So I went to
the symposium with some anxiety. I was
about to spend a weekend with some highly influential intellectuals, educated
and groomed in one way or another to be leaders not only in the Unitarian
Universalist movement, but in the world beyond our walls. From surgeons to ministers, professors and
psychologists, mathematicians and business executives; not to mention the young
adults knee deep in post-secondary studies or those youth who had big dreams
and a plan to execute them. Then there
was me. What would I have to offer these
brilliant people? I am presently
unemployed, uneducated and unable to decide what to do about either; no doubt
this comes from a place inside of me that believes I am somehow not good enough,
not smart enough, not qualified enough
to represent the UCM as a delegate and therefore terribly lucky to do so.
Over the
course of the experiment that was the Spiritual Leadership Symposium, I noticed
a common thread between the challenges of the Canadian Unitarian Council and its
member congregations. Listening to tired
and frustrated people from across the nation call for more youth, more money,
more members and more communication I sensed a deep yearning for more of
everything and anything that would save UUism from extinction. I saw a united people looking out to solve
the problems of scarcity, or as my Shenpa would call it, inadequacy within.
I answered the challenge put to us by our provocateur to
stretch further; I decided to allow myself to be vulnerable enough to answer
the inevitable question “What do you do?” honestly. It turned out that for what I lacked in
credentials; I was in a surplus of in experience; that my unique life was
brimming with things to offer these brilliant people, things missing and yet
very necessary for our movement to forge ahead.
And as the weekend progressed and connections seemed to emerge out of
thin air and deepen quickly, I realised that my fears of inadequacy were just
that; fears. The truth was that I had
more to offer than I thought possible and qualified people took the time to
listen and thank me for my humble perspective.
And then it
hit me. Unitarians do not need more
members, more youth, more money, more anything.
We all have everything we need for this moment; otherwise it would be a
different moment entirely. We are in
abundance of more than we could ever dream of, but it is our fears of not being
enough that prevent us from stepping up, from stretching further. Every chair in this sanctuary sits a
wellspring of insight, of skillset, of that special thing we need to make this
movement whole, to push forward, and to grow from the inside out. All we need to do is harness and cultivate
that which is already within us.
Let us shift
from the constricting hold of a scarcity mentality to the empowering expansion
of abundance. Let us turn our conflicts
into creative tension, diving into our inadequacies rather than turning away. Let us set out to discover what we can do whole
heartedly rather than prove the notion that we are not enough. Let us joyfully give of ourselves from our
overflowing reservoirs. We have only
just begun to skim the surface. How
terribly lucky we are to do so.
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