Continuing professional development through short courses, clinical supervision and groups
Life is such a patchwork of experience. There are moments of great happiness and, regretfully, dark moments too that bring fear and even hopelessness, and much of the rest is simply ordinary. For many, their happy moments are spoilt by the anxiety that they will lose the joy that they hang on to, and in that clinging they of course do. In the dark moments which seem endless it is so easy to believe that we will never emerge and our hearts will never be light again, and some give up the will before it ends. Even in those many ordinary moments many will chafe that life is boring or uninteresting and long for a bit of excitement. In their restlessness they miss the beauty and wonder of what is.
Wandering around one of our lovely Leeds parks I was struck by how autumnal everything looks – the leaves turning brown, the flowers dying away, a damp chill breeze blowing and the heavy rain clouds casting a gloomy shadow over everything. As I passed one area of grass I remembered a moment in the early spring where that particular spot was filled with the dancing yellow heads of dwarf narcissus, daffodils. I remembered too the hint of warmth and the promise of summer, the rising of my spirits and the promise of new things, new life, new experiences. Yet as I stood there was not a single sign of any of those things; no daffodils, no new life, no brightness in the light and the trees and bushes letting go of their summer dressing in a flutter of brown, faded green leaves.
It occurred to me that in this cycle of life it is so easy to believe that that moment was, and is no longer part of life. It was so hard to hold on to those dancing yellow heads on that spring day. This is not surprising because as I looked around me there was not a single thing that indicated that that moment ever existed. None of the old grass, tufted and uncut, showed a single sign of the thousands of flowers whose bulbs lay beneath the soil.
Perhaps the positive encouragement of living in the moment needs to encompass the awareness that what was, and what will be again, is also part of now. Even though there may be no sign of promise and hope, of any newness and even of any life, it is there, around the corner, though still out of sight.
Joy and Sorrow (The Prophet – Kahlil Gibran)
“Your joy is your sorrow unmasked.
And the selfsame well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears.
And how else can it be?
The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.
Is not the cup that holds your wine the very cup that was burned in the potter’s oven?
And is not the lute that soothes your spirit, the very wood that was hollowed with knives?
When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy.
When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.
Some of you say, “Joy is greater than sorrow,” and others say, “Nay, sorrow is the greater.”
But I say unto you, they are inseparable.
Together they come, and when one sits alone with you at your board, remember that the other is asleep upon your bed.”