The Development of Spiritual Leadership
Awareness to Commitment
The Music Choices provided for the week are: I’m Like a Bird, Soldier of Love, and We Belong Together. The Word
What is commitment?
A Definition: Commitment is a promise to do or give something; a promise to be loyal to someone or something; the attitude of someone who works very hard to do or support something.
What is the foundation of commitment? The foundation is built upon relationships. The promise to be loyal is the promise to be faithful, that the relationship is deserving of trust–believing that someone or something is reliable, good, honest, and effective for the purpose of engendering respect and love.
Gender relationships, the polarities of life, have foremost importance in the building of all relationships. When trust is in doubt and gender relationships are not clear, all of life is in chaos. Relationships which are neither safe nor happy do not allow for the possibility of contentment or for the joy of fulfillment.
The joy of relationship can be found in the possibility of the full expression of purpose and spirit as women and men. To be able to play in a whimsical manner lightens the burdens of life. Joy as an expression of children in their innocence before the responsibilities of maturity and adulthood returns us to our innocence, a time of bliss. When women and men are able to be playful and amusing with one another, the energy of life is uplifted. Much of this playfulness is found in the dance between worth and value through courtship to recognize each other’s identity and emotional sense of worth as women and men in relation to one another. Once identified as potentially fulfilling, relationship can progress toward union. Relationships must be challenged in their creation for steadfastness to be ascertained to form union. Challenges abound and tests determine the adequacy of relationship to honor union.
Both women and men conduct tests of time, respect/compassion, worth/value, and care/joy in different ways to determine each other’s identity: men test for emotional security for their self-respect and the possibility of joy; women test for overall security and a commitment to their happiness. Once these tests are experienced favorably, a union can be established. A commitment not only to the responsibilities of life, but a commitment to joy leads toward fulfillment.
Commitment to one another stems from self-acceptance and acceptance of other. Acceptance is the path of humanity and the recognition of others makes life meaningful and worth living. Women represent the meaningfulness of life. The spirit of being is the truth of humanity.
- Women’s commitment to themselves and the development of their spirit is essential for humanity to evolve.
- Women’s commitment to themselves is the grounding point for all relationship.
- Women’s commitment to spiritual guidance allows for the betterment of all of humanity.
When women no longer realize the importance of humanity and their vital role in maintaining relationship, they influence in counterproductive ways. Women reduce joy and humanity when they fight for their value as men. They no longer exhibit respect for men in their capacity to be men who want to fight for the light and ideal that women represent. The spirit of the world and the value of men are diminished when women attempt to replace their worth with a man’s value. This attempt at substitution relinquishes our purpose and importance as women.
The Soul Gift
Care represents commitment. To have a commitment is to care about something or someone. Without commitments, we are neither hopeful nor respectful and honor is not possible. When we honor an ideal, a person, an experience, or a place, we too reflect that back into our lives.
Time is our commitment together. Women are the controllers of time, the messengers of worth/value, and the source of humanity. Together these three elements are the building blocks of life. Together these move humanity closer to enlightenment as a point in time when caring is honored and all are at peace. For men, peace is the acceptance of themselves as connected to women and the acceptance of valuing their own abilities to protect and provide.
To care for someone or something together creates the bonds of union to nurture the innocence of joy. Children represent the innocence of joy before the onset of adulthood and responsibilities. Ideally, children come from a safe and enjoyable life to which we must return. As we are born, so we must die.
Vulnerable physically are women who remain in their humanity in relation to men unless men in their maturity honor women. If men do not honor women and their emotional worth by seeing them as valuable, then relationship is not possible. If a woman’s emotional worth is undervalued or simply not recognized as valuable, then she must recognize and learn to value her own worth in order to establish an uplifting relationship with not only herself but with a man, if a relationship is desired. When women have to replace the innocence of joy with the wisdom of joy and validate their own value, life can no longer feel innocent, joyful, or safe and strengths are invalidated. Men must value women’s emotional worth and honor their joy if women are to participate in a partnership which balances the strengths of both women and men.
Women who are so consumed with the responsibilities of life and are often too busy to think of the health of relationship with others, let alone with themselves. Whether it’s taking care of children–sometimes before they themselves are even mature–taking care of family, or working merely to survive or feel important, it all stems from the need for attention, for giving, and for relationship. As a result of these responsibilities, the imbalance of unmet needs, as well as an identity confusion, women decreasingly experience the joy of being women while men decreasingly receive joy from women. This absence of joy perpetuates imbalance and increases the symptoms of social disease: crime, violence, mental/emotional disorders, physical ill health, greed, poverty, and social discontent.
