I walked beneath the light of the full moon, the air chilly against my skin. Ellie, the wonder pooch, pranced and danced beside me, her tail wagging enthusiastically as she sniffed for scent of gopher, squirrel maybe chipmunk beneath the snow covering the ground.
It was the in-between time. That hour just before darkness falls where dusk draws a silken veil across the sky and tinges the horizon in pink and rosy and golden hues. The time of Vespers, an ancient Catholic ritual of expressing gratitude in the twilight hours.
I walked and soaked in the air and view and quiet of the evensong drawing day to a close.
I walked and silently gave thanks for my day. A day of quiet. A day to work on a project for my beloved (and I can’t tell you here because he reads here and telling you would spoil the surprise!). A day of sharing a meal with good friends and talking about the Essential Journey and how to translate ‘the knowing’ of our essential selves into service for the world.
“Louise,” my good friend Kerry Parsons sat across from me at lunch and as is her way, asked the questions of her heart. “You go out into the world and do your thing and do it singularly because, that’s what you do.” She glanced around at the other two members of our Essential Journey team. “That’s what we all do. But how do you, how do we, do it collaboratively? How do we enter into the spirit of co-creation and keep it as our collective vision?”
It was a good question. An important one.
How do I move from the ‘Me’ to embracing the ‘We’. How do I ignite possibility through collaborative energy versus singular drive?
I don’t know. I’m learning as I go. It’s evolutionary.
That’s the thing about the evolutionary process. It is constantly evolving. Continually unfolding and growing and emerging.
And I grow with it, emerge, become.
When I was a child I didn’t like team sports. Not because I wasn’t good at them, but rather, because I feared criticism. I feared letting others down. If I just say “I’m not a basketball player, volleyball player…” or whatever the sport was that required me to cooperatively engage in exercising with a collective, then no one will expect me to be part of the team. And in the release from that expectation, my expectations of not being wanted could be ignored.
I never had to challenge my belief — I am unwanted.
It also meant I took up singular sports and those where it was me against an opponent. Running. Skiing. Racquetball. Tennis. Squash. I could be good at those because I never had to ask if I was wanted on the team, I just needed to turn up and be my best.
Except, being my best also came with mixed messages of childhood. “You think you’re so good.” You think you’re better than everyone else. Don’t get too smart for your britches. Nobody likes someone who always wins.
And so, I began to hide. My light. My drive. My brilliance. I began to hide behind the mediocrity of getting along, getting by, getting it done. Even though there were brief bursts of ‘wow! I can do that!’, I did my own thing — but never to the best of my abilities, always to the best of my belief it was vain and self-serving to shine.
I adapted.
It is the core message of the Essential Journey. We are born into this world with gifts and light and perfection shining. And then, we adapt.
We adapt to fit our family unit. Our circle of friends. Peer pressure, cultural biases, faith dictates, all impact our journey, moulding us into adaptive beings capable of living life and fitting into the norms of our society.
In the Essential Journey we learn to identify our adaptive beliefs and behaviours as we release the essence of the magnificence of our birthright. The brilliant, shining light of who we are born to be in this world of wonder.
The Essential Journey asks, “Who am I when I live up to my higher-self? What can we create through the collaborative energy of the highest expressions of our magnificence?”
Imagine what a world this would be. Imagine the difference we can make, imagine what we can inspire when we let go of living from our adapted selves and allow the full expression of our magnificence to unfold with grace and ease in a world of wonder.
Just imagine.
I walked in the light of evensong and felt gratitude, joy, Love and humility rise within me and all around.
I may not know how to operate in the collaborative but I do know how to allow the process to unfold. In its unfolding, I let go of making it happen to make room for miracles to happen, everywhere, because my life has been an evolutionary journey of Love. And in Love, I know, all things are possible. In Love, miracles happen.
Dare Boldly 
LG
I’ll take a stab at this.
The obvious – likely reason you and your colleagues don’t see the ‘we’ in it the same way could be generational???
