Emergence: A Time for Reflection

I don't know about you, but when I enter the final weeks of each calendar year, I find that my mind automatically reflects on the past.  Maybe it's natural to compare Christmas Present with Christmas Past; plus, wonder about Christmas Future.  Maybe after this eventful year with its emphasis on the presidential and local elections - differing candidates, visions, promises, propositions, and initiatives - that it is natural to wonder where we are headed.  Maybe with the blur of activity from work, holiday shopping, family gathering, and planning, we naturally seek the benefits of slowing down and reflecting! 

Or, maybe it is time to emerge from all that has distracted us... and notice.  In the midst of this final busy week before Christmas, maybe... it is just time!

Is there anything that has distracted you this year?

Many definitions of emergence describe an action:

1. to come forth into view or notice, as from concealment or obscurity;
2. to come into existence, as to develop;
3. to rise, as from an inferior or unfortunate state or condition. 

For each one of us, I wonder what is trying to come forth, to come into existence or to rise as we transition from gift-giving and receiving, from holidays and vacations to normal routines, from one presidential administration to another, from activity to reflection?

Learning to slow down and notice is like looking through a knothole into a construction site.  It is with a desire to look (curiosity).  It is with the expectation that the view will be limited (awareness).  It is with an understanding that what we see is 'in progress' (waiting).

Questions to consider as you peer into the knothole of your life's construction:

• Am I noticing memories that touch my curiosity, open my awareness, or suggest a period of waiting? 
• What stories am I holding onto and retelling?
• How might I let go of experiences that are painful or destructive?

Our lives are under constant construction

During a time when I was struggling with a supervisor, a colleague said to me, "Larry, do you realize that we are all making it up as we go along?"  For me, this was a life-changing revelation:  I assumed that someone had The Plan, that someone had The Answer, that someone knew The Direction!   To come face-to-face with these inner beliefs or SCRs (socially constructed realities) freed me from feeling left out and inadequate.  Suddenly, I understood compassion and interdependence in a different way.

As I reflect on this past year, I am noticing:

• Walls that have been constructed.  I wonder if it is time to create points of entry?
• Times when I focused on myself.  I wonder if it is time to reach out? 
• Possibilities that have remained unexplored.  I wonder if it time to try new ideas?

Is it time to find an opening in the walls we have created?
(Mission San Luis Rey, Oceanside)

Dynamic Dialogue's Ways of Being invite us to create bridges over and entry points through the walls that separate and divide us:

• Awareness:  what do I notice about myself and about you?
• Compassion:  can I show kindness, empathy and forgiveness for myself and you?
• Interdependence:  am I willing to accept and rely on the connections between us?
• Creative Freedom:  can we explore new ideas, and wait expectantly for different possibilities to emerge?

May this week of gathering and sharing, of Holy Birth and Emergence, bring moments of reflection and wonder!

Larry Gardepie
Dialogue San Diego Consulting