Month: September 2023

Welcome to the Words That Encourage newsletter. This week’s words are Community, Justice, and Listening. Please forward to a friend, or click reply.

i) Community

Can I heed the cries of people suffering on the edge of my life, my city, my suburb? Do I have an open ear to listen to the pain of others? These questions inspire, but I admit to mute responses when I speak only for myself.

Again: we are simply not individuals, solitary atoms engaged in human-like endeavour, alone in the room of the self. We are human beings with skin who reach out to one another. We ask for help and we give it, together seeking more out of life. We are made for community.

ii) Justice

Our personal lives take on public dimensions. We can work together to build a more just world when we recognise each other as companions in the work of transformation.

Love is more likely to take shape in public when we look tenderly at the person before us. The soil of togetherness is where justice grows.

We can indeed heed the cries of suffering persons when we connect with a sense of solidarity; in our own ways we too have suffered. I can indeed listen to the pain of another person when I am being nourished by community. Care for this person does not rely solely on me.

iii) Listening

Settler Australians have a track record of imposing upon First Peoples over the last 235 years of life on the continent. Governments formed in our names have implemented cruel, negligent, and demeaning policies. Although for 65000 years First Peoples lived peaceably on this land, they now suffer according to every quality of life metric (health, education, life-expectancy and more).

First Peoples now want to be heard. A proposed change to the nation’s founding document (the 1901 Constitution) will be put to a compulsory vote on Saturday 14 October. The proposed change would establish an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice to the national parliament and executive government. An elected advisory body, the Voice would compel people in power to listen to First Peoples regarding matters that affect their lives.

For some time now we have been invited to listen in a spirit of Dadirri (inner deep listening and quiet still awareness) by Miriam Rose Ungunmerr Baumann, a Daly River elder, artist and educator. Us settler Australians would do well to listen in that spirit. Watch Miriam Rose’s inspiring Dadirri reflection here.

Have a great weekend,
James

Welcome to the Words That Encourage newsletter, back after a long break. This week’s words are joy, gratefulness, and hope.

i) Joy

Joy sits at a deep place; it resides in the heart. To abide in joy, to live with joy, is a satisfaction that stays. Wherever we go in our days, if joy is nearby, we will be okay. In seasons of suffering and fear, joy’s signposts can prepare us to build a life on solid foundations. We can align our lives with our deepest purpose.

We want our lives to be a meeting place for our personal “deep gladness” and “the world’s deep hunger” (Frederick Buechner). This is the language of “vocation”, of call, of what will truly satisfy. We search until we find this treasure field where gladness and need overlap.

ii) Gratefulness

Joy emerges with ease when we make it our habit to remember concrete and specific details about good things received in a particular day.

Becoming aware of gifts in my experience will overflow into gratefulness. Our hearts soften and gladness spreads. Gratefulness is a reflective practice that turns the earth into a more friendly place.

A gratefulness practice is crucial if ever we want to be healed of our self-centredness and moved deeper into relationships. When we are grateful and open, we are ready to receive life (and each person) as gift. We can move forward with a hopeful attitude grounded in experience.

What are you most grateful for today?

iii) Hope

Icelandic instrumentalist Ólafur Arnalds composes original music that I’ve found helpful and hopeful. re:member begins as a gentle melody that serves as a welcome to a deep moment of reflection. As the emerging tune opens up, the beat slows to a stillness before being ignited with energy, enthusiasm and excitement after the second minute. The propulsion of the second half of the piece provides a sustaining power to enrich your day. Released in his 2018 re:member album, listen on YouTube, Spotify or Apple Music.

May joy, gratefulness and hope move within your heart, dear reader!

Have a great weekend.