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.
In many situations, being in the middle is not a benefit. If you are running from second to third base, best to either stay on second or get to third. If you are commuting from work to home, best not to be stuck in traffic somewhere in the middle.
Beyond the circumstantial, however, finding and landing in the middle can be of great benefit. As a posture toward perspective-taking and a general guiding compass for the path of a good life, the middle is grounding and stable. In the work of tending to the tensions of opposites, the middle is often the space from which the “third thing” emerges.
The trouble with the middle is that it is hard: hard to be there, hard to get there, and hard to stay there. For example, some conflicts are so old and knotted up from cycles of victims and oppressors taking sides and choosing violence instead of peace, that it becomes difficult to even know where the middle is, much less navigate there. Similarly, when polarizing forces become so strong that yelling and threatening become the norm, it is easy to get swept from the middle into either side, just from the sheer force of the blows that come from both sides of an issue.
Quite simply, it is hard to be in the middle. It takes strength to stand up to the blows from all sides. It takes effort to sort through the complexities of conflicts. It takes vigilance to look toward wholeness and not be satisfied with partiality.
Nonetheless, we need middle-makers. We need middle-keepers. We need middle-minders. The work of Wisdom, the work of tending to healing and wholeness, the work of heeding the call of the Spirit is middle-work. And yes, it is hard work. Yet the transformation of life in Love is worth it.
Contemplative Questions
We offer the following questions as prompts to help you reflect on the presence of opposites in your spiritual practice and your life.
- Think about a time you found your way to the middle on a question, conflict, or issue. How did being in the middle change or influence your perspective?
- Think about a time you managed to stay in the middle, rather than being swept to one side or the other. How did you keep at the hard work of tending Wholeness?
- How have your experiences finding the middle transformed you?
Join the conversation! If you feel moved to share your reflections, we invite you to email us with the subject line “Wisdom of Opposites” or tag us on social media with #EHoPWisdomOfOpposites.
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Christine Luna Munger
Christine Luna Munger, PhD currently serves as the director of the Episcopal House of Prayer. She previously served as Coordinator of the Spiritual Direction Certificate and Professor of Theology at St. Catherine University. She regularly writes, teaches, and leads group prayer sits at EHoP.
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