While writing my morning pages the other day a familiar metaphor surfaced. Are you a glass half full or half empty kind of person? Remember that one? I discovered I was 'seeing' it (actually more like feeling it) from a totally different perspective.
The 'half empty' folks I saw as being pessimistic, indulging in scarcity thinking, and viewing life from a victim stance. Most times I identify with the 'half full' folks and perhaps am somewhat smug about it. For me half full means optimistic, abundant thinking, and engaged in life. That's the right way to be, right?
But it all seems upside now right now. I feel myself craving and coveting the empty portion of the glass - it seems to represent openness, possibility, a place to rest and let be. The full part of the glass seems to harbour a sense of heaviness, of expectations, needs, and loads of 'shoulds'. Talk about mixed messages!
What I'm starting to get is that all perspectives hold a blend of fear and hope...it just depends on the context of the day and how I want to view it. Life is full of tensions or perhaps paradoxes. I'm trying to find a relaxed place between the many competing desires: "do vs. be", engage vs. relax, action vs. trust, let go vs. let come.
While on this creative sabbatical I'm in the process of making peace with those tensions. That means acceptance and integration, not judgment and rejection. There must be a new way for me to hold them so that they intertwine and compliment each other instead of competing. Yin and yang, shadow and light, yes and no - one helps to define the other. It is not about right or wrong, it's about being open to seeing and experiencing differently.
I suspect that you are also familiar with some brand of paradox in your own life...perhaps within your team, perhaps in your personal life. May we all trust our way into a new way to dance with them. I invite you to share what you're noticing in this moment.
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This is a great post, it really got me thinking.
ReplyDeleteI find it very difficult to be positive. I used to be, when I was younger, but as the years have progressed I've found myself groping towards indifference just to stay away from near-depression. That's what high school will do to you. But lately my parents have been helping me to think more positively, by asking me to name some good things about my day. I can't help but consider this corny, although it does work. Perspective means a lot.