Roots and Wings. Hopefully we are cultivating or challenging
one or the other at any particular time.
We see it in the news and in our own lives. Obama’s parting comment to African leaders was
that the continent will not advance if its leaders refuse to step down when
their terms end. Here in Italy, we have
been facilitating retreats for teams who want to pause and consolidate their
learning. At yesterday’s coaching
session, I explored with a senior leader how his need to feel protected was
limiting his systems thinking, reach and effectiveness. Every day on Linked-In we see a constant flow
of people taking on new roles and offering new ideas. At a personal level, friends are leaving for new pastures, others are
settling.
Roots and Wings.
Our roots are our connection with ourselves,
others and of our place in the world.
Cultivating them gives us a sense of identity, of belonging, of ‘coming
home to who we are’. They are the
foundations which keep us grounded, connected and contributing. They are the relationships with those we love
and with the complex and supportive fabric which nourish our inner core. They give us security and stability.
Our
wings give us the ability to reach out far and wide, expand our horizons and
venture into new territories. With them
we express our innate curiosity, our sense of adventure and exploration and
discover new ideas and opportunities.
They are the means for which we allow our independence and initiative to
flourish. They give us flexibility and freedom.
Arguably
a balance between the two enables us to fulfil the depth and breadth of our
potential. If we get too focused on our
roots, they can constrict and bind us.
Sometimes we just need to uproot and fly off to new places and gain fresh
perspectives. With too much focus on our
wings, we can exhaust ourselves floating around and become disorientated,
unfocussed and isolated.
Attempting
a balance may be something we do in the moment, or it may be stretched over
longer periods, as we find ourselves giving priority to either one, over days,
weeks, months or years.
Some
of us have a personality preference for one or the other. I find myself making
generalisations about national cultural differences, such as the strongly rooted
collective Italians and flying independent-travelling New Zealanders (as an
aside, the irony is not lost that NZ’s national treasure and icon, the kiwi, evolved
into a flightless bird -as a result of having no enemies it decided it had no
need to fly so lost its ability to do so).
More broadly, perhaps we can also draw on the difference between the
eastern philosophy that we are already ‘here’; what we need is within us, and
the western perspective, where we are driven to look externally; to go out in
order to get ‘here’ fully.
In
integrating the two, we balance stillness with movement, being with doing,
activity with meditation, solitude with company, introversion with extroversion...
As
David Richo said “In short, we need to get up and go, but we also need to sit
and stay”.
Noticing
our preferences, focus and patterns helps us make those choices more
consciously as opposed to automatically from a place of habit or fear. Often it is about getting out of our comfort
zone and doing the opposite of what we would prefer to do.
What
is your priority at the moment? Roots or
Wings?
Sources:
Thanks to Jennifer who first introduced me to
the concept of ‘roots and wings’, as passed on from Buster whose Mum might have
heard it from the quote by Hodding Carter “there are only two lasting bequests
we can hope to give our children. One is roots; the other, wings” which
according to Wikipedia, was borrowed from Henry Ward Beecher
BBC, Obama warns on Africa leaders refusing
to step down, 28 July 2015 http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-33684721
Richo, D, (2002), How To Be An Adult in
Relationships: The Five Keys to Mindful Loving, Shambhala Publications, Inc.
Boston, Massachusetts p. 4
Revised version of a previous posting: http://quintessenza-consulting.blogspot.it/2013/05/roots-or-wings-staying-or-going_26.html
No comments:
Post a Comment