Tomorrow I will start being more inclusive." What ends up happening, we all know too well, is that "tomorrow" never happens. So I hope we can all start being more aware and practicing some of what we have been reflecting and learning about NOW in our current communities so we won't be completely unprepared when leaving the country. Buena Suerte! (Good luck in Spanish lol) Feel free to comment about anything!   

Community Is Not Perfect

After living in community for five years—a year in the freshmen dorms, two years living in the Multifaith Living Community (MLC), a year living with volunteers abroad, and a final year at the MLC—I’m at home with my family. In brainstorming ideas for this reflection, I spent considerable mental energy trying to convince myself that my family was not community: their support in my attempts to consume less and use less technology is limited; they feed me close-ended questions and bicker too much; they don’t challenge each other spiritually or ask interesting and thought-provoking questions. But I’ve had community members who did not support each other fully, who retreated into their rooms and didn’t engage with us, who bickered face-to-face or who refused to talk to each other, who lied or were passive-aggressive, who blamed others for all the community problems or who never apologized. Why was I trying to define community as perfect? Then, I began to see all the reasons my family actually is community: because we have a hard time communicating, but sometimes try; because though many times we’re not happy to see each other, frequently we are; because even when we don’t know how to help each other, we do see each other through our ups and downs; because we show our love and affection in strange ways—but we show it; because even when the day consists of bickering, we can laugh together; because even though being together can be beyond frustrating, we haven’t given up on each other.

So here I am, home in this strange in-between time, frequently frustrated but exactly where I want to be. I’m very much a part of the need for growth my family—my current community—has, and I’m willing to be part of that growth.

Community is not perfect. I think it is the desire of community members to work on things—hopefully to work through things—together that make them a community.

For those of you who have time and would like to reflect about, act upon, or respond to this theme of community more, here are some ideas for ways you can go about doing this. Scan through them and chose one or two you’d like to do over the next week or month.

~ Read this article about the Multifaith Living Community. Think about: What do you need from those around you to feel comfortable and respected? What triggers you to feel uncomfortable or shut off from connecting with others? What theme(s) are you most and least comfortable discussing with others? What barriers have you seen others put up (healthy or unhealthy) that inhibited personal relationships? What barriers to you put up or have you put up in the past in personal relationships?

~ I have found that it is very important to be able to articulate one’s habits, tendencies, and needs in community. You may find what you learn through these online enneagram, Myers-Briggs, love languages, and/or conflict management styles tests interesting ways to learn about yourself and begin to articulate who you are. It’s also great to learn about the infinite other places people can come from and helpful to realize that there are so many different ways to be as people. (I know in Ciudad Sandino the JVs all know their enneagram number, so I’m glad Maddie encouraged me to learn mine.)

~ I asked some of my past community mates at the MLC to philosophize about what community is to them. Reflect on what they have said. What most stands out to you? With what do you agree or disagree? What reminds you of a personal story? Please share if you would like!

 “Community shatters preconceptions, perpetually reinforces character, and inherently breathes and lives the very things that make us human - both the good and the bad. We go into a community knowing little, and we a leave a community knowing just a little bit more. And with that in mind, we still have much left to discover and a whole world to change.”

“Community is about not being afraid to show your dirty laundry because you've already seen everyone else's. It's about not having to fake a smile, but doing it anyways just out of decency. Community is about being okay with who you are and with who everyone else is, because we're all trying and everyone knows it.”

“Community is having someone to say hi to after having even the worst day.”

“Community is partially derived from the word "munis," which, in Latin, means gift. Therefore, community literally means those who share a common gift. In my opinion, that gift is each other. That gift is the community.”

“I think that it's really cool that the word "unity" is in the actual word. Just sayin'.”

 “Community is forcing yourself to be outside of your comfort zone. Community is recognizing that you can be wrong and people make mistakes. Community is needing to be patient with others because they will teach you everything you need to know about life. Community is making an effort not to leave passive aggressive notes on white boards and post-its and instead having direct, honest, and open communication. Community is everything, but you need to put as much into it as you expect to receive.”

~ In response to the first quote above (my personal favorite), what steps can you take to begin breaking down your preconceptions now,  to begin recognizing that you know nothing about those around you? Try to do this more intentionally either for a day or for a conversation or in a certain situation you frequently encounter. If you’d like, tell us about your experience!

~ Share a story with us—good or bad, with or without a happy ending—from your experience living in community!

What do we consider Doing Justice vs. providing Charity?

Hey all!! sorry for the late post, long weekend...  I had a lot of thoughts for what to post about for this topic (doing justice) but I thought i might try to provoke a bit of conversation and reflection. (who knows if it will work...)

Last week I was at the gym and found myself staring at an infomercial for Feed The Children.  My initial reaction was frustration. While I appreciate that this type of charity does provide much needed food for families that would likely die without it, I often feel like these programs can do more harm than help.  On the one hand, those donating have the ability to push the true suffering that is occurring out of their minds by simply donating "a dollar a day." Yet at the same time, that money may be doing little to address this suffering.  Despite the importance of funds for food and medical support that these programs provide, we ought to be critical of the percentage of the money that actually reaches those in need and in what form.

In one clip of this advertisement a worker is handing out bottled water to a flock of African children.  An effective tool for fundraising I am sure, but I couldn't help but wonder if the money spent on that one shipment of water might have funded a well that would last fro generations instead.  This, for me, is why all work of justice or even charity ought to start with solidarity.  Living with those we see as in need can teach us what they really desire rather than believing that we may have the answers to their problems.

I have been reflecting on this dynamic between charity and solidarity and its relationship to what we will be doing in country and my own Send Me to Serve campaign.  Why is the JVC modle of service so attractive to me? How do I see myself as a person who is both recieving financial assistance from others but still a "volunteer" for the community I will be entering? What, if anything, do I have to give to my community in Tacna? Ect. Ect.  But rather than sharing my initial thoughts I would love to hear what you all think about the difference, or maybe similarity between these sorts of charity organizations and the Jesuit Volunteer Corps, between what we will be doing and those missionaries who hand out rice and water to starving children.  Comments encourages!!

Long-overdue Community Building Post

My fellow late departures,

How are all of you?? I am excited to hopefully hear from some of you in the comments section about reactions to this post/more ideas about community building.

I thought about community building, in relation to the JVC covenant, in two different ways: within our JV community and with the community we serve.

Watch these videos first: (If you just watch the first one, that would be fine, but watching them all gives you the full context of the artist's story)
Part 1:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWE2T8Bx5d8
Part 2:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_VstiM5NOI
Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAvNHSmk9vI

 I chose this video, even though it has very little to do with Nicaragua or any other country we are headed to with the JVC.  Faviana Rodriguez is an artist/activist/teacher/public speaker (aka an extraordinary woman) who speaks out against hate rhetoric and unfair legislation against migration and immigration.

She uses the Monarch butterfly as a symbol for the inherent dignity and beauty found in every person, but especially in poorly treated migrants in the USA. She represents her community and builds up their self-esteem and rights. We might not necessarily be doing amazing things like Faviana, but we should seek out and support women and men like her in our communities where we will be serving. Whatever their medium is (i.e. art, music, drama, education, etc.), I think we should stand in solidarity with the helpers and advocates in the communities we serve. 

The videos are incredibly interesting. Watch them!

Con cariño,
Maddie