CONNECTING with your earnest, authentic, and unashamed SELF

‘finding insights for identity’

Back cut on a back leaning pine

When was the last time you invested the time in a course that was not directly related to your work?

While the majority of my formal educational experiences are related to the development of the business, to the skills I need to serve my clients better, (such as ‘Deep Facilitation’ - or ‘Narrative Coaching’), I know that there are so many benefits from investing in educational experiences that are not directly linked to my work. Courses that feed my interests, and help these interests both broaden, as well as deepen.

One of the most important of these benefits, is that through learning the skills and gaining experience in those things that you want to do, you uncover pieces of yourself that you may have forgotten. And the experience of these strengthens your narrative, your place in your story, and can give you hope. These experiences help you to feel more you.

This past week, I was given the opportunity through a course to find a piece of my story, and through this - feel more unashamedly and authentically me. How this helps my business in helping others… I don’t yet know. But I’m hoping that by sharing it here, it can encourage you to invest in your own growth - beyond just the professional education. I’m hoping that you can find pieces of your own story in the insights that arise from pursuing your interests, and through this - connect with a path for you to thrive.

After all, you never know what path your insights will lead you to. I once read that after dropping out of college, Steve Jobs became interested in calligraphy - and through this he developed his understanding of typography. And that this personal interest eventually resulted in his development of computers (Apple, MacIntosh) that could use the wide-variety of fonts that we now enjoy.

‘Lessons from my father’

The woodpile, with end pillars

One of my heroes, a ‘friend’ from my Dad’s library, Henry David Thoreau, said in his 1854 book, Walden that ‘…every man looks at his woodpile with a kind of affection… [because it] warms you twice - once while splitting the logs, and again when they are on the fire…’

‘the third warmth, helps to make a home’

Bread rising before the warmth of the fire

H.D. Thoreau’s insight rings true for me too, because I grew up in the forest. While we had electric supply from the grid, our water was from a well. We heated our home, and our water by wood fire. In COLD winters, with deep snow all around us, fire brought an almost sacred life with it.

In the autumn, when the ground was firm, we spent our weekends on the land harvesting firewood to prepare for the winters to come. My Mom, Dad, Brother and I would take our tools into the forest, to the trees selected for harvest. Dad ran the chainsaw, and my Mom, Brother, and I, would gather the logs and load them in the four wheel drive truck, taking them back to the drying shed for the next winter’s warmth. It is good to dry the wood for a year prior for best burning. I can still smell the beautiful sweet smell of freshly fallen oak, and feel how I enjoyed the camaraderie and hard work of those autumn days. The home made bread for the plowman’s lunches, and the crisp air. By the end of those days, we were sweaty and covered in sawdust, smiles, and a well-earned tiredness.

‘finding my story’

practicing tension and compression cuts

As kids, part of our chores were to gather kindling for the fire, split the logs into pieces that would burn well and fit in the fireplace. We kept the woodpile by the house stocked for the fire, and learned what logs were good for starting a fire, which were more appropriate once the fire was going, and which ones were good for the last log of the night, to burn through to morning. And we learned which wood had the sweet smell when split, an aroma if I could bottle, I would wear every day!

We learned so many things. Some of these lessons were consciously taught, some we just absorbed experientially. Lessons in how to keep a forest healthy; the variety of trees, and how they liked to grow; and how trees don’t heal, they just isolate their wounds, and grow around them.

A large part of who I am, is a country kid from the woods. I remember collecting maple sap in the spring for making syrup with my Grandfather, and learning about what wood looks beautiful when finished for use in furniture, cabinets, or musical instruments.

These memories are a significant part of my identity. They are a part of who I am, and how I connected, with the land, and with my family. And these parts of my story, when I can connect with them, make me more confident. Make me stronger. And help me, like a tree, to grow around any wounds I may have experienced.

A few years back, a good friend of mine, from the bush, gave my wife and I a chainsaw, as a wedding gift. It was a deeply insightful and poetic gift, in that it both acknowledged my connection with a part of myself which was deeply ingrained in my identity, and it encouraged me to now step into this this part of my identity, in order to bring it’s benefits to my family.

‘confidence in connection’

The importance of connecting to one’s past,
to build a confident strength for the future

This past week, another good friend of mine, also from the bush, gave me a similarly insightful gift. A 4-day course on intermediate tree felling and chainsaw use, and the time, spent together, learning this skill. Sharing plowman’s lunches in the wood, sweat, sawdust, and smiles.

‘Walk before you run’

Day One: Theory
Ongoing education of personal interest

Albert Einstein, is quoted as saying that “the value of an education…is not the learning of many facts, but the training of the mind to think something that cannot be learned from textbooks…” (May 18th, 1921, The New York Times).

I would add to this insight. An education also enables you to find the Truths that resonate, that already exist inside you, which are waiting to be uncovered and implemented into your life, and benefit those around you in unexpected ways.

‘directing the fall’

Hinge cuts on back leaning pines

While you may not know how pursuing your extracurricular interests may benefit your work, I know that by connecting to who you are will definitely help you to become more authentically ‘you’. And through this connection, you will grow in confidence, and be able to better step into your own sense of self. Unashamedly. Authentically.

May you find friends, like I have, that can help you to step into yourself, and from this, THRIVE on your own Insightful Path.