“As buds begin appearing on trees, I’ve been thinking about emergence, about the soft, tentative unfurling of wings, fronds, and selves. We are in a tender moment of surfacing and showing ourselves — with all of the challenges and pleasures that can entail.
The opening lines from a favorite poem, “St. Francis and the Sow” by Galway Kinnell, come to mind as I see the beginnings of spring all around me:
The bud stands for all things, even for those things that don't flower, for everything flowers, from within, of self-blessing
In some ways, we all want to be the flower in full bloom or the butterfly fully formed and flying, but there is such promise in the bud — in that empty branch with just a tiny bit of color — in the part of us that quietly dares to begin.
Sometimes, when we or our projects really get going and are in the midst of that glorious momentum, we can forget the beauty of those earlier stages. I’m finding myself really appreciating the sacredness of the whole nuanced, complicated, hard process of becoming, and wanting to honor every stage.
I’m wanting to slow down and appreciate even just that initial process of budding — of inception itself — and to remember that it’s worth being there for all the steps... Even when everything in you longs to be “there” already, wherever there might be.
Here’s a song, a book and a poem that have helped me explore and appreciate my own becoming. Maybe they will encourage and support you too…
"I'm Coming Out" by Diana Ross
This song is a classic for a reason... The familiar tune and words always leave me feeling uplifted, encouraged, and like Diana Ross is a secret sister-cheerleader-friend.
“There's a new me coming out, and I just have to live, and I want to give. I’m completely positive. I think this time around I am gonna do it like you never knew it. Oh, I’ll make it through. The time has come for me to break out of the shell. I have to shout that I am coming out.”
Emergent Strategy by adrienne maree brown
This book is all about change, as adrienne maree brown contemplates how we can let go of our desire for control and fully embrace the dynamic, unpredictable nature of things in order to nurture change in ourselves, our communities, and our world.
I read Emergent Strategy in 2019 as I was thinking about all I imagined ALTAR could be. Her distillation of the principles of emergence has guided and inspired me throughout this process of making the dream of ALTAR a reality.... It's helped me question and release some of the conditioned notions of leadership and success as I try to nurture community and create a soul-full business that has no precedent or roadmap.
Emergent Strategy Core Principles
Small is good, small is all. (The large is a reflection of the small.)
Change is constant. (Be like water). *1
There is always enough time for the right work. There is a conversation in the room that only these people at this moment can have. *2 Find it.
Never a failure, always a lesson. *3
Trust the People. (If you trust the people, they become trustworthy). *4
Move at the speed of trust. *5
Focus on critical connections more than critical mass—build the resilience by building the relationships. Less prep, more presence. What you pay attention to grows.
*1. “You must be shapeless, formless, like water. When you pour water in a cup, it becomes the cup. When you pour water in a bottle, it becomes the bottle. When you pour water in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Water can drip and it can crash. Become like water my friend,” Bruce Lee, Bruce Lee: A Warrior’s Journey (Warner Home Video, 2000). *2. Idea articulated by Taj James in the cofacilitation of environmental justice resource redistribution initiative Building Equity and Alignment’s inaugural meeting in 2013. *3. Rihanna has this concept tattooed on her chest. *4. This is an inversion of the quote “If you don’t trust the people, they become untrustworthy,” from Stephen Mitchell’s translation, Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching (New York: HarperCollins, 1988). *5. This is communications strategist Mervyn Marcano’s remix of Stephen Covey’s “speed of trust” concept.
Hide and Seek by Nick LeForce
This poem was published with the following note: “Written at a one-day live workshop with Roger Housden in response to a prompt for the soul or higher self to respond to the question, ‘What are you hiding from yourself?’”
I love it because it speaks to everything that’s within us, beyond or just beneath our consciousness, and it reminds us of the playfulness and pleasure of self-discovery.
Hide and Seek
The great game of life is hide and seek. The seeker calling out the hider, the hider dodging the seeker because you can only know yourself in surprise. All other knowing is outdated, old hat, yesterday’s news.
Delight in this game of discovery and challenge yourself to see a new face in the mirror each day. Live on the edge of your becoming and I will show up in your life in full glory.
I will anoint you with the sacred oil, the elixir of life and a bowl of grapes on the table will nourish your senses, a leaf blower will get under your hide just enough to touch that nerve called “being alive” and the words of others will speak the wisdom
you lack the tongue to speak for yourself because you are becoming the world. It is what you were born into and there is no hiding from it only hiding in it. So go,
seek yourself out again and again, shed another skin, drop another mask, strip another costume until you stand naked in your life,
at last, without pretense or apology, just skin and bones and sinew, undeniable and free, seeker and hider, going all-in, skin in the game— another day, another mirror, another you.
Happy spring. May we all flower, from within, of self-blessing.
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