Newsletter: Winter, 2001

Caring for Ourselves As We Care for the World
— Patricia Mathes Cane, Ph.D. Capaticar Founder/Co-Director

The fear and trauma we are experiencing in the United States with the terrorist attacks and the threat of war are a wakeup call to us all. In the moments of terror and destruction many of the victims and rescue workers, as they faced their own deaths, reached out with care and compassion to call their families and to help those suffering around them. As Capacitar we are asking ourselves: How can we respond? How can we reach out more fully now to care for our people, to care for ourselves and each other, to do this work in the challenging days ahead?

We learned a lot about the need to care for ourselves as we care for survivors of violence during our recent work in Colombia, East Timor and Papua New Guinea. Here our teams came face to face with human violence, pain and desperation in their extreme forms. In committing ourselves to work more fully in the U.S. and other areas battered by war, massacres,disasters and trauma, we realize the cost of this commitment, the toll it takes, and the importance of learning how to care for ourselves as we work for the long haul. Meeting with hundreds of refugees, displaced persons and survivors, we experienced the privilege as well as the overwhelming drain of sharing the pain of so many.

Often it felt like a hurricane of human need with desperate people reaching out for help, healing and support. A great sense of powerlessness and humility swept over us as we witnessed the struggle to deal with dying and living. How to be there in loving compassion and presence in the face of such human suffering without burning out in the process? We were shocked by the enormity of the recent US, death toll, unaccustomed as we are to living daily with extreme violence.

Until now we have felt relatively untouched. In countries where Capacitar works the impact of the violence, as well as the daily degradation of spirit by exploitation, abuse, globalization and poverty, are beyond comprehension. In Colombia we saw the latest reports at the Conference of Religious (CRC). For the first three months of 2001 alone, the CRC Peace and Justice Commission documented: 536 extra judicial executions, 893 assassinations, 100 reported cases of torture, the disappearance of 86 and kidnapping of 401 persons. And this violence is only escallating as the US government promotes Plan Colombia with over one billion dollars in military aid, recalling the strategy and carnage of our involvement in El Salvador. How much more bloodshed and trauma before the human family awakens to the fragile beauty and value of each being?

Trauma is toxic. We know first hand how those who work in the field can vicariously become victims of the trauma they are trying to heal. The literature describes this as "secondary trauma"or "compassion fatigue". One religious in Bogota remarked: "How do you prepare your sisters for working in the conflict zones? We never learned in our years of formation how to hold the tortured bodies of our people, how to accompany those who survive the massacres." In many places we are finding people who are trying to learn how to hold the pain of the world, how to deal with vicarious trauma, how to live with deep peace and compassion in the midst of it all.

In facing this challenge it is important to look to sources of wisdom and spirit to guide our process. The Dalai Lama in an interview on emotional intelligence with psychologist Daniel Goleman, comments that few Tibetan monks suffered symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)after torture or imprisonment. With traditional Tibetan practices of meditation, prayer, breathing, and compassionate forgiveness the monks were able to clear their energy and heal the pain associated with violence and trauma.

A daily practice to stay grounded and clear, to move blocked energy, and to open to the healing energy of the earth is essential. Empowering people in development of a healing practice is the work of Capacitar.

In his fine book Navigating the Tides of Change, David La Chapelle tells a story about Teilhard de Chardin, SJ, paleontologist and mystic, when he worked in the World War I trenches as a stretcher-bearer. As Chardin picked up the torn and mangled body of a soldier, La Chapelle questions him: "How can you see beyond the blood?" Chardin replies, "I don't see beyond it, I see into it. It is the Earth that bleeds. It is all mankind that bleeds. I do not want to turn away from such a sight, for I believe that there is purpose to all that happens. I will know more of that purpose if I look into that reality."

While we all struggle to look into that reality caring for the bleeding human family, perhaps we have the opportunity to awaken to our purpose at this time on the planet. As Capacitar we, too, find purpose in looking into that reality: offering arms of love and age-old practices of healing as we work for the transformation of our world. And as we care for ourselves and care for our world in the face of so much pain, we are blessed by grace and resilience, and we learn about love, compassion and possibility—the true nature and purpose of the human family.