in the dark

How do you take nine strangers - all kinds, from all over - and quickly form a cohesive group?  I guess by making them all sleep in the same room (on different nights!), by having them all walk the same halls and calling them all to the same trauma bay.  And by teaching them a new language.  It worked for us last summer.  And now I'm back to speaking Enneagram again with the new group. 

The Enneagram is a centuries old "map of the basic personality types of human nature and their complex interrelationships."  It gives us all common ground and at the same time provides valuable self awareness.  OK, I will admit it.  I'm a complete convert and evangelist to the Enneagram.

I'm a Nine, a peacemaker, an optimist.  I love being a Nine, but have continually be aware of what ruts I slip into easily.  Here is something I learned today about my Nine tendancies.
Nines demonstrate the universal temptation to ignore the disturbing aspects of life and to seek some degree of peace and comfort by numbing out.  They can respond to pain and suffering by attempting to live in a state of premature peacefulness or to run away from the tensions and paradoxes of life.  Nines tend to focus on the bright side of life so that their peace of mind will not be shaken.

The hospital is a good place to practice being a healthy Nine.  I can't avoid the reality of pain and suffering.  I am called to this pain, not away from it.  I can't ignore it.  But I can learn in it.

Ann Keiffer's Gift of the Dark Angel talks about this kind of lesson.
"I hauled my depression from sanctuary to sanctuary, but found no sanctuary.  I was a spiritual misfit and went away all the more depressed that I could not embrace these churches or feel embraced by them.  Maybe I'd come to a bad time, and God wasn't in right them.  Actually, God was in.  In the place I hadn't looked yet; in the depths of depression." 

...even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.  Psalm 139:12