Exploring our Growing Edges

Image Credit: Leio McLaren on Unsplash

AT THE EDGE
 
It’s scary and breathtaking living at the edge
of our lives
just us, the edge and the vast unknown
and echoing down the valley of our hearts
the constant call to trust.
 
Yet how quickly that edge becomes a settled place
without an echo
a niche to line and realign till we feel satisfied
lulled into complacency by the now safe edge
our satisfaction undermined by a new awareness
calling us from beyond the edge
​of who we have become.
 
Noel Davis
– Together at the Edge: Trust Me, 2011.

​The arrival of spring always lifts my energy and spirits.  One day I notice the bare wintry branches of our huge oak tree have suddenly become a light green haze of emerging leaves, then only a few days later the tree has been transformed into full leafy green and once again the herons are busy flying in and out building their nests.  
 
Spring always takes me outside and into my garden. My mind goes to the season of growing ahead. I start to make new plans, my enthusiasm grows along with my desire to get my hands in the soil, and I head off to the garden centre for inspiration.

Spring is also a time for me when I reflect on my own personal and professional growth. What’s wanting to emerge in my life? What am I feeling drawn towards? Right now, I’m feeling the urge towards embarking on new learning. I’m not sure what yet, but the thought is definitely buzzing around, and I’ve been mulling it over while I've been planting my new seedlings.
 
Spring is such a good reminder of how life moves in constant cycles. We all have times of abundance and times of scarcity in our lives, times of joy and times of grief, times of knowing we’re doing exactly what we’re meant to be doing and other times when we seem to have lost track, times of growth and times of consolidation, sometimes stagnation.
 
It doesn’t matter our age or stage in life and work. There is always the possibility of something new emerging in our lives – a new idea, a new understanding, a new undertaking, a new purpose. 
 
Spring is a reminder of these growing edges in our lives and work. These are our personal learning edges between what we know and can comfortably do, and the unknown new territory we may be feeling drawn or pushed toward.  Sometimes we resist going beyond the familiar into zones of discomfort, because, as poet Noel Davis says, it can be scary at this learning edge when we must face our fear of ‘not knowing’ and the possibility of getting it wrong. But our growing edges are also exciting places, rich with new life and tremendous potential for personal and professional growth.
​

• What growing edges are you facing at this time in your life and work?
• What are you feeling nudged or drawn towards?

If you’re interested to explore the growing edges of your life and work and the challenges and possibilities they bring, this is an invitation to join me and my Australian colleague, Greg Sunter, in Auckland next March for our Courage & Renewal® weekend retreat - Growing Edges: Tending the inner ground of our life & work. This will be a unique kind of professional and personal development that aims to deepen self-awareness and interpersonal skills, and renew personal energy and vitality.
 
Organisations also have growing edges, and the Courage & Renewal® movement in New Zealand is currently in an exciting period of new growth with three new Facilitators-in-preparation - Sandy Robertson, Michele Coombridge and Sarah Court. I’m delighted to be sharing their learning journey  and am looking forward to the new ground we will explore together in the future. 

​If you'd like to learn more about my work, please get in touch.

Image credit: Laura Adai on Unsplash

"And then the day came
when the risk to remain tight in a bud
was more painful
than the risk it took to blossom."    
- Anais Nin