Fall is upon us, and with it one of the busiest months of the year. Gone are the summertime rhythms. Yet even with the activities of all upon us, we have a choice: to move through the season not in haste, but with intention—to live the active life contemplatively.
Stress and renewal—it is the rhythm of our lives, except that the stressors seem to outpace the renewal these days. Any serious athlete understands the importance of balancing rigorous training with adequate time for recovery. Balancing care of self with care of others is essential; the one supports the other. The challenge is that most of us live in a chronic state of burn-out that leaves us perpetually drained and depleted.
Living the active life contemplatively involves intentionality, both in rhythm and practice. Core practices, like mindfulness, compassion, hope, and play provide the means. Such practices daily renew us in the midst of the stress, allowing us to feel alive.
While paradoxical, life is about managing polarities and honoring opposites: time together with time apart; work with play. Ultimately, it is honoring the iterative movement of being and doing. Remember over-functioning and under-functioning are always anxious responses that diminish our capacity.
The two most powerful impulses of my life have been the urge to create and the urge to be: a set of opposites which I am still learning how to honor and balance. The means of learning how to manage the polarities of my life has come through learning how to manage the polarity of being-and-doing toward what Quaker Parker Palmer calls “a hidden wholeness.” In his words: “Until we know the hidden wholeness we will live in a world of dualisms, of forced but false choices between being and doing, that result in action that is mere frenzy or in contemplation that is mere escape.” To move beyond the duality of seeing action and contemplation as opposites—an “either/or” choice—ultimately, we need to integrate the two.
Not that true contemplation draws us simply inward; contemplation ultimately moves us outward to care of our neighbor and planet. As Joan Chittister, one of the great contemplative activists the 20th and 21st centuries, writes: Contemplation is a very dangerous activity… It brings us, as well, face to face with the world, face to face with the self. And then, of course, something must be done… We carry the world in our hearts: the oppression of all peoples, the suffering of our friends, the burdens of our enemies, the raping of the Earth, the hunger of the starving, the joy of every laughing child.
Simply put, when we step back from the frenzy of activity that drives so much of our lives, we are afforded the opportunity to choose a way of being that is not only sustainable, but leads to the flourishing we so deeply desire. And, dare I name it, allows us to serve with energy, intelligence, imagination and love.
With hope that your summertime rhythms allow for a balance between being and doing!
