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The Blogging Nun
May, 2007
May 30, 2007
Women of Purpose
A friend of mine, Mary Treacy, recently wrote, “When the photographs of Oprah Winfrey’s school came across the screen—scores of beautiful young girls, resplendent in the pleated green jumpers and well-starched and pressed white blouses all radiating hope—it struck like a bolt that these were not the St. Joseph’s Academy Class of 1959 but the incoming students at the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in the village of Henley-on-Klip near Johannesburg. While the hope in their eyes is for themselves no doubt the hope in the eyes of their mentor is for the future.”
Completely inspired, Mary continues: “Do these girls know that they are not alone and not the first to benefit from the vision of women of purpose? There is more than one parallel between Minnesota in the mid-19th Century and South Africa in the 21st Century.”
Oprah’s credo: Trust your instincts. Honor your own truth. Discern it, know it, and follow it. “What I learned at a very early age,” says Oprah, “was that I was responsible for my life. And as I became more spiritually conscious, I learned that we all are responsible for ourselves. That you create your own reality by the way you think and therefore act. You cannot blame apartheid, your parents, your circumstances, because you are not your circumstances. You are your possibilities. If you know that you can do anything.”
The message rings true to the mantra that resonated through the halls of St. Joseph’s Academy (SJA) over the decades.
The Sisters of St. Joseph (CSJs) opened SJA in a log cabin in the mid-19th century St. Paul; Oprah built the academy of her dreams. The Sisters fought cholera; these girls live in a society ravaged by AIDS.
Vision is the common thread—a dream of women as leaders in a society at the nexus of change. Both our early Sisters of St. Joseph and Oprah believe that the benefit of girls’ education in terms of improving health, women’s empowerment and family well-being helps make girls education the highest returning social investment in the world. (Gene Sperling, director of the Center for Universal Education at the Council Foreign Relations)
We do well to remind ourselves and the world that Oprah constructs her dream on the experience of little known visionaries who understood this reality and who took action. It would be good for Oprah to know that we’re cheering for her and her girls and that after 150 years experience in the trenches; the CSJs have empirical evidence to support her vision. For more than 150 years SJA alumnae have contributed to and shaped their communities and the world. And, the Sisters of St Joseph continue to be leaders dedicated to providing a network of help and hope.
Oprah’s dream for the young women at the Leadership Academy for Girls is that they will excel and pass their excellence on to their families their nation and our world. Oprah: keep building on that foundation of excellence, commitment and leadership and there will be a Sarah’s Oasis, and a St. Joseph Worker program and a Hope Community and a St. Mary’s Health Clinic network and Learning In Style and a Wisdom Ways and a Celeste’s Dream and even more in South Africa—we know because we have seen it happen!
Possumus!
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May 27, 2007
Believing in Miracles
Hanging on the wall in our dining room is a framed photo of Earth taken from space. What my Sisters and I love most about the print is that borders or boundaries of any kind are not visible. We see that we are not divided, but one. If one part of the Earth is in pain, we are all in pain. If one part is poor, we are all poor. Whether it is peace, pain or poverty, we are all one.
Marianne Williamson, one of my favorite spirituality authors, says, “It’s not what we think that transforms us, it’s how we think. The principals of miracles become mental habits in our problem-solving repertoire.”
Here is the miracle in which I believe: we can eradicate poverty. All we have to do is link networks of integrity to each other and move resources to need. Two networks currently working together are the huge networks of women religious and Rotarians.
Rotary is like a pebble dropped in the pond and the women religious the ever-widening circles that move outward from the center. Rotary bores water wells. The women religious then help teach the people to stabilize their village from there.
When women no longer have to travel miles for water, they can tend a garden, provide multiple growing seasons, learn new things such as how to use a solar oven, and they can go to school. If the women in the village are well, the village is well.
Make a habit of believing in miracles.
Possumus
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May 15, 2007
The Sparkle of Youth
While waiting for an eye exam—a sure sign of my aging—I perused the ubiquitous stack of waiting-room magazines. Have you ever noticed how many companies develop and sell products that claim to reverse the effects of aging?
In my world, youthfulness has nothing to do with products and everything to do with curiosity and free spirit.
Curiosity moves our spirits into a world of what ifs. I particularly love when youth and elderly think and create together because listening becomes more intentional. As the conversation takes off and new synapses spark, spirits rise. New ideas may or may not develop, but for sure spirits brighten.
Real companionship feeds the spirit which in turn grows radiant with nourishment. It’s this sparkle that illuminates youthfulness.
