Bridging divides has been at the heart of my life’s work. I have spent the past two decades bringing people together to identify their spiritual strengths and how to use them to resolve conflicts and build trust with one another. My work is born out of a vivid dream I had in New York City, where I had just witnessed the tragic attacks of 9/11. In my dream, I saw a phoenix rising from the ashes of Ground Zero, a symbol of the power we each have to heal the spiritual and moral vacuum of a divided America and fractured world.
To facilitate the spiritually grounded change that is needed, I have drawn on my work of over 30 years with the United Nations to develop and train Reconciliation Leaders who can provide the kind of thoughtful, heart-centered leadership needed so badly by our country at this time. In the past, I have worked with Worcester high school students to serve as peer mediators, bridging differences among their classmates who come to our city from around the world, speaking close to 90 different languages. I used the visioning process with them, too. Soon they lined up at the door of my office to ask me to help them de-escalate their anger and confusion, using art materials.
Last month, the group I convened, with several talented co-facilitators, undertook a series of visioning exercises, sharing their individual and communal dreams of a nation reunited through the passage of this bill, followed by action plans to realize their dreams. They also created a composite image of all their images to help them be in community together and stay connected.
We all have special gifts and talents that we can use to heal our country. Let us stop blaming one another and be accountable by focusing on the inner states of our hearts, conducting, as one Reconciliation Leader wrote, “a deeper spiritual analysis alongside the political and social … no one is immune.” Then I encourage you to reach out to someone who may see the world differently and find common ground.
I identify as a Episcopalian/Quaker or “Episcoquake,” and as a woman of faith, I am led by the Holy Spirit and accompanied by Christ in every life challenge.
On June 1, with the help of Becca Hartman-Pickerell of Interfaith America and my affiliation with the Friends Committee on National Legislation, I organized a group of constituents from my central Massachusetts congressional district to meet with our Congressman James McGovern to ask his co-sponsorship of the Building Civic Bridges bill. As a result of our meeting, not only is Rep. McGovern co-sponsoring, he has also agreed to ask a Republican representative to join him.
