Today’s author is Prince of Peace member, Carol Swanson.
Introducing the book Active Hope: How to Face the Mess We’re in with Unexpected Resilience & Creative Power, the very tiny print at the top of the cover says this book is “beautifully guiding readers on a journey of gratitude, grief, interconnection, and ultimately, transformation.” The coauthors provide helpful examples, practices and exercises from a process world view. Here I offer quotes on empowerment that can give us courage as we face the choices we must make to live in relationship with God, one another and all creation: (This book in our PoP library.)
“Instead of power that seeks to dominate, there is a power that is ‘relational, and we call it power with.’” (p 105) …
“Power with is based on synergy, where two or more parties working together bring results that would not have occurred if they had worked alone in competition. Because something new and different emerges out of the interaction, we can think of it as ‘1+1 = 2 and a bit.’ This is another way of saying, ‘The whole is more than the sum of the parts.’
“Emergence and synergy lie right at the heart of power with. They generate new possibilities and capacities, adding a mystery element because we can never be certain how a situation will go just from looking at what we start out with. We can know the strength of copper and of tin yet still be surprised by how much stronger bronze is, which combines the two. The same thing can happen when we interact with others for a shared purpose. D. H. Lawrence wrote:
Water is H2O,
Hydrogen two parts
Oxygen one
But there is also a third thing that makes it water
And nobody knows what that is. (pp 105-106)
“One place we can experience synergy is in conversation. When both sides have the courage and willingness to explore new ground, talking and listening to each other can open a creative space from which new possibilities emerge.” (106) …
“Seeing with new eyes, we recognize that we’re not separate individuals in our own little bubbles but interconnected parts in a much larger story. A question that helps us develop this wider view is ‘What is happening through me?’ Is the sixth mass extinction happening through us as a result of our habits, choices, and actions? By recognizing the ways we contribute to the unraveling of our world, we identify choice points at which we can turn toward its healing. The question ‘How could the Great Turning happen through me?’ invites a different story to flow through us. This type of power happens through our choices, through what we say and do and are. (pp108-109)
“Based on an interview with Joanna, this poem, edited into verse by Tom Atlee, founder of the Co-Intelligence Institute, expresses well the grace that comes from belonging to life:
When you act on behalf
of something greater than yourself,
you begin
to feel it acting through you
with a power that is greater than your own.
This is grace.
Today, as we take risks
for the sake of something greater
than our separate, individual lives,
we are feeling graced
by other beings and by Earth itself.
Those with whom and on whose behalf we act
give us strength
and eloquence
and staying power
we didn’t know we had.
We just need to practice knowing that
and remembering that we are sustained
by each other
in the web of life.
Our true power comes as a gift, like grace,
because in truth it is sustained by others.
If we practice drawing on the wisdom
and beauty
and strengths
of our fellow humans
and our fellow species
we can go into any situation
and trust
that the courage and intelligence required
will be supplied.” (pp 110-111)