The ways in which wholeness and division show up within us personally and between us societally are inextricably linked. One of the tensions we hold in our work is the reality that, even as we choose to create spaces that invite the soul and nurture wholeness and relational trust, the forces that push us toward the divided life are always present.
Across the world, billions of people live in communities with deeply entrenched legacies of violence, colonialism, and supremacist ideologies. Indeed, as Parker J. Palmer writes, “…violence is woven into the very fabric of our collective existence.” One result of these harmful and ongoing legacies is that we, as active members of these communities, have been conditioned to value certain aspects of human experience and expression over others, creating false hierarchies of humanity and sowing seeds of personal and societal division.