What have you done with the garden entrusted to you? –Antonio Machado
If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am for myself only, what am I? If not now, when? –Talmudic Saying
Yesterday I was going through some papers and I came upon a page that I had not looked at in a few years. It was handwritten – if one calls my penmanship ‘writing’ – and it was dated ‘1999.’ The title was: Four Categories for a Person to Consider.
As I read through each category I would pause and consider, perhaps even savor, what I had written. This morning, Gentle reader, I decided to share the ‘Four Categories’ with you. I also invite you to create your own categories and lists.
Here are my ‘Four Categories for a Person to Consider’:
Consider Essential Life Agreements
- Speak rooted in moral integrity
- Listen with undefended receptivity in order to understand
- Inquire from a place of not knowing
- Act from a core of deep love
Consider Five Difficult Things for We Humans to Do
- Return Love for Hate
- Invite and Include the Excluded
- Admit that ‘I’ am wrong
- Offer Forgiveness & Seek Healing (both for self and for the other)
- Be Vulnerable = Be transparent & carry the wound with grace
Consider a Few Roles that One Might Take On
- Mediator
- Consensus Finder
- Synthesizer
- Analyzer
- Keeper of the Conscience
- Process Watcher & Interpreter
- Servant & Servant-Leader
Consider the Following Disciplines (To Practice and Integrate)
- Being Present
- Being Aware
- Being Authentic
- Being Useful
- Being Faithful
- Being Vulnerable
- Being Consistent (Not ‘Perfect’ nor ‘Predictable’)
- Listening, first
- Being Deeply Reflective
Searcher-Seeker 