One of my Strengths is Connectedness which I have actually blogged about before. Connectedness is one of my favorite talent themes because I know that there is a reason why I have it in my top five, which turns into a little bit of the chicken or the egg game. Do I have Connectedness because there is a reason I have it or is there a reason why I have Connectedness? Either way, I LOVE it!!! Did I mention that Positivity is my #1 Strength?
Moving on...I bring up Connectedness because yesterday something happened that was so bizarre that my Connectedness is still buzzing! So here's the scene: I'm in a committee meeting to figure out how to bring this program called Sparks to campus. Sparks is an initiative that puts people into small groups of fifteen people for five weeks and asks them to take a risk every week and then report back to the group. Some of my students and RAs have been doing it for a few years and LOVE it so we want to bring it to a larger audience since the impact has been so truly incredible.
The main guy of Sparks (Jason) was talking about how he thought it was important that we are able to link Sparks to Ignatian spirituality since there is such a presence and identity of Jesuit theology on campus. He then said that he had been doing some research about Ignatian theology and how there are four pillars. None of us around the table (including my current Resident Minister who is a double LMU alum, has his master's degree in theology and is current getting his PhD) could name them so we went on our merry way.
At the conclusion of the meeting I walked the two feet from the conference room to a computer in the main office of Housing. I checked my e-mail quickly and noticed that there was a follow-up from Sister Thuy who co-runs the Christian Life Community (CLC) small group program on campus. Last summer I decided to stretch myself a little bit and lead a CLC about service and Sr. Thuy and I had just met the previous week to chat about how everything was going. We didn't talk at all about Ignatian theology during our check-in, yet her e-mail was staring me in the face with this:
Dear Marci,
Thank you for your love and support to our students here at LMU. It was so wonderful to be able to sit with you and hear your journey with the students especially the service component. I am still smiling today because I think you are so valuable to our students.
Also, are you pretty knowledgeable with Ignatian Spirituality? If anyone asks you to define Ignatian Spirituality in a few words, you could say that it is:
1. Finding God in all things
2. Becoming a contemplative in action
3. Looking at the world in an incarnational way
4. Seeking freedom and detachment
God Bless,
Sr. Thuy
First, how sweet is she? I seriously spent the entire meeting alternating between grinning like an idiot and blushing like mad due to her onslaught of compliments. If you are ever having a bad day, just find a nun. They will seriously pull you out of any craziness of your everyday life.
Second, how crazy is this?!?! Although I'm sure I've heard these tenets in passing before, I've never seen them laid out like this before and the fact that it happened minutes after we were searching for these exact things is still blowing my mind. After I checked my e-mail, I promptly printed the four tenets, marched back into the conference room, totally interrupted a conversation between Briana and Jason and said "I'm sorry, but my Connectedness is going crazy right now and I just have to tell someone about this."
Strengths Quest defines Connectedness in part as:
This happen for a reason. You are sure of it. You are sure of it because in your soul you know that we are all connected. Some may call it the collective unconscious. Others may label it spirit or life force. But whatever your word of choice, you gain confidence from knowing that we are not isolated from one another or from the earth and life on it.
Connectedness: I love it, but sometimes it freaks me out.
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