“We cannot live in a world that is not our own, in a world that is interpreted for us by others. An interpreted world is not a home. Part of the terror is to take back our own listening, to use our own voice, to see our own light.”
—Hildegard of Bingen
For many, this summer has been an awakening from a world that was interpreted for us, an unveiling of narratives proven to be hiding deep inequities, generations of pain, oversimplified and self-protective mythologies of morality and ethics. In this #PanDeepening blog, we have invited ourselves and all of you to go deeper; to use this time to consider the world and ourselves with new eyes and fresh perspectives; to ask ourselves what Spirit is calling forth from us in this time. In the words of Hildegard, to “take back our own listening.”
Hildegard doesn’t stop at listening, though. She continues, “to use our own voice, to see our own light.” Using our own voices to reflect what we are hearing as we listen, to share what we see when we look deeply inside ourselves, can be truly frightening. “Who am I to say what is right?” we ask. “What difference will it make?”
For Hildegard, finally speaking out the truths she was holding inside literally allowed her to arise from her sickbed—her silence was, in effect, making her ill. We’ve all heard the phrase, “the life you save may be your own,” and this was true for Hildegard. But it is only half the story because, in using her voice and seeing her own light, Hildegard has been a voice and a light for many in her own time and in the centuries since her death. Did Hildegard know this would be the outcome of trusting herself to speak? No more, I suspect, than you or I know what effects we can have, what impacts we can make, if we take our courage in hand and speak.
“We shall awaken from our dullness and rise vigorously toward justice. If we fall in love with creation deeper and deeper, we will respond to its endangerment with passion.”
—Hildegard of Bingen
—Jenifer Hanson, Prairiewoods director