Reaching across difference
The Grace of reaching across
“The Hand of Life”
The Prophet: Kahlil Gibran (1923), (pg. 17)
Lately, I’ve been deeply moved by those who reach across difference. People who see the hand of life work through understanding, through connection, rather than division and competition.
I admire these people, because it takes courage to listen when it would be easier to retreat. It takes grace to remain open, especially when your own community might prefer you ‘close the door’. But when you do listen. When you do find the courage to reach out, and connect you can see how miscommunication and the frustration, anger, and fear that can arise from this, swiftly dissolve.
You see how the stories we’ve been told about ‘them’ (whomever ‘they’ are) fade in the light of shared humanity. I know that every time I’ve shared time with people, with this intention, I’ve come away reminded:
“Wisdom doesn’t belong to any one tradition. It grows where people meet with the intention of connection.”
Made for service, Formed by relationship
“The Archer”
The Prophet: Kahlil Gibran (1923), (pg. 19)
I’ve seen that intention to connect within the work of Zohran Mamdani, the New York City Mayor-elect, and past housing counsellor, and State Assembly politician. What has struck me most about him, is not just his political courage, but the spirit with which he leads: Rooted in the neighbourhoods he serves, listening to the stories, the faiths, and the struggles of ordinary people.
His leadership reflects something admirable which should be emulated… a kind of nobility that comes not from status, but from service.
And this spirit runs deeply across so many of the traditions of our community. I’ve written before about this idea.
In Weaving Connection, I shared how I was invited to join in and hear and benefit from these stories of service from my Indigenous colleagues.
In Most Folks Around Here, I wrote about the common generosity that I experienced from people across demographics when I walked solo across the USA.
And, in Ramadan: Insights from Practice , I wrote about the deep wisdoms I was exposed to, and the shared connection to the world I felt, through my experiences with Ramadan.
When I look across traditions, contexts, and demographics, I see this same spirit, which demonstrates that paths of integrity are not about self-exhalation, but of service. Humility, learning, and connecting are not forms of failure, but rather foundations of leadership. Acts of connection and care are essential paths from which we can understand the fact of our shared humanity.
After all, our effectiveness in relationships with others comes not from dominance, nor from certainty. It comes from our willingness to listen, learn from one, and even serve one another.
Compassion should not be an abstract idea; it’s something to be practiced. Daily. In neighbourhoods, workplaces, and in the quiet, unseen corners of community and family life.
building bridges
“Pain”
The Prophet: Kahlil Gibran (1923), (pg. 53)
If we hold as a measure of good leadership is the how effectively it helps the people gain both the skills and abilities to take responsibility and ownership of the community or organisation, then it just makes sense that we need to help leaders learn how build a sense of community, responsibility, and ownership into the hearts of those that they serve.
Because learning how to lead, how to live as a bridge between the strain of division, and to still hold fast to values is a difficult task to maintain without connection. And without connection, it is easy to see division. To believe the world is divided between good and evil, light and dark, us and them. The truth, I’ve found, is far more humbling, because the line between good and evil runs through every human heart.
Without integrity, or service leadership at their heart, so many of the ‘powerful’ resort to using fear to divide those who might otherwise unite. This is understandable, because it takes courage, faith, and work to lead through connection and to build bridges where suspicion once stood.
Yet those people who do, these everyday Heroes, they are everywhere. Teachers. Neighbours. Elders. Young People. Quietly weaving understanding where fear once ruled.
I was reminded of this recently when Insightful Path was mentioned in (Fix The News), (Episode 277), an independent, subscriber-supported newsletter sharing good news from around the world to more than 55,000 people from 195 countries. There recognition wan’t just about a story; it was a reminder that bring-building is good news in itself. The proof that:
“Each time we listen, with the intention, not of competition, but of connection, we expand what is possible for everyone.”
Because leadership, at its most human is not about standing above, but standing between, and standing with.
A reflection
“Farewell”
The Prophet: Kahlil Gibran (1923), (pg. 95)
To anyone reaching across difference: Thank you.
You remind us as that courage and compassion are both critical for leadership and community.
And to those uncertain or fearful:
Perhaps ask yourself:
‘What stories have I inherited about those I don’t yet know?, and
What might change if I chose curiosity over fear?’
If you want to walk this path of insight, and help those in your community, reach out. Connection helps to create a better future.
