Dialogue San Diego: Perspectives: What Choices Will We Make in 2017?

Sunday, January 1, 2017

Perspectives: What Choices Will We Make in 2017?

I remember when I was young and walking with my parents in a another part of our town. We passed a front yard that was filled with corn, beans, tomatoes... and weeds. I commented to my parents how 'messed up' the yard looked! Mom asked me why I thought that, and I recall answering that it didn't look right... it wasn't like our house! Dad always made sure our yard was well-kept and weeded. Everything had a place: the front yard had lawn and flowers; the back yard had the vegetable garden; and by the end of the day, my siblings and I were expected to put our bikes and toys away. That's the way it was supposed to be, right?

Mom, ever-patient... okay, mostly-patient with six young children!... explained that the beauty of life is that people do things differently, and there is nothing wrong with having a vegetable garden in the front yard. (Later in life, I learned that 'weeds' were just 'misplaced plants'!)

A Wish for 2017:
May we be open to other perspectives

At that young age, I was already comparing how our family lived... and had assumed it was The Right Way! That reality came from my observation. My parents never told me that vegetable gardens belonged only in the back yard: I made up that rule!

Since that early lesson, I have been amazed at how often I quickly come to judgment about another person. Where do I pick up so many certainties?

A Dream for 2017:
May we go high when times seem low
(Jacob's Dream: A Luminous Path; Grace Cathedral, San Francisco)

Flash forward 30 years: I recall going through diversity training at work. The facilitator talked about 'Taste of Home' experiences when we travel: like seeing a McDonald's in a foreign city and suddenly feeling comfortable. It seems that when we encounter something new or different, we inwardly desire something familiar... that follows our set of rules.

Each New Year creates a sense of beginning, hope, and resolutions. But, it seems that we also want to cling to the familiarity of what we know and believe.

Questions I have for us in 2017:

How will we move forward after such a disturbing election cycle when the country is so divided in opinions and beliefs?
What new ideas or decisions will become disturbing to us?
Where will we seek familiarity?

A Choice for 2017:
May we choose to live in hope
(World Tree of Hope, San Francisco)

Maybe it is time to draw on images of hope and dreams of peace. While in San Francisco recently, I encountered two settings that rekindled hope and peace for me:

Jacob's Dream: A Luminous Path (Grace Cathedral) - an illuminated ladder with images of a human ascending and an angel descending, struggling together.
World Tree of Hope (City Hall) - a Christmas tree bedecked with white paper cranes that had been decorated by people throughout the world with messages of hope

These artistic displays reminded me of the practice of Contemplative Dialogue and Dynamic Dialogue:

I have a choice to slow down and notice when I am listening or seeing only one [my] perspective.
I have a choice to be compassionate and non-violent towards Self and Other.
I have a choice to allow new and creative solutions to surface by including all peoples and their perspectives.