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Patricia Mae Porter

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August 14, 1940  –  April 1 1996

Personal Mission Statement – 1987

“Our sole defense, our only weapon, is a life of integrity.”

Corinthians II

 

 

Preamble

At the core of my life is mystery. I honor that above all. It is the source of my humility, gratitude and compassion. Before the power of the universe I am an eye blink. I aligned myself as much as in my power to do with that mystery. From it flows my infinite freedom, the givens of my existence and my remarkable possibilities. I co-created with this mysterious power.

 

 

Values

I have roots. They are important. I was very fortunate to be born into a family that loved and cared about each other very deeply. My parents gave me my first value of respect for self and others. They gave it to me in deeds as well as words. They lived lives that breathed respect for people, things and surroundings. This is an inherited value I have decided to keep. Not only does it fit for me, but it honors the history from which I come. It reminds me that I did not spring full grown into this world. I am part of an organic whole that stretches from the mud hole swamps of prehistory to an unknowable omega point in the future.

My first job taught me responsibility. I learned that responsibility for me means doing more than is required; it means going the second or fifth mile. There was ample counsel to do just what was required, but that notion left me unsatisfied and in disharmony with myself and others. At the start of my career I was given and took responsibility usually reserved for people with much more experience. Early I acquired the habit of accepting challenges by relying on common sense to be my guide. Common sense included the principles of participation and treating others as I wished to be treated. There are natural as well as intentional parts of my style.  I followed the principle of comprehensive thinking and thorough planning in service of a goal bigger than myself. I learned that people and the situation you wish to address ‘teach’ you what needs to be done. I am a big fan of making the impossible dream, possible. I continue to stubbornly resist attitudes of defeatism, cynicism, apathy, mediocrity, despair and nihilism.

My own value I have come to cherish is generatively, htat is the ability to be productive, creative and inventive.  Generativity has to do with putting something into life that wasn’t there when I started.  It means making a contribution rather than merely making it through.  I am also reminded that I stand on the shoulders of many who have gone before me from whose contributions I have benefited enormously. I also have a commitment to those yet to come. Creativity, a component of generatively, is the hidden resource that keeps giving as long as it is practiced.

All of these together constitute a life of integrity for me. No doubt other dearly held values will emerge.

 

Song of Consciousness 

Consciousness is every thing and no-thing.

In the beginning is consciousness and all things flow from it.

Consciousness is energy. I am energy.

Energy is patterned.  I am patterned energy.

Energy is Imminent.  I am imminent.

I am masculine and feminine.

I am light and sound.

Yet amid this primordial simplicity I confuse myself.

I become ensnared with the many manifestation of energy and myself.

I search for the one me and the single energy as though

I and it are unknown.

Consicionsuess is every-where and no-where.

It is unity in diversity. I am unity in diversity.

I pursue my allurements and disillusionments to reach the one.

I preoccupy myself with the uniquely beautiful and grotesque.

Yet, I am one. I am. I…

And the journey ends where it began,

in consciousness  …   in the beginning.

 

 

 

 

 

Patricia, and her then-husband David Scott, were among the first families that formed the Ecumienical Institute staff.  Here are some of her presentations and writings: