Writers often talk of needing to retreat to write at some point in their creative process. Of a need to let things gestate and emerge in their own way, in their own time—almost as if writing is a chrysalis process. All my research, my writing, my life has plodded along this past year. Slow caterpillar movements shifted to a sudden breakdown in the last few weeks. And now the creation of something entirely new from all that has gone before.
San Francisco’s glorious sun feeds my smiles today. I love life enough to want to create many, many more days here—or somewhere very much like it (if such a place exists). For here I feel at home. The very air of conversations among my colleagues here generates me as a powerful creator.
In chrysalis, the speed at which imaginal cells
Coalesce and form themselves into lines and clusters
My ego cannot keep up with.I feel my wings forming, the sun on my back.
This life is for me.
It’s not the life I expected.
And I’m grateful.
I’ve given up trying to control what’s happening. I’m curious to see what is emerging. Curious also to see who else will show up in the days ahead.
All my focus now is on being an opportunity for infinite game players, as James Carse defines them. People who play with boundaries, rather than within them. Whose purpose is to keep the game going as long as possible. Who see me as an opportunity to realize what they envision is possible, and whom I see as an opportunity to contribute to as a co-creative ally.
Wanna play?
This blog post by Shae Hadden is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Writing this book is an exercise in being with emergence. Patterns emerge out of the multiple conversations I’ve been having with coaches and coachees. Out of those patterns emerge multiple threads of ideas. And as I write those ideas down, a structure emerges from within the writing. It’s as if I could step aside and let the cosmos of the book grow into being.