I was recently coaching and the discussion moved into moving on from that which is holding him back. We had shifted direction because we talking about his role within his business and I had sensed for a while that there were some underlying issues that he really wanted to talk about.
We skirted the issue for a while – 2 sessions in fact – but I really encouraged him to show his vulnerability and then he opened up. He was struggling to move on from a bad time in his life, many people clawing at him and holding him back and we talked about a new way – a new road because life is about him and compassion for himself.
I love poetry as a way of finding meaning and we read Mary Oliver’s – The Journey. Sadly she is dead now but this is so powerful. Do read it slowly and feel the strength of the words. Yours is the life to save first and foremost…
The Journey
One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice—
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
“Mend my life!”
each voice cried.
But you didn’t stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do—
determined to save
the only life you could save.
By Mary Oliver
