A Journey of Reflection, Transformation, and Flow Through 'The Four Pivots'

Ms Sally Munro | Director of Pastoral Care

“Each of these pivots help us to recalibrate our collective compass towards justice in the wilderness of life. Social transformation requires both social and personal engagement. Justice is not only an outside game that comes from marches, rallies and legal victories.
It is also an inside game that requires that we create spaces of solitude, reflection and vision.” pg. 233

I recently reached for a book that I was gifted many months ago although I had not found the opportunity to engage with it until now. The book was ‘The Four Pivots; Reimagining Justice, Reimagining Ourselves’ by Shawn Ginwright and I don’t feel it was a coincidence that I was drawn to it at this moment. Like many, I have been grappling with the news of the conflict in the Middle East and an alarming level of violence within our broader community. It is hard to understand an act of violence from one person to another and it raises questions about what shift is needed as individuals, as communities and as a society. So it was with a heavy heart that I became curious about Ginwright’s ‘Four Pivots’ as a step towards healing and justice and I was inspired by his suggestion that it is in pivoting that we are permitted to dream higher about the future we want to create. There was a striking synergy between the Loreto value of Justice and Ginwright’s proposal that we need a fundamental shift in community values, a pivot in how we think, connect, act and work if we are to build momentum in a journey to a more just society.

I read the book in a moment of soul-searching, and it was challenging and inspiring on both a personal and professional level. The message about a journey towards justice, and its alignment to Ignatian Spirituality and the Loreto charism was significant and warming and the power of the questions posed in the book was as valuable as the messages themselves; How do I cultivate the ability to still see the humanity in those whom I vehemently disagree with? What does it mean to make a commitment to deeper work? Can we heal the world without healing ourselves? Like St Ignatius, Ginwright’s ‘pivots’ recognise the humanity in all of us and draws attention to our relationships with each other and with ourselves. In fact, he proposes that if we learn to be more human and lean into courage, we could create a world based on love and justice (pg.235).

The first pivot, From Lens to Mirror, suggests that we can find a path to our humanness by holding up a mirror to our inner selves. Ginwright explains that by turning inwards for self-reflection we can explore and wrestle with what really matters to us. It is in this space we are encouraged to ask ourselves tough questions so that we may reconcile the close relationship between our inner journey and how we show up in the world on the outside. Furthermore, it is by placing a mirror in front of ourselves that we invite inner deep listening to gain truth-telling and clarity. As Ginwright states “social transformation is also an inside job, and there is a relationship between our individual healing and social transformation, and the two cannot be separated.” (pg.59). In the quest for developing a just society, Ginwright states “our self-reflection and mirror work allows us to cultivate the clarity we need to heal ourselves, and to have faith that our actions, no matter how big or small, will create the society we want.” (pg.88). The concept of self-reflection sits comfortably with me and in pursuing the other three pivots in the book, it is clear of its influence in providing an avenue for them to be lived to their fullest.

In the second pivot, From Transactional to Transformative, we are reminded of the importance of relationships. Both those we are in direct contact with and those that are formed by our common humanity. The sentiments felt familiar given the significance of relationships and connectedness at Loreto Normanhurst and I recognised its connection to Ms Ugonotti’s address at a recent assembly when she asked us to consider the question; who is your neighbour? We are asked to pivot our attention to the power of seeing the humanity in those who are not like us as a key step towards healing and making sense of our world. I was particularly inspired by a call to embrace the courage to learn and listen not for agreement but from a place of humble curiosity and the possibility of belonging. Ginwright calls upon us to pivot away from transactional relationships and towards deeper, more transformative ways to connect and belong. I am reminded about the importance of schools in creating space for young people to connect in ways that enable all individuals to feel safe, demonstrate their care for each other and display empathy. Ginwright beautifully states that “care is also the actions we take that say ‘You matter to me. What you think, how you feel, what is happening in your life is important to me too.’ (p.122). The Loreto values are fundamental to our relationships so there is a natural pivot to transformative relationships in our context. There is nothing more I would want for our students than for them to feel the embrace of transformational relationships that signal to them that their place in this world is meaningful and significant.

In pivot three, From Problem to Possibility we are called to pivot our perspectives by stepping back with curiosity and considering the whole picture of what we see. It recognises that it is easy to make assumptions about the world around us and we can easily ignore factors that may be obstructing our view. In doing so, we limit the scope for imagination and for creating the possibilities that are necessary to restore and heal ourselves, our communities, and our world.

If the concept of living life in a constant state of frenzy resonates with you at all, I recommend engaging with pivot four, From Hustle to Flow. You may even support Ginwright’s proposal that we have an “addiction to frenzy” which moves us towards transactional relationships, drains us of the capacity to dream of possibilities and limits our tolerance of what we see in our own mirror and in the mirror of our neighbour. He goes as far as to say that we are at war with rest. Importantly, rest provides us with the capacity to be still; a necessary component to form our true selves and generate a state of flow. Rest helps us to consider who we are, where we are going and how we are going to get there and softens the fear that can paralyse us when we do not know the answers. Yet, it doesn’t come easy to most of us. We frequently frame our identity around a state of busyness and lose sight of how we can support each other to move into a state of flow that is made possible by rest.

It is not uncommon for me to find myself reflecting on how we have cultivated a world where injustice is far too frequent and believe there is a lot we can restore if we pivot in the direction that leads us to where we want to be. ‘The Four Pivots’ aptly calls out the collective responsibility we have as individuals if we hope to reimagine the possibilities for the future. I think our young people are up for the challenge and possess the agility that is needed to pivot courageously. However, what they will need are role models; adults who are courageous enough to reimagine themselves and I believe Ginwright’s Four Pivots are a solid starting point.