It is more than a week now since our national election. All of us are feeling a variety of emotions. We are no exception.
Restoring Connections remains firmly committed to its mission. We continue to provide soul care and mentoring for justice involved individuals during incarceration and re-entry. We continue to provide support and supervision for those who serve the most neglected and marginalized. We remain faithful to building bridges between people, enhancing skills for effective engagement and the common good. We are devoted to using our resources in ways that provide the greatest benefit and invite others to discover their calling to service in the community. We are most effective as we collaborate with others.
Guided by our core values, we are drawn to use the next several weeks for deep reflection, self-examination and listening. There is no question that we all live in a culture that has been drawn into a spirit of divisiveness and willing to “other” some as disposable people. We are surrounded by resentful, fearful, and angry spirits. Right now, is a suitable time to turn inward for some soul searching. To what extent might we have absorbed our external environment? To what extent have divisiveness, resentment and self-interest become motivators underlying our words and actions? This is a question we all need to ask ourselves.
We’ve been thinking about and meditating on John Paul Lederach’s understanding that conflict can be holy door. Are we willing to enter the conflicts that face us, as accountable people who have done our inner work of re-grounding ourselves in our values, addressing and then letting go of resentments, and confessing our own inner violence? We long for the common good and for social justice. We long to create together a country where everyone can thrive.
Moral Imagination is the ability to discover together useful ideas that are good and right and to put these ideas into actions that serve others. We access this creative moral imagination when we become sensitive listeners, when we discern and choose the spirit of integrity and when we are willing to expand our hearts for new possibilities. To build right relationship, we need to practice discernment of our own hearts, we need healing, we need strong boundaries, we need to develop the ability to stand up nonviolently for justice, and we need to recognize that we all belong. We are interdependent. We need each other.
This time of year, as the daylight hours shorten, is a gifted time for reflection. Spending a little more time in tune with nature and what its seasons can teach us renews us and calls us back to ourselves. We are open to your thoughts and comments as we continue to bring our simple gifts to the community. We are grateful for your support, and we hope you will find these next weeks fruitful for self-reflection. Our goal is to engage each one with a sense of belonging. We want to offer ourselves, in humility and the spirit of charity, as we work for the common good and are committed to those most in need.
Restoring Connections continues to serve individuals during incarceration and reentry. We also provide support to spiritual directors internationally who serve the most abandoned. If you'd like to continue to support our work, Colorado Gives Day is Tuesday, December 10. Early giving begins November 1st.
Become a new monthly donor, and Colorado Gives will match your first gift up to $100.
Starting November 1, 2024, if you set up a new recurring monthly donation on ColoradoGives.org, Colorado Gives Foundation will match your first month’s gift, dollar for dollar, up to $100!