Evan Renaerts

Living Language

February 6, 2008

It is trying to snow again, or rain, no clear decision yet. Yesterday ended with a bright band of light all around the horizon and towering dark clouds above – witness the dance of spring and winter on the West coast of Canada – first one leads and then the other.

Once again I am noticing the power of our language and our speaking in shaping the world that we experience. Weather is a great example; for one person a heavy rain is like a personal affront, while the person standing beside them is all smiles, loving a “good” rainfall.

More and more the world’s leading minds agree that we are continuously creating the world we find ourselves in. One way it’s been said is, “We don’t describe the world we see; we see the world we describe.” In other words, we see what we expect to see.

Anyone who has worked with groups and organizations will have heard people say, “We always do it that way,” or “Nothing ever changes.” Just imagine the limited reality and range of possibility in those statements.

What the so called “new science” is pointing out is that life is an open system and in open systems everything is possible. In open systems, seemingly predictable networks of elements can give rise to unpredictable and unforeseen new entities with new properties. This is at direct odds with the old “clockworks” view of life, reality and the world where everything occurred in a predictable sequence of cause and effect.

What’s really exciting about all of this is that we humans are also open systems (part of and inseparable from the bigger system) and this means that we too are capable of unforeseen, unpredictable change. The limits to that change are the ones that we ourselves impose through our deepest beliefs about the nature of reality and life.

This can sound abstract and moderately interesting until one really “gets” that their life is proscribed by what they say about themselves and about life. If we say I will never accomplish or I can’t do (whatever it is) because of – and then we insert our current list of reasons – the chances are that we will prove ourselves to be right.

Somewhere I saw the phrase, re-imagine the world, and it struck a cord. What is the story that we tell ourselves about life? How much is it based on history – ours, our parent’s, or that of our country? What “truths” have we taken as our own without ever questioning them? Most importantly, what is the story we would tell if we knew for certain that we were describing our own lives?

It is time for new stories, stories of possibility and wonder. What we need today are stories of inclusivity and relationship, stories that transcend separateness. We need stories that proclaim a future worth living into and at the same time hold open a generous space for all of life’s mystery, all that we do not know.

Today we need stories that are filled with choice and action and surrender so that we both move and remain guided in our movement.

Evan Renaerts
604 314 0835
evan@evanrenaerts.com