When the personal lives and happiness of women are reduced to the responsibilities of survival which are the responsibilities of men, the spirit of women has no place to grow to reach upward toward giving, caring, joy, and fulfillment. No one benefits when women are exhausted by this imbalance. Women are no longer able to care for others and men no longer want to care, resulting in isolation, disconnection and disease. Historically, men have not honored women, starving them in their emotional worth. Women, in turn, repeat this vicious cycle by not recognizing men. The starvation of women’s emotional worth has created a chasm of needs where men can feel inept in providing for women’s needs of recognition and happiness. Women must have emotional accountability for their desires if there is to be ease in relationship. For women who want to value a particular relationship, they must have compassion for men’s ability to provide for a mutually satisfactory life. When women and men care, it suggests that they understand the benefits of interdependence.
Interdependence is a relationship and consciousness to recognize oneself and each other. Having a passion of purpose together expresses joy and completion through fulfillment rather than living in the faith of just making do in order to survive. The choice of commitment is the choice of relationship. In the choice of relationship, women choose to care. In the choice to honor relationship, men choose to care. The choice to care establishes wholeness.
For women, the responsibility of spiritual guidance is the choice to care about humanity, its relationships, and its evolution. To evolve humanity involves uplifting relationship, both personally and socially. If women choose to remain isolated individuals rather than spiritual guides, humanity cannot blossom into its fullness. If men choose not to participate through honor, humanity remains suffering. Enlightened men must commit to get involved so that women willing to commit successfully to the work are not exhausted, even if in the man’s world men are still struggling to survive. Perhaps it is time for men to explore humility and service through the far reaches of relationship in order to experience greater joy. Is the fear of loss of purpose more motivating than the possibility of fulfillment and joy? Joy by its very nature must be inclusive of women and men who represent the polarities of wholeness.
Reflect on this…What’s mine is yours, and what is yours is mine.
-Shakespeare, Measure for Measure, V, i
May your commitments bring you joy.
The Survey
Does being clear with your commitments stabilize you? (yes/no)
What is the overall commitment to yourself? To live in ___________
Relaxation-Security
Honor-Passion
Joy-Laughter
Beauty-Grace
Gratitude-Faith
Respect-Worth
Fulfillment-Peace
Power-Influence
Celebrity-Recognition
How does that overall commitment enhance your life? (List 3 ways, open-ended)
___________
___________
___________
COMPUTER APPLICATION (N.B.: Find out how to store people’s responses to show change through time when they take course again.)
Within the last year, how well do you feel you have served that commitment? I feel:
1) Unworthy
2) Complacent
3) Conflicted
4) Confident
5) Passionate
How well do you think that commitment has served you or will serve you within the next year? I feel:
1) Discontented
2) Imbalanced
3) Patient
4) Satisfied
5) Excited
If you were to transition your overall commitment to yourself, what would it be? To live in ___________ (check one)
Relaxation-Security
Honor-Passion
Joy-Laughter
Beauty-Grace
Gratitude-Faith
Respect-Worth
Fulfillment-Peace
Power-Influence
Celebrity-Recognition
Why? (open ended, 50 words or fewer)
Does being clear with your commitments stabilize you? (yes/no)
Yes/No being clear with my commitments does/does not stabilize me.
What is the overall commitment to yourself? To live in ___________
Relaxation-Security XXXX
Honor-Passion
Joy-Laughter
Beauty-Grace
Gratitude-Faith
Respect-Worth
Fulfillment-Peace
Power-Influence
Celebrity-Recognition
My overall commitment to myself is to live in….
How does that overall commitment enhance your life? (List 3 ways, open-ended)
___________
___________
___________
Repeat their response here
Within the last year, how well do you feel you have served that commitment? I feel:
1) Unworthy
2) Complacent
3) Conflicted
4) Confident
5) Passionate
I feel …… this last year in serving my commitment.
How well do you think that commitment has served you or will serve you within the next year? I feel:
1) Discontented
2) Imbalanced
3) Patient
4) Satisfied
5) Excited
I feel ……. in how my commitment has served me or will be serving me.
If you were to transition your overall commitment to yourself, what would it be? To live in ___________ (check one)
Relaxation-Security XXXX
Honor-Passion
Joy-Laughter
Beauty-Grace
Gratitude-Faith
Respect-Worth
Fulfillment-Peace
Power-Influence
Celebrity-Recognition
Why? (open ended, 50 words or fewer)
If I were to transition my overall commitment to myself, it would be toward ……….
Repeat the open ended portion here.
