In an extract from her new
book Born to Fly, Margaret Silf
considers the wisdom of St Ignatius Loyola and how it can help us make better
choices for today and for tomorrow …
We make millions of choices in the course of our lives, but
it is equally true to say that our choices make us.
‘It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are.’
(J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets)
My choices are revealing the truth about who I truly am,
and making me what I shall become. All our choices, collectively, are shaping
who we are becoming as a human race, or the inhabitants of a particular
country.
It follows, then, that some help in actually making wiser
choices could be very beneficial.
As in any human endeavour, there are many different approaches
we might take. I have personally been formed mainly within the Christian
tradition, and, within that tradition, very much influenced by the spirituality
of St Ignatius Loyola, So, I offer you some of the wisdom from that tradition
that has been especially helpful to me, in trying to navigate my way through
the muddle and confusion in which we are currently mired. This is in no way to
diminish the many other pathways to wisdom that humankind has pioneered through
the ages.
Although Ignatius lived over 500 years ago, and was formed within
a tradition that was facing the very necessary changes being forced by the
Reformation, his insight into psychology remains today little less than cutting
edge. But for our purposes you don’t even need to know his name, let alone the
full extent of his writings. His insights into ways of making wiser choices remain
as valid and powerful today as they were in his own times – and it’s worth
remembering that his own times were also deeply troubled, his contemporaries,
like us, savagely divided by the political, social and religious currents of
the time.
He calls it discernment. If that word strikes terror
into your heart, or brings down an impenetrable curtain of mystery, be
reassured: discernment just means making wiser choices.
Whatever we call it, the art of making wiser choices is
going to be absolutely key in our quest to evolve spiritually. Remember, the
invitation is to grow into the future, not to be pushed into it by any
of the political, religious and social juggernauts that seem to be hogging the
road.
It begins where we are. On our own we can’t change the
choices being made in Brussels or London or Washington. We can only change the
choices we make ourselves in our own circumstances and situations. But don’t
under-estimate the power inherent in those personal choices. Imagine this
scenario: A flock of birds is flying across the sky. All at once there is a change.
Notice how just a very few of the birds strike out in a new direction. Not a
radically different flight path, but sufficiently different to take the entire
flock to a different destination.
For those few birds that dare to make such a change it’s a
huge risk. They could be wrong. And even if they are not wrong, and their intuition
that there is a better way is sound, the others may not follow. They may find
themselves literally out on a limb. Or, as is more often the case, the rest of
the flock notices this change, and chooses to follow. Gradually the direction
of the whole flock is adjusted. You could say that the few pioneers of the new
direction are like the imaginal cells in the butterfly story. They sense the
future that is already present within them, and their great desire is to take
the flock with them to a different kind of future. Which is simply to say that
change usually begins with one or two pioneering spirits.
Anthropologist Margaret Mead puts it like this:
‘Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed
citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.’
Those few imaginal cells who struggled for their survival
inside the caterpillar were a small beleaguered group in the beginning, but it
was they who carried the seeds of transformation. It always is. Never doubt the
power inherent in your own choices. But along with power comes responsibility –
the responsibility to choose wisely and to choose well. Before you embark on
your journey, you might find these general questions helpful, as you reflect on
any choices currently engaging you, and in considering some of what might lie
ahead.
In this situation, what is the more loving, the more
life-giving thing to do next?
Of the many options open to me, which is
most likely to lead to an increase of love, trust, hope and understanding
in myself and in the wider world? Will any of the available options diminish
the store of love, hope and peace in myself and in the wider world?
How will my choice affect others as well
as myself – for example, my family, my community, my neighbourhood, my nation,
my nation’s neighbours, our world, and the whole of creation, including all the
living creatures who share their planet with us?
Will this choice tend to lead me and all
creation a little closer to the best version of humanity, or could it pull us back
from this fullness? Is it, primarily, an evolutionary or a devolutionary
choice, a choice that nourishes growth or a choice tending towards regression?
In this decision am I being mainly
influenced by the hope of short term benefits or am I open to the bigger
picture? When making big decisions, indigenous peoples consider the impact on
‘the seventh generation’. How will my choice affect generations still unborn?
Do I feel inwardly at peace with my
choice, in my own ‘gut reaction’ and also in the light of the wider questions
raised above?
Our personal choices have far-reaching consequences. The Butterfly
Effect applies: small changes in initial conditions can have a huge impact
further down the line. A slight change of air pressure in Asia can, through
feedback loops, cause a hurricane in Mexico. One apparently small choice in our
personal lives can affect the way humanity moves forward, or slips back, in our
collective growth into the future.
May you journey
wisely, and journey well.
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