Residency note #1: Roads of Renewal--The Four-Fold Journey

After teaching 17 years at Santa Clara University, I have taken a sabbatical this fall. I have chosen to call my sabbatical a ‘residency.’ For me, there is something more whole-hearted about the word residency. This is, after all, an expedition of mind-body-spirit—a time to reside in myself and explore ideas, books, and connections-- the insights of which I will apply to my teaching and coaching. I will be posting notes during this reflective process. The overarching themes relate to the power of nature and animals to foster social and emotional intelligence and help humans heal. Another primary theme focuses on our responsibility to give back to, nurture, and protect Mother Earth and all her sentient beings. In a time of increasing eco-anxiety we need practices and understandings that help us cope and move the needle further toward environmental sustainability and social justice. I am speaking of movements like Joanna Macy’s The Great Turning, Thomas Berry’s The Great Work and Matthew Fox’s Order of the Sacred Earth.

In my work with people (whether on the trail, in the pasture or in a classroom) the idea of where you are ‘going,’ where you’ve been, and perhaps what mile-markers (important life events) have gifted you with wisdom, even if hard won, are central themes we explore.

In equine-assisted coaching, the horses we partner with are exemplars of taking things one moment at a time (trees and rocks are good at this too!). They are not strategizing about next week or next month--they are present in themselves.  But alas, we are human, and actually have to plan and strategize at times. The question arises, how can we remain present, balancing our intuition and strategic mind, and direct our attention to those aspects of ourselves we want to change without getting lost in future projections? How we set our intentions matter since that is the vehicle for how we channel our attention.

This month, one book I have been reading is Order of the Sacred Earth, written and edited by Matthew Fox, Skylar Wilson and Jennifer Berit Listug. In Matthew Fox’s essay, an idea that resonated with me as a way to guide our attention toward personal (and thus global) transformation, was the idea of the four-fold journey--Via Positiva, Via Negativa, Via Creativa and Via Transformativa. Via is Latin for ‘way, road, highway, journey, and path.’ These are routes which direct our attention to what is positive, negative, creative and transformational.

The first road isVia Positiva and is an invitation to practice witnessing and acknowledging awe, delight and amazement in our ‘everyday lives’. There is nothing ordinary about the ordinary. Out in the pasture, one client and I decided to engage in a practice of delight. We took our cameras and floated around the pasture, capturing delight. We noticed the gorgeous texture and color of Tuffy’s tasseled mane, the softness of April’s muzzle, the perfect curvature of Junior’s hoof, and the clear, cool water in the metal trough. We felt delight in the way the morning mist was landing on our upturned faces. When we focus our attention on delight or awe it allows the strategic mind to go off-line, even for a minute, and thereby grants us a brief respite from stress, worry and contraction. Our bodies relax and the longer road of our lives becomes somehow more simplified and hopeful. As Aristotle said, we are what we repeatedly do. The path of positivity can be travelled upon throughout our day. In The Book of Delights, poet Ross Gay shares short essays he wrote on something he found delightful daily over the span of a year. At the end of that process he muses:

“It didn’t take me long to learn that the discipline or practice of writing these essays occasioned a kind of delight radar. Or maybe it was more like the development of a delight muscle. Something that implies that the more you study delight the more delight there is to study...which is to say, I felt my life to be more full of delight. Not without sorrow or fear or pain or loss. But more full of delight. I also learned this year that my delight grows—much like love and joy—when I share it.”

The second road isVia Negativa and is the practice of interacting with silence, darkness, suffering and letting go. Recognizing what is dark and difficult is a fundamental aspect of re-membering and reclaiming our inherent wholeness. We are complex creatures with rich and textured emotional lives. Horses, trees, or shrubs along the trail are all amazing listeners and I often invite clients to express their fears, worries, and concerns to these sentient beings. Horses’ hearts emit 500 times the amount of electro-magnetic energy as humans, so just being around them opens our heart space more. Some plants release compounds called terpenes, which increase our immune functioning, just as being near trees can lower our stress hormones. There is something in the way a horse is able to just be with our worries or grief that is so completely moving. They are simply (but not so simple for humans) present with it. They have no agenda, they aren’t trying to fix anything or give us advice. They listen, and often graze, and sometimes turn their head, their ears and eyes toward us with such compassion that we can’t help but allow our tears to flow. This is the gift of traversing the ‘via negativa’ and allowing the silence and darkness to inform, teach, and usher us to the other side of understanding and self-compassion. A more balanced attunement to our own process of grief and liberation from suffering is available on this path.

The third road isVia Creativa and means turning our attention to birthing, creativity, and passion. I think of both the inspiration that comes from seeing what other people are birthing into this world, as well as what we ourselves might birth. 16-year-old Greta Thunberg comes to mind as an inspiring example of what can happen when just one person raises their voice—in this case waking up the world to the harsh facts regarding climate change and the consequences of inaction. On this path, an abiding question remains regarding how we might harness our creativity and intellect, intuition and rationality, to bring our unique artistry, brilliance and purpose forward into further clarity and fruition. The road of creativity allows us to follow and strengthen our inherent passions, trusting that paying attention to them is a worthwhile journey in and of itself.

The fourth road is the Via Transformativa, the path of transformation, and encourages us to turn our attention toward justice, compassion, healing, celebration, and service. Who do you already know, in your family or community, that is modeling these qualities? We don’t always have to think so abstractly about people like Martin Luther King or Mother Teresa. Perhaps your grandmother was an example of a healing presence in your life. Perhaps your dog offers the best compassion you’ve ever found. How can we fashion our own behavior around these examples? The road to transformation is ever evolving and we’re never ‘done.’ In my opinion, it’s not about achieving one specific goal, as it is about the process of further elucidating what really matters to us and gently and lovingly guiding ourselves in those directions.

Matthew Fox asserts the universe is a blessing and our spiritual practices are how we find our deepest and truest selves. I agree with him, and believe the four-fold journey is an elegant framework for how to direct our attention, horses or no horses, forest or no forest. Delight, darkness, creativity, compassion—as Rumi writes, “Welcome and entertain them all!”

The Guest House

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice.
meet them at the door laughing and invite them in.
Be grateful for whatever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

-Rumi

Capturing a moment of delight in seeing this mid-century mosaic on the side of a building in Highland Park, Los Angeles.