WholeHeart’s 2023 strategic planning process produced a recurring question from stakeholders interviewed for feedback: what is WholeHeart and what does it do? While our partners appreciate the kind of convening work we do in local communities and beyond, we heard a desire for more concrete language to describe the organization’s mission and impact, so as to empower them to introduce more people to our work. Holly Wilkinson and Marybeth Redmond, in current co-directorship and collaboration, decided to dialogue together and consider this question from their own perspective and experience.
Marybeth: You have been articulating the mission and work of WholeHeart for many years! How would you describe what WholeHeart is and does, your elevator pitch, so to speak?
Holly: WholeHeart convenes people to explore and practice skills in listening generously - to oneself, to others, and to the earth. In our reactive, soundbite-driven world, deep listening is an act of care for all our relations with whom we are interconnected.
I realize our work doesn’t fit easily into elevator-pitch size. Being relational versus transactional in our interactions is more of a winding path that honors our layered lived experiences. How we each show up, aligning love and respect with action, matters more and more each year.
I find the reflective spaces of WholeHeart invite us to find our center, catch our breath, and remember what is essential. Knowing the energy we want to contribute to the world and having the space to sort though the complexities of being human, impacts greatly how we respond, live, and relate to one another.
“...the reflective spaces of WholeHeart invite us to find our center, catch our breath, and remember what is essential. Knowing the energy we want to contribute to the world and having the space to sort through the complexities of being human, impact how we respond, live, and relate. ”
Holly: From your perspective as participant, community member, and co-director, how would you respond to the question of what WholeHeart is and does?
Marybeth: For me, WholeHeart is a community that values authentic relationship whether it’s cultivating relationship with the interior parts of one’s self, with others in the community circles we offer, or with all “kin” surrounding us. A peaceful, loving future where all beings can thrive requires that we understand how to be in right relationship with each other. And that knowing develops as we practice together.
In terms of what we do, WholeHeart convenes welcoming, compassionate spaces where participants are invited to bring the “whole” of themselves to each interaction and consideration. And in defining the word “wholeness,” I do not mean perfection, but instead the complex, emotional, sometimes jumbled layers of ourselves that are still sorting out.
“A peaceful, loving future where all beings can thrive requires that we understand how to be in right relationship with each other. And that knowing develops as we practice together. ”
Marybeth: What’s important about the mission of WholeHeart that gets left out of the mission statement, your more expansive definition?
Mission statement: WholeHeart cultivates our capacity for deep listening and solidarity in service of collective wellbeing, dignity and relational justice in kinship with all beings.
Holly: I appreciate the use of the pronoun “our” in the opening part of our mission statement: “WholeHeart cultivates our capacity….” What is implied, but may not be noticed, is the sense of inclusivity. We are all learning and all responsible for building our capacity. It is not someone else's work to do. Unlike many organizations that offer answers, WholeHeart sees all of us as needing to grow capacity to be good kin with the world. Our tagline, Living on the Learning Edge, acknowledges that we all have more to learn. Being active and aware of our edges offers fertile ground to be on this journey together.
“I used to listen to find answers. Now, I am learning to listen to find space to soften my stance, my worry, my angst, and to be with all that is spinning in the world and in my body. ”
Holly: What are some examples of facing your learning edges on your journey with WholeHeart?
Marybeth: I think WholeHeart and wholehearted circles have helped me gain clarity and make decisions related to the twists and turns of my working life over the past few years. Posing open, honest questions to my own soul such as what’s mine to do? as well as what’s not mine to do? have helped me hone how I am being called to live and serve at various junctures. I am also exploring the learning edges of self-compassion these days and coming to understand it as a portal into deeper levels of self trust, clear decision-making, and greater spiritual awareness.
Marybeth: What’s on your own learning edges these days and what is your deep listening revealing?
Holly: To be honest, I am surprised to say that my learning edge is beyond words, certainty, and answers. I love language and imagery, and mostly I am speechless lately as we all try to navigate complex, disheartening times on this planet. I used to listen to find answers. Now, I am learning to listen to find space to soften my stance, my worry, my angst, and to be with all that is spinning in the world and in my body.
Recently, I heard the writer, activist and conservationist Terry Tempest Williams say that “grief is love…. if we can pay attention, we will know what to do.” She spoke of the need for “the mobilization of love and love in the deepest way - of gratitude, of compassion, of deep listening.”
I appreciate this reflection. Many people are naming love as an essential element in times of crisis. When I began at WholeHeart, love seemed less visible in civil discourse. I remember a potential donor expressing that love was too soft a vision. That conversation stuck with me. I so appreciated her honest questioning. It opened the door to see love as a fierce solid presence that guides this work daily.
“WholeHeart functions as a kind of glue or connective tissue, fostering deep listening, reflection, and space for the expression of sometimes marginalized perspectives. The result is usually a better, more holistic solution due to this deep work of convening the collective with care.”
Holly: What are you learning from deepening your relationship with WholeHeart this fall?
Marybeth: There is a connective role that WholeHeart plays in its facilitation and contract work with other partner organizations throughout Vermont and beyond that I wasn’t aware of - and is essential for the well-being of communities. WholeHeart facilitators are asked, for example, to hold space for culture-shifting work in an organization or to bring lesser-heard voices to the table for a community decision or to collaborate with multiple organizations towards an outcome of some kind. WholeHeart functions as a kind of glue or connective tissue, fostering deep listening, reflection, and space for the expression of sometimes marginalized perspectives. The result is usually a better, more holistic solution due to this deep work of convening the collective with care.
Marybeth: What else is important to say about WholeHeart that we missed?
Holly: Marybeth, I appreciate your eye to specificity. And the thing that comes to mind is welcome.
WholeHeart is both a small organization and a community where we are exploring how to extend welcome as warmly as possible. There are so many ways we are divided these days. We can list what separates us more readily than what connects us. And every day, there is so much going on that shuts us down, and clenches our fists and our hearts.
What WholeHeart is trying to offer is a place where we can learn together, and through the differences, stay in conversation even when we shut down. It is hard to remember that we are in this together. How do you welcome people to spaces that include the more challenging sides of living? Who would want to sign up for that?! Yet, my experience tells me that when our whole complex selves have space to breathe, we find our centers, and deepen our capacity to step into another day. Quite simply, we all need ways to connect and walk together with our tender fierce hearts.