As we came together for our 2025 AGM my thoughts had been with the importance of balance for our board members and the direction of our charity. Our lives get caught up with action so easily, and I feel that it is important for us to consider this as a group, so I have some shared reflections on what is deep inner contemplation. Both so necessary if we are to achieve our intentions.

Miriam – Rose Ungunmerr-Baumann’s reflection on Dadirri describes it as ‘inner, deep listening and quiet, still awareness. Dadirri recognises the deep spring that is inside us. We call on it and it calls to us.’

Thomas Merton’s reflection on Contemplation describes it as ‘listening in silence, and expectancy – it takes silence to grasp higher revelations’.

AI describes it as ‘finding balance between action and contemplation that involves creating a cyclical rhythm where each enhances the other, preventing either from dominating. This balance is achieved by intentionally integrating moments of self-reflection, rest, and internal work (contemplation) with outer engagement and service (action), leading to a centred life rooted in deeper understanding and purposeful engagement with the world. It is a centreing pivot point where you can maintain your internal equilibrium while holding the world’s suffering’.

Franciscan Richard Rohr states – When we named the Centre for Action and Contemplation, I hoped our rather long name would itself keep us honest and force us toward balance and ongoing integration. However, over the years, I have witnessed how many of us attach to contemplation or to action for the wrong reasons. Introverts may use contemplation to affirm quiet time; those with the luxury of free time sometimes use it for “navel-gazing.” On the other hand, some activists see our call to action as an affirmation of their particular agenda and not much else. Neither is the delicate art and balance that we hope to affirm’.

Elm Grove Sanctuary Trust from its formal beginning in 1987 was named ‘a Centre of Hope’ and this has sought to express our purpose as ‘living and teaching by example’ through a decisive engagement in our social order. Through action based upon love for humanity and our natural world, it has been balanced and based upon deep inner listening, and reflection on our actions if they were for the higher good. Much has been achieved due to this balance.

Action or contemplation alone will not resolve the issues that we face in our world. Balance is essential if we are to bring change and hope for the future. This is a time of planetary challenge and disruption affecting us all – so balance is greatly needed.

Love is paramount and it is the powerhouse for all that we seek to offer in transforming and offering hope into the future. It is the glue that binds it all together. We seek to act in solidarity and universal responsibility on this journey, based upon either dadirri or contemplation – whatever one names it – in order to find balance.