In his book, The Art of Aging, Sherwin B. Nuland says that, “Nothing encourages right living so much as the thoughtful, deliberate doing it. We can choose how we want to be.”
Personally, I’d like to grow young. Some of the youngest people I know are far older than me. Their free spirit belies their true age. I prefer the company of youth, whether they are 90 or 9.
Speaking of young, my 7-year-old nephew, Jacob, is on his way over. He challenged me to a game of marbles. We play for keeps. He has a couple I intend to win back and I have a couple that he intends to add to his collection! I love that Jacob doesn’t care that I have to put on my glasses before I take aim!
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May 10, 2007
Messsage from Rosita: Please Help
I’m tired today. It’s late afternoon and I’m sitting at home in my chair, computer on my lap, trying to finish up a few things. What I really wanted to do a few minutes ago was join my pup and kitten who are napping nearby in puddles of sunlight splashing in through the open windows. But then I checked my email. There waiting for me was a message from Sister Rosita who writes from Africa.
Rosita tells of the Kenyan grandmothers whose children have all died of AIDS and who are now raising their grandchildren. Each one has anywhere from 1 – 15 children in their care. Many of the children are HIV positive and are sick as well.
They have no water, health care, transportation. The rainy season is late. Food is running out. Suddenly, I am no longer tired. I would do anything to help her. She asks for help with a water-catchment system, food, a 4-wheel drive, a nurse, a potter, a micro-financer, a weaver.
She says that of all these, water is the first need. The White Bear Lake Rotary is working on putting in a well, but the village needs a water catchment system as well.
Now that I’m no longer sleepy, if anyone reading this blog is interested in helping, respond here. Have you ever been asked to help in a matter of life or death? This is the call. Will you answer?
Possumus!
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May 9, 2007
Process Makes Perfect
Structures in our world today change over night. Long range planning horizons have moved from a 3-5 year outlook to only 6 months out instead. Decisions we make today may need to be revisited just to keep up with the rapid change all around us.
What doesn’t change as quickly are people and our relationships with each other. When relationships are “right” along the way, no matter the path, the answers that emerge will no doubt be right as well.
It may seem counter-intuitive to invite people who think completely opposite from you to the strategic planning table, but it’s essential. A question that thoughtful problem-solvers ask is, “Whose voice is missing in our conversation?” Having these people at the table not only brings forward their concerns but includes them in the outcome. Meetings may last longer but taking time with a good process will make all the difference to the outcome.
Process is the number one ingredient to successful solutions. When the process is wrong, decisions can be wrong. So, be care-full. While you are at it, include in your deliberations the perspective of someone from seven generations out. If all relationships are right in that scenario, then you’ve probably set the right course.
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May 4, 2007
Walk and Connect With God
Mowed in the grass behind our Provincial House Chapel is a labyrinth. I’ve walked it many times. I used to bring my young pup, Bailey, with me hoping that she would learn to follow in my footsteps, but as soon as she grew tall enough to see over the grass separating the twists and turns she leaped over in pursuit of squirrels, bugs and butterflies. Oh, well. I still come, but by myself now. I often walk the labyrinth holding special intentions for people who have asked me to pray for them. When I come to the center, I hand over the intentions to God. Over the years, I think about all those for whom I’ve prayed as I stand in the center.
A labyrinth is a circular path with no dead ends. One of our Consociates, Barbara Kellett, writes that various styles of labyrinth patters can be found in ancient cultures from all over the world dating back as far as 5000 years. These archetypal patterns can be found in places as diverse as Peru, Arizona, Iceland, Crete, Egypt, India, Sweden, England, and France.
In the past, labyrinths on the ground have been used for ceremony and walking meditations. For medieval pilgrims who were unable to go to Jerusalem due to plague or war, the inward walk of the labyrinth was sometimes used as though it was the path to Jerusalem. The center might represent the arrival at Jerusalem.
The goal of walking the labyrinth is connecting with God. One of the by-products of walking the labyrinth is transformation. The key to getting as much as you can out of your walk is remaining open.
There are as many ways to walk the labyrinth as there are people who walk it. However you choose to interact with God as you walk is the right way.
On June 15-17, 2007 our spirituality center — Wisdom Ways Center for Spirituality — is sponsoring an Upper Midwest Labyrinth Festival, called The Labyrinth: Changing Lives Celebrating Spirit. For more information, check out www.wisdomwayscenter.org/content.asp?id=596. All are welcome.
Possumus!
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