Keynotes at the Capacitar
20th Anniversary Global Celebration

Pat Cane and Joan Condon (download keynotes: .doc 48KB)

      CAPACITAR: REFLECTION ON 20 YEARS OF SPIRIT

Patricia Mathes Cane, Ph.D.,  Capacitar Founder/Director
Santa Barbara, California July 21, 2008

We gather together as Capacitar at a time of significant global challenges - with fires, catastrophic floods, global warming, food crisis, and violence everywhere. We are part of the human family in transition, in dysfunction, in chaos. In the view of cultural historian, Thomas Berry, we are moving from Cenozoic to Ecozoic times, where as humans we no longer are the center of life, but we are one of the many beings on planet earth. Buddhist scholar, Joanna Macy, sees this time as "the great turning", where we are called to heal and transform attitudes and behaviors that no longer serve us. So in this context we gather not only as individuals, but also as the community of Capacitar, to learn, to inspire each other and to nourish ourselves as people committed to the long haul of "the great turning".

It is not a coincidence that we were all born at this time in our own country and culture, somehow disquieted by a new kind of energy moving deeply within us. Look around the room to really see who is gathered here. We are such a diverse collection of cultures, languages, backgrounds and experiences, all together involved in grassroots efforts to enter the struggle, to make a difference by bringing healing and transformation to our world. Each of us has responded, consciously or unconsciously, to a call to be a compassionate presence, an animator, empowering and awakening ourselves and each other. Often this call breaks in on us in synchronistic or surprising ways disturbing our comfort, breaking open our hearts, challenging us to move beyond our known world. When we dare to risk and surrender our hearts beyond reason, a path opens out in the darkness, as we follow the labyrinth of our lives.

This process has been the story of Capacitar as well as my own personal story. As we celebrate our 20th anniversary, Capacitar appears to be an organization that has always existed, that is "all together". But 20 years ago, I never could have envisioned the growth of what we now call Capacitar. When Sr. Mary Hartman invited me to go to Nicaragua in 1988, I remember feeling great energy and joy as well as fear akin to terror, knowing somehow that following this call would radically change my life. With trepidation and disbelief in myself (like, who am I to do that) I responded to Mary's invitation and arrived in Nicaragua, not quite knowing what I was doing. I went to work on a folkloric art festival sponsored by the popular education center, Cantera, that was also just forming. As we started to work, Mary saw something deeper and asked to learn the Tai Chi and energy practices that I used to care for myself. In her visionary way Mary saw what I could not see, that this was what her people needed to care for themselves for the long haul during the war and violence, as they worked for peace and justice in their lives.

Capacitar was born, like an unplanned pregnancy, in the context of war and trauma in Central America. At first we thought we were teaching healing practices that people wanted to learn for their health and wellbeing. But as the work quickly spread to Guatemalan union leaders, to Mexican migrant workers in California, to activists in Chile, to feminists of Latin America, we began to realize that something deeper was happening. We saw that the healing practices we shared were a means to empower and awaken people to their own power and possibilities.

From these first workshops in different countries a unique Capacitar spirit began to emerge and people wanted to be part of this. In the course of working in different countries and cultures, an inclusive Capacitar spirit developed that embodied several distinct values:

• First, solidarity - walking in union with the poor, with people struggling for justice and peace, with the oppressed and marginalized of our world.
• Second, commitment to compassionate service - being servant leaders, learning from the people as well as sharing who we are and what we can give, empowering ourselves and others.
• Third, risking to walk into hard places, working in the eye of the hurricane of trauma and violence.
• Fourth, awakening to an inner life of Spirit, developing the stamina and strength of spirit, so that we can truly be a loving presence of light and peace to others.

These are the values we must embody in the days ahead when we are faced by the many global challenges. Many of you have lived through overwhelming trauma and challenge in your own country: Rwanda, Burundi, East Timor, Guatemala, Nicaragua, South Africa Nigeria, Northern Ireland, Palestine. And now we must prepare to face larger global challenges as a human family.

As we work together, we call forth the possibilities in each other, inspiring and awakening the gifts and potential we often can't see in ourselves. I invite you to engage in a process of listening and responding to the callings of your heart, learning from your wisdom and experiences, opening to envision the future.

In the words of our Capacitar prayer, adapted from the UN Prayer of the Sabbath:
We join with the earth and with each other
with our ancestors and all beings of the future
to bring new life to the land,
to recreate the human community,
to provide justice and peace,
to remember our children,
to remember who we are.
We join together as many and diverse expressions
of one Loving Mystery,
For the healing of the earth
and the renewal of all life.

Joan Rebmann Condon, MA, Global Conference Coordinator/ Special Programs Director
Santa Barbara, California July 21, 2008

At this time in our world there are significant global changes going on around us - food shortages, floods, hatred and violence, and each of us has answered the personal call to bring healing and transformation in our world at the grassroots level. For each of us it is important then to consider what it means to be a leader in the spirit of Capacitar in this challenging world. We live in a time of chaos. As Margaret Wheatley, one of the foremost experts on new ways of thinking about leadership and organizations, says, sometimes "it is necessary to dwell in chaos and sit with the dark moments knowing that insight will come." As Capacitar leaders we have to be comfortable in these dark moments and know that the one gift we have during this time is each other.

In all our countries and cultures when disaster strikes it is often people working together at local levels who respond most quickly and effectively to the needs of victims. The key here is working together. In these dark times of chaos - where there is potential for creative new ways of being and where there is also potential for disaster - Capacitar leaders must work together inspiring others to join them. None of us can bring about transformation alone. We not only must work together but we must bring our best healed or healing selves, our best qualities to our work. We must think together, share ideas and share what we learn both through our successes and failures - it is so important not to hold information only for yourself but give it freely. In this way we all learn. We must listen carefully to each other, we must forgive ourselves and others when we fail, we must dream and support each other as we work to realize our goal of transformation.

As we assess ourselves and our work with others, we must keep in mind that, in the spirit of Capacitar, it is not necessarily the measurable results that tell the story. The cosmos teaches us that everything exists in relationship. If we do not attend to relationship, what we think we accomplish is actually very little. If a project is finished and the numbers are good but the people involved feel disrespected, discouraged, then the results are not worth the cost.

As Capacitar leaders we animate people so they, too, become leaders in the spirit of Capacitar - the spirit that embodies solidarity (support for each other), compassion and service. As leaders we know how to work collaboratively, when to lead from behind encouraging, empowering, animating, guiding with a gentle hand and knowing when to get out of the way of the process. We also lead by our example, our way of doing things, our way of being with each other, our commitment to an inner life of the spirit, so that we are light and peace. That doesn't mean that we are never discouraged, frustrated, upset, angry - that we never dwell in our personal moments of chaos. In those personal dark moments, it is important to remember that we first always heal ourselves. And we have the tools to do that. Then again we turn to each other, especially to those who seem to us to be obstacles, difficult. And we do it with compassionate love and a giving spirit. They are our teachers.

As Archbishop Tutu of South Africa said, "We can only become human together." As Capacitar leaders we strive to build a network of solidarity and compassion across languages, borders and cultures, a network that like our hearts expands to enfold all those seeking the rebirth of a transformed world out of the chaos.