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 “Humility and False Humility” by Christine Luna Munger.
We welcome contributions from all members of our community! To learn more, see the bottom of this page.
I wonder sometimes how connections are made in the brain and in the heart. When I read this reflection on “Holding the Tension of Opposites” the image that came to me was that of the Hokey Pokey action song that I did as a child: “You put one foot in; you take one foot out; you do the Hokey Pokey and you turn yourself around…”. The right foot in; the right foot out; the left foot in; the left foot out…two feet in; two feet out; your whole self in; your whole self out, turn yourself around.
This past weekend I had the opportunity to be part of a “Come Away Weekend” at the Episcopal House of Prayer. As I reflected on the experience this morning in prayer, I recalled the song which to me speaks of a desire to be totally immersed into the Center, but not able to stay there permanently—at least not yet. Some of us did, in fact, put one foot in: we came, we stayed, and we participated. Others jumped in with both feet, entering into the Silence of retreat wholeheartedly, taking full advantage of place, time, and the rhythm of a contemplative retreat experience. And for some, the “turn yourself around” happened! Ah! So many blessings come from taking time to dance!
Truly, all of us—no matter how we moved within the dance—encountered the tension of the opposites: The pull to remove one foot, the heaviness of “real life” breaking into times of silence, the pain and sorrows of family realities that tugged on our heartstrings and caused us to pull out and back for the sheer pain of being in a dance when our loved ones are suffering—how dare we!
Awakening to Wholeness is our prayer, accepting the in as well as the out; the dance with turning around as well as the hesitations before placing a foot or an arm or the whole body into the Center. All is part of the Whole—each step, each turning around, each movement that gives us courage to continue the dance. Dance on!
Join the conversation! If you feel moved to share your reflections—either in response to one of our posts, or on the topic of the wisdom of opposites more broadly—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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Dianne Schlichting
Dianne is a member of EHoP; she and her husband John value the opportunity to share contemplative prayer and outreach with others who make the House of Prayer their spiritual home. Dianne is a wife, mother, and grandmother who loves spending time in nature, especially canoeing with John.
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