Creating, Learning, Becoming

Reflections from inside the storm

On January 4, 2024, I wrote here on Substack, “Although we’ve been living with increasing uncertainty and instability in my country and around the world, 2024 feels like we’re about to enter new territory. … All of us are likely to be stretched beyond our comfort zones in one way or another.”

When I wrote those words, I couldn’t have imagined we would be where we are now. The Great Breaking Open of systems, structures, practices, beliefs, and relationships has quickly shifted from breaking down and breaking open to rapid, intentional, radical tearing apart of all those things. A storm of intentional disruption and destruction. It’s a lot! And I’m doing my best to refrain from judgment about what is happening. And to keep my focus on sensing what we’re being asked for, and how, moment to moment, we can navigate the storm.

In that January 2024 article, I shared quotes from two authors living on opposite sides of the world—Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami and American author Stephen King:

Once the storm is over, you won’t remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive… But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm, you won’t be the same person who walked in. That’s what this storm’s all about.
— Haruki Murakami

We did not ask for this room or this music. We were invited in. Therefore, because the dark surrounds us, let us turn our faces to the light. Let us endure hardship to be grateful for plenty. We have been given pain to be astounded by joy. We have been given life to deny death. We did not ask for this room or this music. But because we are here, let us dance.
― Stephen King

Today, I add a third quote from American novelist Willa Cather (d. 1947):

There are some things you learn best in calm, and some in storm.
— Willa Cather

Suffice it to say, the storm is here. And we’re finding ourselves in rooms surrounded by music that many of us did not consciously choose. Some of us are still in shock, not yet considering even the possibility of dance partners or what comes next. Others are out there in the fray looking for next steps and wondering where their next dance partner might be. And many of us are vacillating between shock and presence, stillness and movement, introspection and action.

Personally, I’m mostly quiet on the surface, yet I’m surfing big waves in my psyche and doing my best to sense deeply into all that is happening—as many layers and in as big a context as I can grasp. I don’t pretend to have answers or even a clear sense of direction for where we go from here. The metaphorical dust and soot from years of breaking open, augmented in recent weeks by the rapid onslaught of disruption and destruction, hangs thick in the air.

What I do know, however, is that I want to come through this storm a better dancer, to go back to Stephen King’s quote, even if I don’t like the music. If this is where we are, if this is how it’s going to be for the foreseeable future, then at least I want to learn from it. I want to learn more about myself deep in my core, and I want to get better at navigating life, even in chaos.

The Italian Renaissance philosopher Macchiavelli was the first on record to say, “Never waste an opportunity offered by a good crisis.” Since then, many leaders from Winston Churchill to the present-day American politician Rahm Emmanuel have said some version of that statement.

I don’t like crisis; I am not comfortable with conflict. Yet both show up around me and even within me from time to time; they don’t seem to care about my comfort level. So, since we’re in the storm anyway, I might as well make the most of it instead of letting it get the better of me.

Transformational Presence has taught me a lot about “partnering with” what is in front of me. It’s taught me to focus my attention on co-creating with the moment rather than “pushing against” what is happening. This work has also helped me recognize that what we create, in turn, creates us. We create out of who we are, yet the process of creation also shapes us—sometimes it even transforms us. The more engaged we become with the creative process, the more we start to take on the qualities or essence of what we are creating. And our lives begin to shape themselves around that creation.

At least once in your life, you have probably made a decision or taken a first step towards something new and then noticed a shift happening within yourself as a result of that action. You started showing up differently, thinking differently, and perhaps even talking about aspects of your life differently.

Photo by Bertrand Borie on Unsplash

Take a moment to breathe that in. We are all “creating” all the time. We create a meal, or a party, or a meeting, or a garden, or a safe space. We create projects large or small, we build businesses, we organize events, we develop and nurture relationships. We create and tell stories, both to ourselves and to others, about who we are, about what we can and cannot do, about how life is treating us, about what happened in the past, and about what we see or hope for in our future. And we create and develop all these things within the larger context of what is happening in the world around us.

The more energy and commitment we give to those creations, the more they, in turn, begin to create us. From the moment we start creating, the creative process starts shaping our choices and decisions and the ways we engage with life, work, and relationships. And we begin to live into the world around us through the stories, events, relationships, and projects we’re creating.

Most of us have been taught to start with questions like “What do you want to happen?” or “What do you want to create?” And then to make a plan and then make it happen.

Yet perhaps the more powerful question is “Who do you want to become?” or “What personal qualities do you want more of?” And then from there, “So, what can you create that will help you further develop those qualities and live into who you want to become?”

I closed that January 2024 article with a quote from Eboo Patel, founder and director of Interfaith America and a frequent guest speaker at Chautauqua where I spend part of every summer. Eboo Patel says:

We defeat the things we do not love by
building the things we do.
—Eboo Patel

We’re likely to be in this storm for a while. Rather than getting lost in fear, anxiety, anger, and disappointment, or pushing against what we do not want, what if we choose to create things that represent what we do want? Even in the face of a storm.

What might you create or build, large or small, that through the creative process, you might learn and grow into the next evolution of you? That through the creative process, you might become the next stronger, clearer, more intentional, more compassionate, more impactful version of you?

Maybe it’s in your personal life or your family, or perhaps in your company, your community, or even in your country. The qualities and energy within whatever you choose to build, whatever you are learning, and however you are growing will spill out into the collective consciousness. Because that’s how life works. We each contribute to the collective every single day by how we think, what we do, what we create and express, and who we are becoming.

---

Invitations

• Free recorded Meditations for Changing Times led by Alan. More than 50 guided meditations. Choose the title that speaks to you and listen. Available for free to you anytime.

• Visit The Center for Transformational Presence website

• Consider reading one of Alan’s Books

• Explore Coaching and Mentoring with Alan

• Invite Alan to Speak to your organization or conference

• Explore Upcoming Programs in Transformational Presence

---