Leaning In
Last Thursday, I stepped out onto a high-wire and walked. Ok. I scooched more than I walked, and I trembled the whole way. But the fact remains: I stepped off the side of a high deck onto a cable and I stood there and I moved. I did not do this alone. I had a partner to whom I was committed in this exercise, and she had me. She was on her own wire and someone below had her rope, just as someone had mine. I knew I could not fail at this. I knew this not because I knew I would meet a specific goal, but because I knew that even if I fell, I would not have failed. I knew that because my partner and I had talked about it beforehand. We had cleared any air between us that needed clearing, and when we walked over to the deck rail where we strapped on our helmets and got harnessed up, we knew that we were committed to each other as fully as possible. I have a lot of … Continue reading
Click!
“Only connect! That was the whole of her sermon. Only connect the prose and the passion, and both will be exalted, and human love will be seen at its height. Live in fragments no longer.” “Only connect!” This epigram from E.M. Forster’s novel, Howards End, has rattled around in my brain much longer than any detail or context from my 30-years-ago reading of the novel has. Only connect. Connect prose and passion, heaven and earth, yin and yang, being and doing. Connect to family, friends, co-workers, strangers. Connect to earth and life, to ideas and feelings, to heart and spirit. Connect one person to another, a part to the whole, action to purpose, meaning to action, purpose to meaning. Connect. Connect. Connect. Every time I’ve done some form of “What’s your life purpose?” at a workshop or seminar, the answer that has surfaced has something to do with connection. In two different workshops, a couple of years apart, offered in two different contexts, using different techniques and visualizations, two statements arose. The first workshop suggested we think of a Life Purpose … Continue reading
