Organizing reflection 23

This is a post in my series on organizing ”between and beyond.” Other posts are here. The purpose of this post is to reflect on subjects occupying my mind. I make no claim to fully believe what I write. Neither do I pretend that others have not already thought or written about the same subject. More often than not, I take up, combine, and add to already existing thoughts and ideas.

What is on my mind?
Today’s reflection is inspired by Rachel Naomi Remen. Rachel writes about wholeness in her book Kitchen Table Wisdom (my emphasis in bold):

Often in times of crisis when we reach for what we have considered our strength we stumble on our wholeness and our real power. How we were before we fixed ourselves to win approval. What has been fixed is always less strong than what is whole.¹

Everyone’s wholeness is unique… Our wholeness will look different… Our wholeness fits us better… Our wholeness is much more attainable for us… We usually look outside of ourselves for heroes and teachers. It has not occurred to most people that they may already be the role model they seek. The wholeness they are looking for may be trapped within themselves by beliefs, attitudes, and self-doubt. But our wholeness exists in us now. Trapped though it may be, it can be called upon for guidance, direction, and … comfort. It can be remembered. Eventually we may come to live by it.²

… most often the experience of wholeness happens in very ordinary times and ways. It is common to not even notice.³

Actually, we are all more than we know. Wholeness is never lost, it is only forgotten. Integrity rarely means that we need to add something to ourselves: it is more an undoing than a doing, a freeing ourselves from beliefs we have about who we are and ways we have been persuaded to “fix” ourselves to know who we genuinely are.⁴

Often in reclaiming the freedom to be who we are, we remember some basic human quality, an unsuspected capacity for love or compassion or some other part of our common birthright as human beings.⁵

Generative organizing calls upon wholeness for guidance and direction. It’s more an undoing than a doing, which we often stumble upon in times of crisis. When we reclaim who we are, we also remember our basic human qualities. We already are the role models we seek. Wholeness is never lost, only forgotten.

Notes:
¹ Rachel Naomi Remen, Kitchen Table Wisdom: Stories That Heal (Riverhead Books, 1997, first published 1996), p.105.
² Ibid., p.106.
³ Ibid..
⁴ Ibid., p.108.
⁴ Ibid., p.109.

Related posts:
Organizing in between and beyond posts