Wild Thoughts

Go for it. Seek it out. Stretch beyond your usual “list” of things you are thankful for, and see what else finds you. It’s a practice known to bring more peace and happiness, but it’s also a Wild experiment…

I get asked to speak on change management a lot, and I’m happy to do so. What’s funny is that every single organization gets described, during our pre-event prep, as being in the state of “unprecedented” or “rapid” change. Maybe it’s time to just accept that change is what “is…”

Wild Musings: What if there was nothing to fix? What if the ups and downs of your day were simply that—no deep implications of wrongness, no red flags of giant mis-steps? What if, say, in a work situation, your team was just not on the same page? If there were…

…
The lifting fog keeps us faithful
to the wholeness of beauty.
The sense that nothing is wasted:
from being slowed to snail’s pace
when we simply cannot see;
to the gradual lifting
burning through with light and life
so that, with time, we see clearly again…

The word freedom covers a lot of territory. It’s something we fight for and sometimes hide from. It’s something everyone wants and deserves, and on closer examination, it demands of us a willingness to surrender…

So often, we are our harshest critic. The source of our impatience with others can be easily traced to our impatience with ourselves. What would it be like if that harshness were to soften, inside and out? If there were a way to view our life journeys as a process of ripening rather than falling short, or weakness, or even success…

In a matter of a few minutes, we could probably tell someone who knew nothing about us the basic pattern of our days. It would be a broad brush stroke, but pretty easy to lay out what goes into a typical day — from morning routines to the day to day of work, children, pets, caring for loved ones, friends, our intentions around exercise, and other things that make up a “normal” day. What would get missed in the broad brushstroke, however, is the sweetness, the messy parts, the little details that put color into the picture…

There is something very comforting about a calm lake or a gently flowing stream–a place to gaze or dream, breath deeply, and relax. This is so very needed in our world. And yet, we are also drawn to cascading water and rivers rushing far above their banks. We need this too: the push, the edge, the wildness that comes with being “out there…”

We can try to measure growth. Certainly work and school environments have systems in place to track learning or assess strategies. We set goals, use metrics and analytics to measure deliverables, and track growth. And yet, there is a whole dimension…

We make assumptions. All the time. From first impressions to reading “into” things; from assuming outcomes to judging what we see. It is our nature. And it can lead to colossal misunderstandings or hurt feelings, to name a few…