By Rosemarie Hunter
Today, as I write this reflection, it is Mother’s Day 2020. It would have been my first graduation ceremony at Gonzaga University (GU) as the inaugural Dean of the School of Leadership Studies.
During my early days of walking across the campus in June 2019, I was already wondering how the year might go forward, looking to spring and imagining all our students on campus with family and friends to celebrate “walking across the stage.” I had heard how beautiful and fun spring is at GU, with gardens in full bloom, and a multitude of colorful hammocks hung throughout the trees, with students transitioning to shorts and sunglasses as soon as possible, after the typical Spokane winter.
Then, as now, I am repeatedly asked about my leadership style. In the beginning, the questions targeted my plans for the future. What are my priorities? Even now, the questions are very similar, with one small but powerful addition. How am I leading in the time of COVID-19? How will I take the School forward in the context of a pandemic? Let me add, this is my first deanship. (Ahoy, Me Hearties, It is all hands on deck).
Then, and now, I intuitively answer, “We are listening and leading with hope and faith!” Let me unpack this. “We,” not “I.” This is important because this is a community with collective wisdom and multiple forms of knowledge. Next, I emphasize “listening and leading” because leading necessitates listening, ongoing listening to each other and to the universe. Leadership is about joining with. The third part of the mantra is “with hope and faith.” These practices are about how we live our lives, what is necessary to truly be engaged in the living with God.
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, S.J., is much more adept at capturing the complexity of what I am trying to convey. He states, “Creation has never stopped; its action is a great continuous gesture which is spaced across the totality of time.” He adds, “Only through purity of heart and not pure science, is one able, in a world in a state of movement … to discover with certainty a creator behind the forces of nature.”
In my own words, my experience is that the world is in this constant state of creation, and it is a divine dance, one that brings challenge, pain, joy and magic and is embraced by my experience of God. Let me be clear, I do not fully understand it … nevertheless, I am part of it, joined in it. In this union, I can trust the presence of God and feel safety and nurturing and, yes, leadership in this space. Why? Because it is a space of purity of heart. You, and every one of us, have this space. It is our birthright. In the space of a pure heart, there is love. Trust this space, listen from this space, lead with it, always finding the calm strength and clear sight within it.
As evidenced by Gonzaga University (GU) dance students (above), Rosemarie Hunter, dean of the School of Leadership Studies at GU, contends that the world is in a constant state of creation - a divine dance filled with challenge, pain, joy, and magic, that can serve as a source of calm strength and clear sight. Photo courtesy of the Dance Program at Gonzaga University.
There is no doubt that we will all experience the COVID-19 pandemic differently, and yet humanity continues to reach across the distance to be in shared spaces that are safe and compassionate. Human spaces. During these times, we almost forget that life continues in other ways — babies are born, communities come together to celebrate, justice will be challenged, families experience loss of loved ones, social and economic issues gain more complexity. At the same time, children teach us the art of mastering a new skill and they continue to stretch us by their simple yet powerful questions that brings us all to a place of wonder.
These times push us to find these divine spaces of shared humanity…to lead with love and purity of heart.
Rosemarie Hunter is dean of the School of Leadership Studies at Gonzaga University.
The featured cover photo (above) is courtesy of Gonzaga University.