Awakening to Wholeness is a series of prompts, reflections, and teachings about how holding the tension of opposites can help us to heal division and experience wholeness. If you feel moved to share your own reflections, we invite you to email us with the subject line “Wisdom of Opposites” or tag us on social media with #EHoPWisdomOfOpposites.
This is a guest post by EHoP community member Dianne Schlichting, in response to “Self and Other, Back and Forth.”
I have read and reread this reflection because it touched a memory that allowed me to experience what it feels like to have another bring a truth to our relationship, a truth that has stayed with me to this very day.
The experience took place many, many years ago. I was a sophomore in high school; it was the beginning of Advent, and I was involved in a group project of making Advent wreaths to sell after Sunday Mass. One of my classmates, a friend, had just received a piece of good news (I no longer remember what the news was). My response was, “You lucky dog!” The reaction of the Benedictine sister who was in charge of our little group was instantaneous and direct: “No one should ever be addressed in the way you just spoke to ________. Each of us has dignity and deserves to be spoken to with respect. Do not ever speak to another in this way!”
Yes, a small matter, but thankfully, it made a BIG impression on me. That one correction, which might have ruined my relationship with both my friend and with the Sister whom I deeply admired, was spoken out of love for me and for the friend I had belittled. A request for, and acceptance of, forgiveness was exchanged. Sixty-two years later, I still remember the power of that day, a day that brought truth to life for me, thankfully, at an early age.
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