A Prayer

Fordham University Graduate School of Social Service Commencement Ceremony Benediction, May 2017

Allow me to open the benediction with inspiring words from Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes, an American poet, post-trauma specialist and Jungian psychoanalyst:

"One of the most calming and powerful actions you can do to intervene in a stormy world

is to stand up and show your soul. Soul on deck shines like gold in dark times. The light of the soul throws sparks, can send up flares, builds signal fires, causes proper matters

to catch fire. To display the lantern of soul in shadowy times like these - to be firece and to show mercy toward others; both are acts of immense bravery and greatest necessity."

Pray with me dear graduates that we may all wholeheartedly embrace these words, and that we may also grasp that the macro of today's political and cultural paradigm that these words allude to, are in perfect reflection to the micro of our individual service to our clients.

For what lies at the core of the need for our interventions? Be it global in scale - or intimate in our empathic understanding - it, mostly, is the same: Hopelessness, helplessness, loss, anxiety, depression...fear. So, yes, while we are witness to it, we strive in collaborative effort with our clients, to enable its antidote.

A Professor recently presented this imagery that I'd like to share and expand upon with you all: The central branch of the New York Public Library has as its sentinels a pair of statues. They are meant to protect as they inspire. Can you visualize them in your mind's eye? They are powerful lions in repose, aptly named "Patience" and "Fortitude".

Pray with me that as we visualize these lions named Patience and Fortitude, that we may also visualize others by their side. Their names are Innovation, Imagination and Creativity. They beckon us to be mindful and thoughtful in how we serve others. They inspire us, because in calling their names, they invoke feelings of expansion, light and hope.

Pray with me that we may also visualize at the forefront of these lions - at that forward leading edge - two others that are named Empathy and Passion. For they are the vanguard that serve our practice well.

And, in turn, Empathy and Passion need to be flanked on either side by great lions named Humility and Gratitude. For I would argue that these last two are mandated to thrive, lest we risk that maladaptive narcissism and hubris take root in our being.

Pray with me that embracing all...is Love. For it is Love that reminds us that we are all interconnected in ways magnificent, sublime and ultimately unknowable. For it is Love that has the capacity to plant seeds of nuanced light that may pierce the darkness, the absolutism, and the fear held in the hearts of so many.

And finally, pray with me dear graduates, that we may all carry in our hearts these righteous lions. By name, they serve as guides in our service to others: Patience, Fortitude, Innovation, Imagination, Creativity, Empathy, Passion, Humility, Gratitude, and Love.

Always Love.

Always Love.

#tips #change