With a mid-morning sunshine caressing my cheek in the cool of an autumn morning, my thoughts turn to all I have experienced over the past few days. I led a workshop for a group of women, who contribute vocationally to the improvement of transportation systems. Following our time together, I received several warm expressions of appreciation for my leadership. Most affirming for me was recognition of “facilitation, grace and confidence”, which I demonstrated in leading such a strong-minded group.
I spent the next two days in leisure; salmon fishing out on the open water of the straight of Georgia, setting crab traps in a cove near an off-grid cabin high up on a rocky outcropping of a small island, and enjoying the company of old and new friends.
I also enjoyed a brief walk through dense forest, where two six hundred year old cedars have stood faithfully waiting for me to arrive. I smile thinking of this, for I know it is not about me, but the experience if no less meaningful in the moment. Each took part in playing their role, and as such facilitated experience. The salmon, the crab, the ocean, the cove, the island, sky, gull, seal and porpoise all played their part with confidence and grace, enriching life for all.
The key, it seems, is the confidence to play our part with grace, contributing to the experience of a fullness of life…for each other.
What is the porpoise without an ocean…a gull without a sky…an island without a cove…a man without a friend?
All of this reminds me of the invitation to simply “be”: to live the embodiment of our creature self, the full essence of our part, and our place in the experience of all.
Without confidence we cannot live fullness, for fear keeps us from holding our place. Without grace we do not allow others to live in their fullness, diminishing the experience of all.
