What’s Next for Northeast Wisdom? A Short History to An Emerging Vision

What’s Next? This is the question the Northeast Wisdom Board came together in early November to consider. But before delving into those deliberations, a little background might be helpful. For those of you who have been involved from the beginning, this will be just a quick review of the highlights; for those of you newer to Northeast Wisdom, I hope it will give you some missing context to enrich your involvement and participation.

Butterflly
photo by Nancy Baldwin

The genesis of Northeast Wisdom as an organization occurred in 2012 and came about because of the untimely death of Helen Daly, one of Cynthia Bourgeault’s ardent, long-time advanced Wisdom School students. During the last months and weeks of her life, Helen, herself a gifted teacher of Wisdom Christianity, took steps to enable and sustain its teachings by setting aside seed money in a trust with funding designated “to further and sustain the teachings of Cynthia Bourgeault, and the Wisdom Schools with which she is associated, known as Wisdom Work.” In the typical, high energy, get it done fashion which had always characterized Helen’s activities, she gave direction that the work be commenced quickly, suggesting that the funds were to be spent wisely, well, and speedily—hopefully within three to five years.

In accordance with the guidance Helen had expressed, the work began soon after her death in November of 2012, with Helen’s husband John Daly managing the legal details of incorporating the organization in the state of Vermont in early 2013. Following Helen’s wishes, the generous initial seed money she provided has now been expended over the period she specified, establishing a firm foundation for the work she envisioned and bringing us to the subject of this blog post: What’s Next?

 

What’s Next?

In transitioning from this summary of our beginnings to where we are going, I mention a small but not trivial item. As John Daly moved quickly after Helen’s death to set in motion her visionary plan, he chose the name, “Northeast Wisdom, Inc.” It came naturally to him and was appropriate. After all, his entire personal experience with the Wisdom community, had centered around Helen’s work near her home base and the people she had gathered around her there.

Equally natural and now appropriate will be to give consideration to adopting a “working name” more broadly descriptive and inclusive of who we are and where we are going.

papillon
photo by Thomas Bressan

Indeed, this thought of who we are and where we are going is the perfect jumping off point to discuss the “Visioning” process the leadership of Northeast Wisdom is undertaking. Having navigated the initial challenges of establishing a structure and achieving the tax favored status of a charitable 501(c)(3) corporation through which our work can be sustained and supported financially, it was time to grapple with the real point of it all. Board chair Bill Redfield put it simply and directly:

 

What is our calling? What do we exist to do?

And so began a remarkable two-day visioning session guided by Guthrie Sayen, who, in his dual role of fellow wisdom seeker and skilled professional in the art of coaching for spiritual transformation, helped us collectively and consciously to draw on and receive from Wisdom sources beyond our conscious minds, the beginnings of a new NEW.

I say beginnings, because perhaps the strongest of the “receivings” bubbling through our time together was the sense of nurture—that the calling of this entity that we call NEW is to nurture the emerging web of Wisdom seekers through all of the avenues and paths such seeking is flowing.

And by its very nature, flowing flows. Though it cannot be constrained in a container of fixed dimensions, there exist channels that enhance flow—obstacles that restrict flow can be moved aside; valves that are closed can be opened; new pathways can be explored.

It has been said, that nature abhors a vacuum. The same could also be said of nurture. What would nurture look like outside of its vacuum-like theoretical construct? What would be its tools and tastes, its fragrances and flavors, its heart and home, its lineage and life?

These and other such notions shimmered around us as we looked to our Wisdom guides—each of us to whomever or whatever had shown up to us as we asked for assistance with the question: What do we exist to do? And, the answers began to flow. Here, unfiltered and without editorial comment, it is my privilege to share the first few miles of the new roadmap for NEW. (Including a few received words of wisdom and encouragement along the road.)

Sphere

Living Wisdom: An Organism rather than an Organization

To engage with the Conscious Circle of Humanityto sing, to connect to our core as we listen, to serve those we are given to serve with a still mind and a calm heart, to reclaim the mystical heart of Christianity, to respond to God’s yearning, to share in and lighten the sorrow of our Common Father…

To nourish Cynthia and our emerging teachers and post holdersyou are loved, you have multitudes supporting you, with fun and lightness…together as a collective…embodied serving together, share the load, more going on than you know…more change happening than you can see, the children are the keepers of the dream…

To be present to/with/ and to nourish/sustain “colleague-ship” for our Wisdom communitydo not forget that you are not alone, look to the support you have and remember it, the work is for the sake of all, you are held in God’s hands, you each have a specific role to play…keep listening, be wise as serpents, guileless as doves…

To serve the need (on behalf of) of spiritual awakening, ground-truthing spiritual awareness in the bodystep forward and trust that everything you need will be given to you, you know how and where to step forward, trust the process…your power is not in your heads…it is in your bodies, there is no telling where the seeds of Wisdom may fall…all will eventually be gathered…

