Encountering Love 11/28/21 Encountering Love I have encountered commonality Throughout this whole semester I have encountered a sense of commonality; that there are things that every person feels and experiences, especially in this one community of Notre Dame. We have all encountered things such as imposter syndrome, brokenness, but also hope and change. These commonalities are what brings us closer to each other so we can appreciate our differences in a positive and loving way. “Community does not depend on intimacy and must expand to embrace strangers, even enemies, as well as friends.” (Thirteen Ways of Looking at Community by Parker J. Palmer - Moreau Week 11). When we are able to notice our commonalities, even with our “enemies”, we can build communities and accept those who are different from us. We often get stuck in ourselves, which at times is okay as we are the ones living our lives, but we forget that others are also living their lives. And those lives are filled with the same emotions and feelings that we have. Everyone hopes, everyone encounters brokenness, everyone loves, and everyone is human. When we look outwardly into the world we notice that everyone is simply human, and we can take that knowledge and look into ourselves. It’s not just that everyone else has commonalities, but we have commonalities with everyone. It is this understanding and acceptance of these commonalities, both positive and negative, that helps foster love and acceptance. http://couragerenewal.org/parker/writings/13-ways-of-looking-at-community/ http://couragerenewal.org/parker/writings/13-ways-of-looking-at-community/ I have encountered change Accepting change might be one of the hardest things to learn how to do, but once learned you can then appreciate the full chaotic beauty of the world. For a while I struggled with change as I did not have a lot of stability for most of my adolescence, and change was constant. Though when I did get the stability I needed I realized that change is necessary. One does need stability as without it you will struggle to meet your basic needs both physically and mentally, but without change we will become stagnant and will never grow. Once I gained stability I was able to utilize change and grow with it. “... their bodies, passions, and imaginations are in continual change, for to be in time means to change” (The Screwtape Letter by C. S. Lewis - Moreau Week Twelve). The Screwtape Letter highlights the fact that to be human is to change, to exist in time is to change. Change is a commonality that all humans experience, and it is in change that hope and understanding comes from. Without change hope would cease to exist as hope is a want of change or a want for things not to change. To understand things change has to occur. You have to change your beliefs, ideas, and knowledge to understand the world around you. Change is at the center of our worldly experience and to stop change is to stop living in this world. I have encountered beautiful people In these 19 years of living I have encountered beautiful people, and not those that are attractively beautiful. I have encountered people with a beauty that comes from within, that comes from love, kindness, acceptance, generosity, intelligence, and the innate worth that they have. “That they learn that the things they’ve experienced — the good, the bad, the ugly — it has made them this beautiful, dynamic, interesting person they are today.” (Women Find Healing https://canvas.nd.edu/courses/28308/files/189486?module_item_id=106257 https://grottonetwork.com/make-an-impact/heal/find-healing-through-kintsugi-art/ Through Kintsugi Workshop by Grotto - Moreau Week 10). People are beautiful because they are innately beautiful. These things I have encountered all build from one another into an amazing idea of ourselves and humanity as a whole. We are all beautiful in our own ways, a commonality we share, we are beautiful because we are ever changing, growing and learning from our experiences, and we are beautiful because we are simply living beings. At Notre Dame this idea of beautiful people has only grown. I have seen peers share stories of themselves and their home, smiling as they talk about the town they grew up in. I have seen professors teach with a passion that comes from a deep understanding of how knowledge can change people. I have seen this community, through its ups and downs, try it's hardest to build a space for everyone and work on problems it has so that everyone can be themselves here. I have encountered love The most important thing I have encountered in my life and especially in this community we call Notre Dame is love. Love for learning, love for faith, love for justice, love for our environment, love for growth, love for everyone, and love for the act of loving. “Wouldn’t the opposite of internal dissonance be self compassion?” (QQC 9: Encountering Dissonance by - Moreau Week 9). I asked this question at the beginning of this half for this class, and I think the answer is yes, but also more deep than just a simple “yes”. The opposite of internal dissonance is self compassion, but also compassion that comes from one's community. Compassion is the embodiment of love. Compassion is a pure, selfless act of love. Everyone has struggled with dissonance and self worth, but it is the love that comes from within ourselves and within our communities that truly shows the worth of ourselves and helps us battle dissonance. Love has got me here and love will continue to guide me and help through my journey. “To love is to breathe”; that is a quote I used in my first integration and one that I use again because it is so https://grottonetwork.com/make-an-impact/heal/find-healing-through-kintsugi-art/ https://docs.google.com/document/u/0/d/1GA4n2WKvEU6esWI8phQKs5DKQ1HUhHdo1DF26OMEa9U/edit simple yet so true. It highlights how easy love is, that loving is just like breathing, simple and easy to do, but if we also reverse the quote to “to breath is to love” it provides another beautiful and simple idea. To simply breathe means to commit an act of love, and since everyone breathes continuously it means that just merely existing means that you are committing acts of love. I believe that is an amazing idea. We encounter love every day, every second of our lives. The world we live in is chaotic, ever changing, but it is through this commonality of love that we become beautiful, powerful beings of change. We take a world that may make no sense and that can cause pain, and we turn it into a world that grows, that understands, that loves everything that calls it home. It is this idea that encompasses all that I have encountered throughout my life, that this world is my home, is everyone’s home, and in this idea comes love for everything that inhabits this home.