Roz Davies has
helped me recently in writing posts by providing inspirational thoughts and feedback. I recently noticed on Roz's Twitterfeed, "You
don't have to see the whole staircase. Just take the first step" by Martin
Luther King. Each of the three sentences were drawn onto a step of a staircase.
I saw the words and the arrangement and had the feeling of seeing and
understanding something and yet seeing something and not understanding
something. It was a moment of paradox. It was recognising what the words meant
yet sensing a meaning not apparent initially to the rational mind. I have
thought about these words and they echo two messages to me. This post will try
to write them and share them. One is a common and valuable life lesson. The
other is a deeper and potent life call.
The whole staircase could be a metaphor for many things.
It could be a course we are doing. It could be a tough time at work. It could
be life itself. Lots of possibilities. We are not asked here by the Dr King to
look at the whole picture or walk the whole staircase. We are encouraged to
focus our energies and work elsewhere. That is to just take the first step. We
can be put off if we consider how much work, hassle and stress a journey or
staircase walk might entail. We may feel fearful, unequipped or tempted to give
up. The quote tells us not to enter the region of fearful 'If's' and instead
take that first step or next step. Rather than locking oneself in a mental
prison we are challenged to action. To take the next step.
A wise man once said that if we live to a ripe old age we
may look back on our life and see two truths. The first is that 90 - 95 % of
the things we have worried about have not happened. The remaining few percent
have but somehow we found the strength and help to get through. Don't we often do and believe the opposite?
That all our fears and imagined difficulties will materialise? That we won't be
able to work them out? The quote offers
us a way to align ourselves with reality rather than negative frames. We are to
live in the present and do the next thing. We are not even being asked to take
the next five steps. Only the next one. The step is also
way to preserve and strengthen our own integrity. We can be tempted to
compromise or even betray our values. By focusing on just the next step rather
than the difficult staircase we can maintain our integrity. What is demanded is
the courage to take the next step.
The other thought
was that this was not just about doing the next thing. It was possibly pointing
to raising higher in our thoughts and perspectives. Taking the next step up. I
can't write this without thinking of Einstein's comments about how "No problem
can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it." We have to
go somewhere else to resolve what stands in front of us. On this basis it is
the movement or shifts in consciousness that allow us to see problems anew and
perceive new solutions. How often we use old systematic thinking to solve new
and old problems and we find we can't. There is a crying need for fresh eyes,
new minds and open hearts to work collaboratively on what the solutions may be.
One of the most dynamic of these frameworks is the work done by my dear colleague
and friend Dr Maxine Craig on dialogic change. This practice offers the
possibility of shared and emerging safe spaces and conversations as responses
to issues. It expresses co-learning, inclusion and where consciousness may
start to move onto and into new spaces. solutions and stories.
The words of Einstein also resonate with the work of Carl
Jung. Jung thought that we need this shift when we face issues and journeys. He
wrote the following rich call, "The greatest and most important problems of
life are all in a certain sense insoluble…. They can never be solved, but only
outgrown." This ‘outgrowing’, as I formerly called it, on further experience
was seen to consist in a new level of consciousness. Some higher or wider
interest arose on the person’s horizon, and through this widening of view, the
insoluble problem lost its urgency. It was not solved logically in its own
terms, but faded out when confronted with a new and stronger life-tendency.' It
is in growing that we solve. It is in rising to and into new stories and frames
that we can experience a problem losing it's power and new vistas appearing.
The staircase then takes on a new dimension too. It is a symbol of our inner
journey to transformation and ' a new level of consciousness'
There are a number
of fascinating studies on this theme. Kate Cowie, Ken Wilber, Robert Kegan,
Jean Piaget and Bernadette Roberts all have worked to map out these levels of
development in consciousness. Kate Cowie describes it as "A journey into
oneself.....The growth of consciousness : the growth of you." The next step is really our journey to
wholeness and self discovery. The nest step is a step to life, being and
creativity. It is the move from who we see ourselves at the moment to be to who
we are really are and can be. From the present to the potential.
How do we take this step up? There are three clues in this writing. There
are not clues because I have hidden them there. I have just seen them myself. I
will run through them briefly. The first is inspiration. Roz's kindness in
providing the quotes and reflection starts and sustains the process of
unpacking their message and call. We all as human beings need inspiration.
Without it we wilt and suffer interior decay. The second is what Maxine's
dialogic work expresses. With others - together thinking, being and learning. A
commonality and openness to life and growth. This points to how others can
support our growth into new domains. Although others can support the journey, it is all about us holding our
own destiny in our hands. It is about having responsibility for ourselves and
the life choices we must make. Transformation is about responsibility but
always responsibility for service. . The last one is the power of words. In the
stories we grew up with there was often a magic word that opens a door to where
the hero or heroine wish to go. Ali Baba's 'Open Sesame' is possibly the most
famous. Words spoken from deep places through the heart connect with us and
raise us up the vision and inspiration. These are transformation experiences.
These words are magic in that they somehow open the entrance to inner treasure.
The amazing thing is that we can not only hear these words and let them work in
us. We can also become the ones who speak them. Then we become the holders and sharers
of wisdom and life giving words. There's a lot more in a step than one might
think!
John Walsh. Support Manager. York Street Health Practice.
Leeds Community Healthcare NHS Trust
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