Greetings, Happy Spring Equinox
This is the beginning of a new blog which will focus on ‘tending and mending’ our capacity for resilience by exploring the inter-connectedness, the weaving together, within ourselves and between ourselves. We will touch on many manifestations of these subtle weavings, such as depth and somatic psychology, neuroscience, the physical and natural sciences, the arts and humanities. We will look for both the ‘common denominators’ of cross-cultural universals and the specific edges where the treads of inter-connectedness are thin and still in the mists of our understanding.
The underlining assumption of this exploration is that there exists an inherent wholeness in our world; from the smallest particle to the largest organism. We, as human beings, serve a specific function in this wholeness. It is up to us to discover this function. We have a capacity for reflection, self-awareness and language that is special to us. Perhaps in this time of global crisis, we are being asked by the Wholeness to exercise our talents and reflect on this inter-connectedness by using our powers of perception to bring it forward into clearer manifestation.
According to Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary (2001 edition), to tend is “to be disposed or inclined to actions, operations, or effects to do something; to be disposed toward an idea, emotion, way of thinking; to lead or conduce, to be inclined to or have a tendency toward a particular quality or direction.”
To mend is “to make (something broken, worn, torn or otherwise damaged) whole, sound or useable by repairing; to remove or correct defects or errors; to set right; make better, improve, to progress toward recovery, to grow back together, knit, to darn, to patch, to improve, as conditions or affairs.”
Resilience is “the power or ability to return to the original form, position, after being bent, compressed, or stretched; elasticity.” It is also defined as the “ability to recover from illness, depression, adversity or the like; buoyancy to spring-back, rebound.”
Thus, this blog will focus on ‘tending and mending’ our understanding and experience of wholeness, well-being, through our ever-deepening capacity for resilience. We will explore what resilience is and how it is experienced in many different expressions, such as, physically, emotionally, socially, environmentally, and imaginatively. We will explore what skills are needed to increase resilience, such as, how to ‘tend and to mend’ our relationship within ourselves and between ourselves and the natural and social world. As we engage this endeavor, we will be entering into a transformational process that by it’s definition will require some hard looks at aspects of how we, individually and collectively, are blocking, tearing, compressing and stretching the fabric of wholeness.
The second assumption is that within the ‘Wholeness called Life’ there is a tremendous potentiality for renewal and re-birth. We are a part of Life, thus we are apart of an immense evolving intelligence that seeks to know Itself. So, our efforts at self-reflection are not in vain, they will yield the fruits of conscious awakening, deepening compassion and rejuvenated resilience.