Our generation raised a generation – trite to call them the Sesame street generation – and those X,Y and Mellenials who followed . . . built on the concept of sharing. Seemed such a good idea at the time.
You are not a loner, but rather from a different generation (did I just call you old?) who see leading, stepping ahead, or out, or ahead . . . without a collective ‘we’ posse … is how we entered the adult world, one of leaders and followers. It wasn’t about team, or we. Not bad, or good, just different.
I love teams … as long as we are of 1 collective mind AND in a collective hurry. Otherwise, the team’s efforts are only as good as its weakest player, its slowest to get their job done. We/team is a wonderful structure if the goal is to get everyone feeling good. But, if speed, demonstrative action, and ‘doing it our way’ is the goal, the team is not the way.
My two pennies ..
Cheers,
Mark
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And yes. I think you might have just called me old! 🙂
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Your two pennies are always welcome Mark! 🙂
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Such a beautifully written post, Louise–I was with you and Ellie, right there in that evening walk. So much to think about. I often feel guilty, now that I am writing, also in private practice, that so much of what I do is individual, rather than collaborative (remember, as an only child, I am born with that situation and residual guilt). But I think sometimes we have to recognize our own strengths and those of others. For example, I have friends–other mothers–who are always organizing initiatives that make it possible for individuals like myself to join other individuals to create some benefit to the school or others. There we collaborate, even if collaboration doesn’t come naturally. It feels good to stretch myself like that. Hope this makes sense?
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it does make sense Lisa — like you, I always admired those mothers who seemingly could do it all.
and, I agree — the stretch is good — ultimately — as John Dunne said, No man is an island — and if that’s true, then working collaboratively has more power than working singularly on creating a better world for everyone! Hugs
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I loved your description of the “in-between” time. Your post got me thinking about how much I always dreaded team sports in school, worrying about when I would be picked and whether I would mess up terribly.
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Thanks Marcy! Nice to meet you here. I look forward to visiting more over at your place.
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It has taken me a long time to learn how to be part of a team, and it still doesn’t come naturally to me. Oh, and I’m a Gen-Xer.
P.S. There’s a beloved? Cool!
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Yes. Very cool Megan — he is lovely 🙂
Yeah — it is not natural for me either — yet, I know it is the only way to truly change the world — by uniting and collaborating and creating as One.
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evensong…..this makes my heart take off and start flying
over that moon and through those bare branches until my
joy is strong enough to open again to the possibility of
wider collaboration.
why does stretching that far scare me so?
your walk and ponder with Ellie
gives me courage:)
thanks for letting me tag along
and enjoy the stirrings of your heart,
Jennifer
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It is scary isn’t it Jennifer? Stretching that far.
Yet, when we stretch we discover it really is true,
We are not alone!
Thanks for joining us! 🙂
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Sounds like an lovely walk I enjoyed it………………..lol
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Tee hee! So glad you enjoyed it too Joanne.
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Beautiful pictures – especially the first one. I can just see you in my mind’s eye with the cheerful Ellie at your side. Louise I admire your child like anticipation and openness to new adventures.
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Ah, the ever delightful Ellie — thanks Diana — I really appreciate your comments — I love childlike anticipation! 🙂
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After a year of doing the opposite (moving from ‘we’ to ‘me’) I think it depends on what it is that needs to be achieved. If its about social change then collaboration is required (think back to Rosa Parks the quiet lady who refused to get off her seat on the bus combined with the formidable strength of Martin Luther King who went on to inspire the nation). If its about group work then one leader and a team of followers produces the best result. If its research then a team of equals is ideal. If its about writing a book or painting, one person is all that is required, one person who a driving force onward.
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Yup — absolutely Elizabeth — I tried writing a book once collectively, and painting a picture with a group — it was interesting and different. What was interesting was that we didn’t focus on the ‘outcome’ — the process became the learning. Which was really cool! Lovely to see you.
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