To be a vehicle through which others are invited into and sustained in Wisdom Livingto be the gathering thread of communal support and deepening connection to a growing Wisdom network; to listen to what others need; to expect change, to replace that which no longer has life in it, to expand the horizons of a participatory community of mutual seeking, to seek fruitful new directions…releasing the structure, serving the relationships…

On this Advent morning, this time of preparation, of watchful waiting and hope, the words of Marty Haugen’s beautiful hymn, “All Are Welcome,” come wafting through my heart and mind, entraining themselves with the words our collective listening brought forth from our Wisdom sources during our What’s Next for NEW visioning process:

Let us build a house where hands will reach

beyond the wood and stone

to heal and strengthen, serve and teach,

and live the Word they’ve known.

All are welcome, all are welcome in this place.

Whirling

I conclude this post with some thoughts from NEW’s new treasurer—umm…that would be me. We don’t need enormous amounts of money to build this house, but we do need some:

  • Cynthia and our emerging teachers and post holders at times need some financial support to make it possible for them to take the time to write, to prepare, and to teach us;
  • Another Ingathering is planned this summer in Stonington, where large numbers of our community (many with their whole families) will come together for a week-long intentional immersion experience of living Wisdom 24/7 outside of a retreat setting. The infrastructure to support such an undertaking will require funding;
  • Our website, more and more is becoming an interactive tool to sustain our Wisdom practice, build the bonds of love and connection among us, and disseminate information about the who, what, where, when, and how to participate in of the growing number of activities and opportunities springing forth in our Wisdom community; the technology and technical support to make this happen has to be paid for.
  • Support to enable participation in Wisdom Schools, mentoring activities, and for academic training of our emerging leaders when personal resources are strained is sometimes urgently needed;

These are the things that come to mind as I think about what lies ahead in the coming year as we lean into the vision of the house we are building with and through Cynthia and the transmission of her lineage.

Earlier this year, Cynthia wrote these words:

“…what our planet desperately needs right now is a larger picture; a renewed vision of what a human being is really intended to be, of what we are here for, and of whether there really is a planetary baseline for a common morality and ethical vision.”

mosque_ceiling
photo by Phillip Maiwald

That the transmission is indeed moving forward can be seen in the encouraging words of Matthew Wright, one of the emerging young teachers for the next generation of Wisdom seekers:

“…the truth of interconnection is pouring in from every field of knowledge …slowly we are beginning to discover that there is ultimately no separation within the field of existence—we belong deeply to this world and to each other…we are one tribe, one human family, one planet Earth.”

 

Once each year we conduct an annual fundraising campaign. We are in the midst of that campaign right now. The details of how to make a gift and Bill Redfield and Cynthia’s message about it are here on this website. I invite each of you to make as generous a gift as the stirrings of your heart prompt – after taking into consideration your own personal circumstances.

All Are Welcome in this house…built of hopes and dreams and visions.

Mary Ellen Jernigan
Treasurer
Northeast Wisdom


Mary Ellen Jernigan is a long time Wisdom student of Cynthia Bourgeault and is serving now as Treasurer of the Northeast Wisdom Board of Directors living in Maryland. She served as Executive Director for Operations at the National Center for the Blind for over 30 years. Mary Ellen brings to the board years of experience enlivened by her loving, pragmatic, and heart-felt commitment to this Wisdom lineage, which she has found has changed her life in ways she never imagined. Over a few short months, in her new role as board Treasurer she has already become an essential member of the board, contributing her Wisdom far beyond the treasurer role with honesty and insight.

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4 thoughts on “What’s Next for Northeast Wisdom? A Short History to An Emerging Vision

  1. Dear Board,

    I’m very glad to see the emerging vision stated on your blog, and I would like to register my own interest in educating for Wisdom.

    I am a humanities teacher at Hong Kong International School, and I became aware of Cynthia’s teachings in 2010 when her grandkids attended our school. Since that time Cynthia’s teachings have become the pole star of my own emerging worldview after many years of searching and sharing that search with my students. At this point the teachings continue to captivate my interest, and I have just completed a semester with my students in which I gave them the fullest dose of Wisdom Tradition teachings yet to date, and I have been again fully affirmed that this is not only the right direction for me personally but for my high school students, most of whom have not been involved in much theological or spiritual training.

    I’m not sure what my own next step will be – not that what I’m doing isn’t satisfying, for it generally is – but I would like to extend what I’m learning to larger numbers of people. I would love to attend the June retreat in Stonington, but it’s a really difficult time given my other commitments to make the in-gathering, although that is what I feel I need – to be with a community that understands the imperative to share these teachings.

    My own interest is bringing together social justice education with wisdom work in the context of teaching high school students. While I will continue to develop these areas – and we have some incredibly exciting new curricula being implemented – I also want to share the vision with like-minded people.

    I look forward to further discussions and envisioning.

    In Advent Anticipation,

    Marty

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