Hello. My name is Dave Kinnear and I am a logomaniac. I admit it. I also admit that I intend to do absolutely nothing about it! We were given this question to ponder – “What renews us individually and as a spiritual community?” Renewal. Interesting word. Given the question, I immediately responded the way any self-respecting logomaniac would respond; I began obsessing over the word. What does it mean? Where did that word come from anyway? As best I can tell, renewal derives from the Latin word renovare or renovo. “Re” means “done again.” And “novo” means “new.” So renovo means “I make new or refresh again.” Another interpretation from the Latin is “I alter or change.” I like this interpretation best. I generally use the word “recommit” when I’m “doing again.” See? Logomania at work – I warned you!
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When I think about renewal as it pertains to my own spiritual growth, I do not think of refreshing or recommitting to existing values. Instead, I think of it as making a new commitment or finding a new insight. I think of altering or changing a previously held belief. Growth rarely comes from repeating, repackaging or recommitting to existing beliefs and habits. It is new insight and making changes that enables us to grow. The question still remains – “what renews me as an individual?”
In a word, what renews me is solitude. Being alone. I never find renewal when outwardly focused. It will not surprise you to know that when I am thinking deeply about values, beliefs and change, I’m not with you even if we are together physically. I’ve tuned you out and gone to the most absorbing place I know – my own brain. You, dear Tapestrian, don’t exist during that period of time. Nothing outside of my own consciousness exists at that time. If you want to check me on this, have a brief conversation with my bride and joy of 45 years. She will tell you that the statement is largely true. So will our children. So will many past employees, current peers and friends.
So I don’t do the truly deep spiritual renewal work while I’m present to you or the outside environment. When I am present to you or others, you may inspire me to question my beliefs and provide a new view of so called reality, but it is solitude that allows me to fully internalize those thoughts and push on my own growing edges. Being alone is also where I re-charge my batteries and regain my energy. So yes, I am pretty far along on the introvert side of the introvert-extrovert continuum. Yet, like many introverts, I can and do function quite well as an extrovert when required to do so.
Here is another question then. Given what I’ve just shared, where does Tapestry fit in for me? Tapestry provides the grist for the renewing mill of solitude. The “grist” comprises questions, challenges, different beliefs, unique views of reality, sundry resources and context for ethical behavior. The mill of solitude grinds and processes the grist to produce new personal views, new insights, changed beliefs, revised habits and new energy.
What then of an organization’s and Tapestry’s renewal? We, collectively, are Tapestry’s consciousness. My sense of things is that Tapestry pushes on Tapestry’s own growing edges during those periods when Tapestry’s consciousness is inward focused. What’s the mission and vision to which we as an organization aspire? How do we want to be in the world? How do we relate to one another? When we are inward focused, that is analogous to being in solitude. We’ve temporarily tuned out the outside world in order to create and change and renew.
Just like I cannot always be in solitude as an individual, neither can Tapestry be always inwardly focused. We must both engage in the larger community to fulfill our individual and collective visions and missions. And just like I cannot be too much with the teaming masses without regular solitude, neither can Tapestry be focused only on the outside environment but must have regular periods of introspection, solitude and growth. True renewal comes from solitude which provides introspection, focus, and clarity. The results will often be growth which of course means change. Renewal. Interesting word indeed.
