Dear Wisdom friends,
It’s a wild ride out there just now, and Wisdom teaching has never been more needed. To paraphrase one of my favorite quotes (from Clarissa Pinkola Estés), Wisdom was made for these times. The underground river has come above ground and is running full tilt.
What is the distinctive Wisdom message for our times? Someone dubbed it “contemplation with grit.” In distinction to a conventional contemplative stance, which may surrender a few steps too soon; or traditional activism, which burns itself out in anger; or the despair voiced by many that we are helpless, victims, impotent, scattered, fragile, Wisdom has offered a powerful middle ground, calling forth the quality I have called mêtis—bold, skillful holding of the present moment, sometimes in action, sometimes in quiet, always in demonstrable connection and receptivity to a higher infusing power. Melding traditional contemplative surrender with perennial reference points in mindfulness and the infusing power of divine providence, Wisdom Waypoints has stepped up to the plate. People are finding their way to our offerings: to replenish hope, banish fear, relearn resilience and trust, and form intentional networks circling our globe through which this new energy is being radiated outward.
Here’s how “contemplation with grit” was recently described in a seminar I led:
“As our world and planetary systems reel in the grip of what many sense to be a thickening pandemic of evil, the Wisdom perspective is urgently needed. We believe that only from this broader cosmic and integrative perspective can sufficient leverage be found to work effectively with the escalating disintegration—political, cultural, ecological, spiritual—so apparent in our own times.”
The response has been electric, to say the least. Our website is as busy as ever before—with people joining for online webinars, meditation sessions, book study circles, liturgical events, teaching events. It is fair to say we have become a new “singular attractor” (as they say in physics), a center around which new energy and vision can gather.
This didn’t happen just by accident. The real foundations of the “contemplative grit” that is becoming our distinctive trademark were laid by a different kind of grit over the past five years, as our board stepped up to the plate, whistled in the dark, and invested in building the infrastructure that would bear this new shape. As we retooled the website so that it would serve a vastly enhanced international network, as we called forth and developed an active mentorship program where a new generation of Wisdom Teachers emerge and lead, with their own voice and a collegiality—in short where we co-created a form to follow the function.
You, our supporters and donors, had our backs as we did this. You trusted, you carried us, you stepped up to the plate. You were full partners in creating this capacity and your boots were in the trenches as well; you not only helped fund new courses; you signed up for them, and allowed your own lives to be touched by this new center of gravity we have been collectively midwifing.
Throughout the world, profound changes are rocking not only our political systems but our spiritual delivery systems as well. Over the course of this year, two of our Roman Catholic retreat house partners—Mercy Center and Guelph—have announced they are closing the doors to their retreat ministry. Snowmass has already done so. Old institutions grapple hard with new systems of public accessibility and the responsible dissemination of spiritual truths once transmitted only in much more closed, hand to hand formats. Preserving purity of teaching locks horns with new modes of communication and inclusivity—and above all, with a world clearly hungering for a teaching we are bringing.
How to go forward? I have a feeling that the distance traveled already in our initial tooling up efforts is only the first tiny step in a distance still to be traveled. The length and pace of the stride are increasing rapidly. Will you help us keep pace?
With gratitude and hope, Cynthia