Finding Common Ground: Holding the Calm

The chaos surrounding us at present is mind numbing– chaos in the natural environment, in the political arena, everywhere in our local and global communities. (Do you find yourself wishing for a “mind-mute” button?) Before we can hold the calm, we first have to find it. That’s the challenge! Just maybe if we change our perspective we can begin to perceive something else in the chaos, like the calm in the eye of the hurricane. Surrounded by the storm, there might be something new emerging at the center. Could there be an alternative to the old dysfunctional systems that no longer serve our human family and are now coming down around us? Let’s see where this struggle for transformation takes us

Transformation: From Chaos to different Future for All Humankind

Have you ever watched a young butterfly battle its way out of a cocoon? As the butterfly struggles to emerge it becomes a new creation with the strength to fly. Maybe we are like that struggling butterfly, straining against what no longer serves us towards an emerging new vision for us all. Could we be struggling through humanity’s turbulent adolescence, on our way to becoming a mature human family? Imagine one Family with the strength and vision to rise above the barriers and conflicts currently feeding the chaos? In our series, Finding Common Ground conversations, we aim to explore this process and its challenges. We hope you will join us to share your insights so we may learn from each other.

Regardless of a person’s spiritual path, most of us acknowledge a Divine Spirit, a Universal Educator. As students, we often learn through instruction or through experience. Mankind appears to be stuck mainly in experiential learning through the consequences of its bad choices. And just like the birth struggle, it is a painful growth process with no easy exit. If we look further, we might find a new process emerging with the potential to transform our chaotic world into one that will bring the betterment of all humankind. If we struggle for common ground, we may find our way through the storm toward a brilliant future for us all.

Here’s a much loved text from the Baha’i Writings to help you find the calm in the eye of the storm.

"O God! Refresh and gladden my spirit. Purify my heart, illumine my powers. I lay all my affairs in Thy hand. Thou art my Guide and my Refuge. I will no longer be sorrowful and grieved; I will be a happy and joyful being. O God! I will no longer be full of anxiety, nor will I let trouble harass me. I will not dwell on the unpleasant things of life. O God! Thou art more friend to me than I am to myself. I dedicate myself to Thee, O Lord."

Join us on Saturday, May 17 to share ideas on finding tranquility in the midst of the storm.

We meet at The IKE Box Cafe

299 Cottage St., Salem

First floor, near the Chemeketa St. entrance