Vulnerability

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This Sunday we'll be taking a look at a significant aspect of being a human being - our vulnerability. Using a wide-angled lens for an overall picture and a smaller, high-powered one for some finer details, we'll look at vulnerability as a source of some of our most difficult challenges and also our most meaningful experiences. Choosing to be either open or closed; how far open, how tightly closed; why, when, and for how long - guided by love for one's (vulnerable) self, other (vulnerable) people, and our (vulnerable)planet.

Readings

We start this morning’s readings with three brief quotations from the work of Brene Brown, whose talk on perseverance we heard last week.  She is a researcher who has specialized on the subject of vulnerability.  Here are some pieces of wisdom from her research. 

“Vulnerability is the birthplace of love, belonging, joy, courage, empathy, and creativity. It is the source of hope, empathy, accountability, and authenticity. If we want greater clarity in our purpose or deeper and more meaningful spiritual lives, vulnerability is the path.”

“The courage to be vulnerable is not about winning or losing, it’s about the courage to show up when you can’t predict or control the outcome.”

“Vulnerability is not knowing victory or defeat; it’s understanding the necessity of both; it’s engaging. It’s being all in.”

Jodee Blanco is a respected author and speaker on the subject of school bullying.  She herself is a survivor of bullying and is now an activist against it. She is the founder and CEO of the Blanco to help children dealing with bullying and has written 4 books on the subject. Her book Please Stop Laughing At Me . . . One Woman’s Inspirational Story is required reading in many schools in the U.S. She has also spoken in hundreds of schools across the country, was featured on CBS Evening News, and has written for Huffpost 

“People tend to consider being vulnerable a bad thing. It's not. Vulnerability reminds us that we're human. It keeps us open to giving and receiving love. Without at least a little, we can become someone living in a prison of our own making, where the walls are so thick that no one can get in or out.”

And finally, the words of the late psychiatrist and author Scott Peck, whose book The Road Less Traveled has inspired countless people to work toward self care and self-management:  “There can be no vulnerability without risk; there can be no community without vulnerability; there can be no peace, and ultimately no life, without community.”