A Community of Members
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by Ann Kline
"To live our highest in all things that pertain to us, and to lend a hand as best we can to all others for this same end." -Ralph Waldo EmersonI am new to the Shalem staff, but not new to Shalem. And in that transition lies a story of faithfulness that says much about this enterprise I have come to work for and to love. Faithfulness was the theme of the Shalem staff retreat this year, and characterizes for me the strength and the gift of this audacious endeavor. I am here because Shalem and its staff have been faithful to a vision of a way of being in the world, and have lent their hands to me and others "to live our highest in all things."
When I walked through the Shalem doors six years ago, all I had was a hunger I could not name and a prayer I could not express. I had asked God for a teacher. I found (was given) something better--a community of mentors, who wanted to do more than just impart their experience. They wanted for me what they wanted for themselves: to find the truth of one's individual experience of God and live out of it with faithfulness.
Mentoring has been called "the art of encouragement." The Talmud says, "every blade of grass has its angel, whispering 'grow, grow'." A mentor is that "angel" standing beside the mentored, providing the support and encouragement needed for the mentored to grow into the fullness of her or his own wisdom. The community of mentors I found at Shalem helped guide me toward a place of authenticity and self-confidence by sharing their own honest seeking, questioning and living out of those questions.
Marsha Sinetar in her book, The Mentor's Spirit, wrote: "Our mentoring heart awakens with maturity. First comes truth telling and sufficient self-respect to risk being real. It follows that we'll appreciate life enough to want and trust others' success--to wish them well as they set sail for the depth of their unknowns....If our mentors trust us with their truths and well wishes, we become animated by what St John of the Cross called 'a seed of fire': 'very minute, burning and full of power...like a vast fire of love and [the soul sees] that the point of its virtue is in the heart of the spirit.'"
Through the honesty and encouragement I have experienced at Shalem, particularly the generosity and vision of Rose Mary Dougherty, I have touched my own "seed of fire." It has animated in me a desire to do for others what has been done for me, to live with faithfulness to my evolving sense of truth and support others in their own becoming. Because of my mentoring, I have grown from a participant in group spiritual direction to coordinator of the local group spiritual direction program, and now to new ways of encouraging others in their paths, which in turn encourages me all the more in mine.
I see this as faithfulness, and as Shalem's great strength. This summer I visited a virgin spruce forest. Some of the trees were over 250 years old. One unique aspect of spruce trees is that they often grow out of the trunks of the old logs, drawing their nourishment directly from the life that has gone before. Shalem 's vitality comes from this same faithfulness- each person sharing his or her embodiment of love with another so that new vessels can emerge and continue a chain of creative growth.
As the psalmist says, "One generation shall laud your works to another, and shall declare your mighty acts." That is the work of Shalem, and of each of us who wish to foster contemplative life. We keep turning each other toward the glory of God-the eternal within each of us. In doing so, we participate in God's creative work and help to ensure that the fruits of that great love continue to flourish in seasons to come. That is the gift of Shalem's faithfulness, and I am grateful to be adding another link in the chain.
© 2008 The Shalem Institute.