Matt asks:
> Are there areas in your life where you can identify with this man?
Yes! (She said, somewhat embarassed.) But given that we are a learning
community, I share with you what about this story feels most familiar...
> The man had grown up thirsty in a desert and knew the depth of
> thirst.
The knowledge I hold dearly is self-knowledge. Like the man, I've "grown
up" with myself, and believe I know myself deeply. The most frustrating
life experiences for me are those in which I am forced (invited?,
encouraged?) to see myself differently. My mind argues, "How can I see
myself differently when I know I'm not that way?"
I am in the midst of changing careers, a choice I am truly excited about,
but very often get stuck moving forward with because of who I "know"
myself to be. Even realizing what's going on is no (quick) fix for my
stuckness. This is the most frustrating aspect of my life right now. I
want to change, learn, grow, yet there seems to be little space to do so.
> He had felt it (the thirst) for many years and had somehow stumbled onto
> this
> little water hole.
As I contemplate what it will be like to work in a new position in a new
field, I get scared because I am unable to figure out how I managed to be
successful in my previous field. Like the man in the story, what I see is
that I "somehow stumbled" upon the jobs I have held. I give myself little
credit for having created any of it, and find myself stuck now, as I try
to create myself anew.
> There were times when he was upset at his meager rations, he would
> break into a wild thought that he could bath, even swim in a large
> pool of
> water and actually enjoy it with others...
> Yet if you took a walk from where this poor soul lived, over one
> hill and around a bend you could find a river running deep and wide.
> Many
> came and bathed in it. It gave freely of its bounty to all who would
> come.
The question for me boils down to -- where does faith come from? How does
one (whether as part of a department, an organization, or alone) get the
courage to change, to let go of one preverbial trapeze, still unsure the
other one will be there to grab ahold of? What, in the end, really makes
change possible? A lot has been written in these archives that argues
both for and against the ultimate effectiveness of systematizing the
change process. In the end, I think faith has a lot to do with it.
Interesting thread. Looking forward to others' responses.
Thanks,
Lisa Carmichael
lscarmichael@earthlink.net
--Lisa Carmichael <lscarmichael@earthlink.net>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>