I have been aware for some time that I am living within a transition in my life and for me, it has had been, and continues to have, elements of difficulty.

Whilst on holiday, I spent a hour each day reading and reflecting on a book, which I have referred to in my earlier posts called “A Hidden Wholeness” by Parker J Palmer.

I could write a blog everyday on the ways in which this book and his teaching have touched me and stirred within me such a restlessness to settle those parts of my life which have been and continue to be very anguished.

Mr Palmer talked about a process that he engaged in called “A Clearness Committee” **in which a group of people support an individual to connect with their inner voice by focusing on the individual in listening to them speak uninterrupted for fifteen minutes, followed by a series of open questions to the individual on the issues that they have raised.

**(Further rules apply around the nature of this process)

Parker J Palmer had himself submitted himself to this process and held three, two hour sessions, in the Clearness Committee over an eighteen month period.

Words emerged, which Mr Palmer recognised as his inner teacher – his voice of truth.

He said “I fear becoming a seventy-year-old man who does not know who he is when the books are out of print and the audiences are no longer applauding”

I am twenty years younger than Mr Palmer, but this sense of feeling lost and uncertain, especially in respect of my desire to move on to a more fulfilling work life and a more fulfilling intellectual and emotional life resonate strongly within me.

I have discovered, through the Integral Coaching development that I am undertaking, that I need to:-

• find my inner teacher and listen to the questions which emerge, and then
• find a place of safety to speak out these questions so that they are heard, and then
• continue my journey of living with the questions until such time as my inner teacher leads me to the answer.

My next blog will be:     Being Honest

William Defoe