Advocacy: Learning to Hold a Position Lightly

What power and insight when combining advocacy with inquiry!  To be able to "invite others into your viewpoint and let them explore and try to understand it."  You mean I don't have to bash people over the head with MY way of thinking?!!

Through the movement from individual thoughts and actions to a communal dialogue, we have an opportunity to express our deepest-held values, ideas, and worldviews... and to listen to another perspective.  We can explore with others why these values and positions are important - to me, to you, and to us.  Through this process, I can be drawn into a deeper discovery of who I am in the world; I can hear about and explore the values and positions of others; and we can build relationships...together.  Just think about the possibilities of holding onto "me" and learning to become "we"!

General questions for reflection:

• When do I hold onto a position, not letting it go?  Why do I hold on?
• When do I offer my thoughts to others so we can explore and grow?
• When do I hold the ideas so lightly that the gentle breezes of community, friendship and trust allow the position to become free, to move, and to shape new realities?

Specific questions this holiday season:

• What images of Christmas do I hold onto?
• When do I explore with others our various traditions of "holiday"?
• When do these holiday celebrations become "holy-days" because we have invited the sacred within one another to bless our thoughts, memories, and well wishes?

Advocating our positions - lightly - and allowing us to explore our shared and different perspectives will broaden our understanding.  It is in this movement that we can offer "Peace and Good Will to All!"

Larry Gardepie