Episode 3.02: Spirit of Change
THE PODCAST: October 20, 2020
JOURNEYS OF SELF-DISCOVERY
What does the spiritual journey look like for people involved in large scale systems change work? How is the spiritual path different from the mental health and leadership journeys also at play for those engaged in change initiatives? Listen in as Tim and Tuesday share some of their own personal journeys and what they're discovering along the way.
Together, Tim Merry and Tuesday Ryan-Hart are THE OUTSIDE—systems change and equity facilitators who bring the fresh air necessary to organize movements, organizations, and collaborators forward for progress, surfacing new mindsets for greater participation and shared impact.
3.02 — SHOW NOTES
Tim: Today on the podcast we’re talking about the spirit of change - the journey and spirit that we all go through as individuals when we are involved in large-scale change work.
Tuesday: This is an aspect of our work that we haven’t talked about much and I feel like there’s no way that I would be doing this work - systems change and equity - if I hadn’t been in, undergoing, in the midst of my own spiritual transformation. They feel completely intertwined to me and I feel the same thing in you and I can feel it when we talk to the Outsiders. I hope that as we talk about this more explicitly that it will give permission for this to be in our spaces as well.
Tim: Why I wanted to talk about this today is that I am doing a lot of reading around addiction and recovery from addiction and how that plays out in families. There is a lot in my family and in my family history that has led me to want to more fully understand that… and in my own life, bluntly. A lot comes up in that - of course, the mental health journey, the physical journey… in all of the literature I am reading they also identify a spiritual journey as key to recovery, healing, key to transformation and stability. This sense that you are part of something bigger, that there is something that lends meaning to your life. How do I grow the deliberateness around my spiritual life and the richness of my spiritual experience in this world? I am in this question of what is the minimum order, what is the simple framework that I am willing to put in place in my life that can contain and support and help my spiritual journey.
Tuesday: This is a place that we’ve met each other for a long time - nature, how we practice, what we’re seeing. In some ways we’ve talked about these as personal practices, what nourishes us and all of those things, the Outside - the name of our company - this is obviously a place where we came together. I love to hear people talk about their spiritual expression. It’s fascinating. In some ways it’s been more at the forefront for me in the past couple of years. I think that really simply came from being in a point in my life where I looked around and while I had everything I wanted; I was not happy. What does that mean? It was not about material things at all and so I decided to figure out why I would dare to be unhappy. In doing so, I found a desire for spiritual connection; the goddess rose to meet me. I followed that path and it led me to leave my 20-year marriage, start a new business with you, doing deep trauma work. All of that converged to the path I am on now which is a deeply spiritual path which comes out in our work together in every way but isn’t necessarily talked about a whole lot.
Tim: I think I’ve always felt nature as spiritual - I’ve always turned to nature for love. I think that’s particularly true of growing up in an institution for prayer, song and sermon but finding none of that there (comfort, security, care). I got into a regular practice of meditation but I found that the more I meditated, the more I encountered my inability to sit still in peace. When I experienced peace, I bounced out of it. My spiritual practice led me into my mental health journey and now I’m coming out the other side of the mental health journey and saying what’s the right spiritual practice for me now? What is it that I want to create as the spiritual container as I really begin to build my own life, on my own terms? The question feels rightly timed and full of promise.
Tuesday: Many of us are seeking and searching and wondering. With the world turning upside down, who is it that I want to be and what is it I want to do? And not much feels more exciting to me than that; if we all actually made that decision instead of responding.
Tim: We’ve moved in this really strong effort, and others globally, to professionalize and bring this world of participatory leadership into the real heart of the beast in many ways. Maybe part of this question also, is how does that depth return into our work now in a way that feels grounded and authentic to who we are? That does feel inextricably linked to our capacity to deliver results, to get the work done, to move through the complexity and scale of the practical transformations that are in front of us as human beings. And how does that turn up in a way that doesn’t undermine our credibility to be in some of the rooms we are in?
Tuesday: I think often people’s experience of spirituality/connection, and this goes right to the heart of our work, is of transcending differences - we’re all one - but for me there was a denial of the reality of what is happening now in these human bodies, who are wrapped in different skins. That had no appeal for me. I was on a great podcast a couple weeks ago - Awakin Calls - and someone asked this great question about oneness. Can we get people to oneness? Is that a place? One of the first things in spiritual traditional is that we are no different from anyone else… and I think that is a fundamental truth and it’s the easy answer in today’s world. It does not meet the complexity of today. For me, it is deeply spiritual but to be able to hold both of those truths, as we go into mainstream work, that yes we are all one and there are significant differences and be able to hold that. That is part of our equity practice. Part of what we do is bring in an unassailable belief that we can do better whether we bring it in as spiritual or not.
Song: “Bring Me Little Water Sylvie,” by Sweet Honey In The Rock
Poem: Excerpt from “Thunder Perfect Mind”
I was sent forth from the power,
and I have come to those who reflect upon me,
and I have been found among those who seek after me.
Look upon me, you who reflect upon me,
and you hearers, hear me.
You who are waiting for me, take me to yourselves.
And do not banish me from your sight.
And do not make your voice hate me, nor your hearing.
Do not be ignorant of me anywhere or any time. Be on your guard!
Do not be ignorant of me.
For I am the first and the last.
I am the honored one and the scorned one.
I am the whore and the holy one.
I am the wife and the virgin.
I am <the mother> and the daughter.
I am the members of my mother.
I am the barren one
and many are her sons.
I am she whose wedding is great,
and I have not taken a husband.
I am the midwife and she who does not bear.
I am the solace of my labor pains.
I am the bride and the bridegroom,
and it is my husband who begot me.
I am the mother of my father
and the sister of my husband
and he is my offspring.
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Find the song we played in today’s show—and every song we’ve played in previous shows—on the playlist. Just search ‘Find the Outside’ on Spotify.
Duration: 50:37
Produced by: Mark Coffin
Theme music: Gary Blakemore
Episode cover image: source