Dialogue San Diego: Emergence: Adding Color to Life!

Sunday, March 6, 2016

Emergence: Adding Color to Life!

Living in coastal Southern California, it is easy to forget that there are four seasons! Friends in other parts of the country and world remind me of the beauty they experience in the fall and winter seasons.

Winter Wonderland

I wonder: do they, like me,ever lose the perspective of seeing the world in all of its beauty? It seems that the autopilot which governs so much of our human existence in the 21st century filters out the color of the landscapes of our lives. We tend to flatten our life perspective to a dualistic vision of right-wrong, left-right, conservative-progressive, truth-lie and trust-mistrust, losing the other perspectives that enrich who we are and who we are called to become.

While there is beauty in mono-vision...

So, the question for all us - no matter where we live and what our circumstances: how do we bring back the brilliance and wonder of our lives and the world we cohabit? Can we see the beauty in the flower bursting forth with its awe-inspiring message of creation, drawing us into its delicate petals and short lifespan? Can we watch in wonder as a child learns to walk and talk, mimicking the adult world we have become so accustomed? Can we be inspired by triumphs and mistakes that mark learning and journey?

Yes, there may be other buds waiting to open, the future beckoning us forward, but can we sit in wonder at what is present, and celebrate Now?

...let us seek to experience the fullness of who we are!

Chris Argyris' Ladder of Inference and Double-Loop Learning (click on links for earlier posts) provide tools for us to slow down and notice what is happening internally and externally. We are offered moments - choice points - which invite us to consider the assumptions and meanings we have attached to the situations we encounter. Instead of remaining on autopilot and reacting from a mono- or dual-vision, we have the opportunity to talk through other perspectives with the people around us, people in our local community or linked throughout the world!

Double-Loop Learning provides a "choice point"

This season calls us to open ourselves to reflection: the winter months are ending and warmer days draw forth life from fertile soil. The waiting has ended, and life is emerging anew!