I am a pedestrian on a new bridge that is being built between teams with different approaches to spiritual and pastoral care. The contemplative dialogue skills are a help.
I will take time to notice defended and non-defended responses and
energy among volunteers and staff; identify
values, assumptions, inferences and feelings in a non-judgmental way; look with
compassion on all parties involved especially in polarized situations; check out
biases and inferences in tense situations; let go of
fears and hoped for outcomes and accept all with gratitude; and teach contemplative
dialogue skills to the members of the spiritual care team.
My goal is to be able to communicate more mindfully and
contribute to peaceful communication in tense
and/or polarized situations between the two teams.