The Edge Coaching

David Whyte, a poet, writer and storyteller who works a lot with corporations around the world as well as more regular poetry audiences, has some valuable observations on the current times we are experiencing. He points to the danger of creating “fake narratives”, external narratives we construct to create a comfortable sense of control, order, stability and clear vision. He reflects that these replace the complexity, changeability and the raw power and beauty of real ones that are a true expression of the world we find ourselves in.

He says: “It is the task of poetry, and the poetic narrative, to bring our eyes to bear on the raw immensity of these patterns and the heartbreaking nature of our disappearances, which are unavoidable no matter our economic standing or our education…..It is the province of poetry to be more realistic and present than the artificial narratives of an outer discourse and not afraid of the truthful difficulty of the average human life.”

I think this resonates deeply for those of us who our on our journey of conscious learning and development - or as conscious as we can make it! Do we create artificial narratives to hide from the complexity, the challenges, the pain, the changes we make/don’t make, our fears, contradictions and worries - the “terrible beauty” of being human. We have to look our lives in the face, truthfully and honestly. This is a tough task - which is why we need people we can trust around us, whether as teachers, coaches, mentors and friends. We need to be able to let them be our mirrors….and there will also be times we we have to journey on alone. In the ‘Hero’s Journey’ described so clearly by Joseph Cambpell there are times when the Hero has to enter the “dark forest” on his own to meet his own challenges. However, the Hero then comes out of the forest, bringing what he has learned back into the world.

So my question to you is what kind of external narratives are you creating for yourselves? Are they an expression of the inner life and spirit that you certainly have coming into a complex. challenging world full of paradox and contradiction? Or are they comfortable, ducks all lined up in a row kinds of narratives? Let me know what you see.

Here is a poem from David Whyte that captures what I am talking about - spend some time with it and reflect:

MAMEEN
Be infinitesimal under that sky, a creature
even the sailing hawk misses, a wraith
among the rocks where the mist parts slowly.
Recall the way mere mortals are overwhelmed
by circumstance, how great reputations
dissolve with infirmity and how you,
in particular, live a hairsbreadth from losing
everyone you hold dear.

Then, look back down the path as if seeing
your past and then south over the hazy blue
coast as if present to a wide future,
recall the way you are all possibilities
you can see and how you live best
as an appreciator of horizons
whether you reach them or not,
admit that once you have got up
from your chair and opened the door,
once you have walked out into the clean air
toward that edge and taken the path up high
beyond the ordinary you have become
the privileged and the pilgrim
the one who will tell the story
and the one, coming back
from the mountain,
who helped to make it.

Enjoy your Bank Holiday weekend