There are times in the world and in our lives when hope feels abstract. Maybe there’s a little ironic detachment. Maybe it’s more of a passive wish than taking action.
And there’s nothing wrong with wishing. But what I’m craving, and what I believe we need more than ever, is the kind of hope that gets its hands dirty. The kind that shows up–at community kitchens and school board meetings and in living rooms with our neighbors–that does not wait for the world to get better before jumping in. The kind of hope that asks, what is mine to do here?
My guest today embodies that question in a way that stopped me in my tracks when we met last summer. Shirley Showalter’s life has taken a path from her childhood in a buttoned-down Mennonite community to earning a PhD and becoming a distinguished professor of English, a liberal arts college president, and serving as vice president of the Fetzer Institute, where she spent years in conversation with some of the most thoughtful spiritual leaders in the world. And now, in what she calls her elderhood, she is still asking the question, what does it mean to belong to something larger than myself?
In this conversation, Shirley and I talked about activism, elderhood, spiritual practice, what makes us blush, and the particular, peculiar, and unpredictable journey of becoming powerful and staying powerful across a lifetime.
Listen to the full episode to hear:
- The deep joy and sense of belonging that Shirley found in nature as a child that she has carried and sought out throughout her life
- How Shirley got involved in her hometown’s school board and invited other community elders and educators to join her
- How being an educator, servant leader, and activist has kept Shirley connected to the “barefoot feeling” of her childhood
- The mission statement that is guiding Shirley through her elderhood
- The practices Shirley engages with to connect a lifetime of experiences as she walks herself and others home
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What is Becoming Power?
What is power? Well, that's complicated. We've learned to associate power with money, influence, position, fame, politics, and even certain bodies. Becoming Power is a podcast about a different perspective on power. Host Valerie Black highlights how true power emerges from the practices that help us transform and evolve as humans and serve as a foundation for our work in the world. She talks with leaders, executives, athletes, and activists about how they nurture their own inner power. Valerie analyzes their insights and turns them into meditations, visualizations, and bite-sized experiments for you to integrate into your own life. Whether you're looking for a greater sense of power at work, a deeper relationship with yourself, or ideas for developing your own powerful practices, Becoming Power is for you.