How growth feels while it's happening

I love to go outside with a camera in the spring. It's a great time to get some perspective on what growth really looks like.

Often, people imagine that growth appears fully formed. That's like moving daffodils from the pot to the garden already in bloom. It's real and it's sort of natural, but you're seeing the product, not the growth.

Real growth is messier. When you walk in the woods, you see all the dead stuff on the ground with wildflowers poking through the debris.

In NLP (neurolinguistic programming), the period of pushing through the debris is called integration. It's what happens after the course ends and the learning begins to take root. Sometimes it is inconspicuous: it happens in the background while you become really productive in your usual work and life. Sometimes it take more energy. It calls on you to slow down and be patient while all the shifts come into alignment.

I've just come through a deep, intense period of learning, through action and reading and through leading groups of really smart, committed people. This week, discipline is calling me to go for walks, to meditate and to wait. I know what needs to be done and it will require my very best stuff. My best stuff isn't ready yet. It's on the back burner (as one of my favourite teachers used to say). When it's ready, I will know. Until then, it's important to keep the heat low and steady and give it the time it needs.

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