On Retreat: Sr. Mary Margaret Reflects on her “Inner-Extrovert”

Sr. Mary Margaret

The following is the first in a series of reflections by Sr. Mary Margaret McKenzie, as she is writing to me, personally, and has given her permission to excerpt and post these notes of spiritual guidance as mini-blogs. Let’s welcome Sr. Mary Margaret and the wisdom, inspiration, joy and creativity she brings to this website! –Melissa Borgmann-Kiemde, Visitation Companion

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The sisters and I recently returned from our annual eight day retreat.  As a side, I took “The Social Animal: Hidden Sources of Love, Character and Achievement”  by David Brooks. I had heard the author speak during this last year.  The book was a gift from a friend –truly a gift.
I found a dear companion in the last two paragraphs of Mr. Brooks’ introduction–my “inner extrovert.”  To quote in an edited way:

“The Greeks used to say we suffer our way to wisdom…The essence of that wisdom is that below our awareness there are viewpoints and emotions that help guide us as we wander through our lives….The unconscious is not merely a dark, primitive zone of fear and pain.  It is also a place where spiritual states arise and dance from soul to soul.  It collects the wisdom of the ages.  It contains the soul of the species.  This book will not try to discern God’s role in all this.  But if there is a divine creativity, surely it is active in this inner soulsphere, where brain matter produces emotion, where love rewires the neurons….

Your unconscious, that INNER  EXTROVERT, wants you to reach outward and connect.  It wants you to achieve communion with work, friend, family, nation, and cause.  Your unconscious wants to entangle you in the thick web of relations that are the essence of human flourishing.  It longs and pushes for love, (for the kind that is fusion of being, shared).  Of all the blessings that come with being alive, it is the most awesome gift.”

During my retreat, then, I welcomed and embraced my “inner extrovert” which gave felt peace and a new sense of balance. I look forward to our efforts to communicate since consciously I rather markedly tend to introversion.

Even if this is not blog material, I know that you will  want to borrow the book.

Love,

Mary Margaret