50% for Haiti

January 25, 2010 · by Christine

It takes clear space, contemplative time, and good conversation to engage complex problems.  Busyness, consumerism, and their accompanying anxiety can easily become substitutes for meaning and clarity of purpose, numbing our capacity to act responsively.  Allowing us to be selectively attentive and to filter out complexity and ambiguity, they foster superficial thinking, short-term perspectives, and inappropriate humility.  As long as we’re busy, we can feel both overwhelmed and “involved.”   Swamped by the demands of securing a life for ourselves, we can more easily justify begging off for responsibility to the commons.

-Common Fire: Leading Lives of Commitment in a Complex World, Sharon Daloz Parks et al.

I am really aware this past week of how we live in a time when it is so easy to get overwhelmed by the problems of the world – I can feel paralyzed sometimes by global warming, the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, and of course the recent tragedy in Haiti.  Then my own stuff feels so small and insignificant and I feel paralyzed because these other issues are so very big and apart from donating money (at least with regard to Haiti) there isn’t much more I can actually do.  And my life is very full already, so it can be overwhelming to even consider what needs to be done and the news doesn’t help us break down complex problems into actions we can take.

This overwhelmed and irrelevant feeling is a dangerous place to rest for too long. I may start to believe I am powerless.  I may start to discount that doing the hard work of living with integrity and presence is not really that important. I might be tempted to just numb myself with any of a whole host of distractions until suddenly I am walking through my life disengaged, disconnected, settling for something without much passion, or frantically running from one meeting to the next, never really savoring any of it, never experiencing either the depth of my grief or the height of my joy.

Last week I asked if you would be willing to simply be present to the pain with me, to not run away from it, but to allow it to have room in you.  Because the work I do in the world is largely of the inner kind I can sometimes start to question its value in a world where suffering is of such magnitude. Then I remember the words above (from one of my favorite books about practices to help sustain committed social action in the world).  I remember that one of the definitions of contemplation is “a long loving look at the real.”  And I remember that the real is sometimes painful as often as it might be joyful.  Staying present really does make a difference.  Making room within ourselves to stand in solidarity with the suffering of others increases our compassion, and in the process we may be a little kinder in our daily action to others and to ourselves. A world of increasing compassion and kindness sounds pretty significant to me.  It’s not just about Haiti, it is about how we live in a world without allowing ourselves to always be overwhelmed and give up our power to contribute in meaningful ways.

And I know that one thing I can do in this moment – in addition to feeling the pain -  is to donate money, which I have already done.  But I also want to do something that both increases my financial contribution and encourages others to commit to self-care and deepening contemplative practice, especially if you have needed an extra nudge.

I am making a commitment to the following :

• Register this week (until the end of the day Sunday, January 31st) for my Lenten E-Course on Benedictine Spiritual Practices and I will donate 50% of the profits to relief efforts in Haiti.  50 people have already signed up and I am so delighted to share this journey with you.  If you have been hesitating, now is a great time to make a commitment to cultivating contemplative practice, to slowing down and creating more internal spaciousness, and connecting with the sacred thread woven through every moment of our lives.

• Register by January 31st for Awakening the Creative Spirit: Experiential Education for Spiritual Directors (and Chaplains, Counselors, and others in Soul Care Ministries) and not only receive the $75 early registration discount, but I will also donate an additional $50 to Haiti relief for each new registration I receive this week for this program.  Have you been contemplating joining Betsey Beckman and myself in the beautiful Northwest for an amazing journey of creative depth?  Our co-authored book will be available in the next couple of weeks with loads of resources, but the in-person experience is powerful and you get to gather with other kindred souls seeking the transformative power of the arts in service of soulwork.

© Christine Valters Paintner at Abbey of the Arts:
Transformative Living through Contemplative & Expressive Arts

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