Thinking together is a lost art. As a teacher I do hard thinking, then I tell you about all my insights. If you think it is insightful, clever, smart or feels new to you, you register your acceptance of my insights with a nod or a “great message Ron,” and assume those insights will now change your life. But we haven’t thought together. And we certainly haven’t come “to know together.”
Thinking together and coming to know together requires a posture of being that will accommodate new shifts in us. We have discussed the two components of the social field. Now we look at the four ways of being or listening.
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One of the most powerful spiritual mentoring times I have experienced was when I got to spend a week retreat where David Steindl-Rast was present. I only had a couple hour long sessions with him for spiritual direction, but his input has been indelible.
His simple message is that gratefulness as a pattern and practice is life transforming. That is it. Nothing deeper, nothing more insightful.
His coaching to me… “Ron gratefulness is always a reflection on something, someone, some event, and usually something transformative. The way we keep that memory transformative and those events potent is for gratefulness to bring them into the present. This is the big loss in our times. We don’t keep bringing important moments from the past forward.”
Today is a day designed for just this… pull the past into the present. Practice gratefulness. For some more help from Father David take a look here.
