Wake up! We’ve got a job to do!

Editor’s Note: For two weeks the Transforum will be filled with personal experiences from participants in the Co-active Summit. Up first is Emma LeFevre, a CPCC from Somerset UK who came to coaching after a career in teaching and is committed to playing full out.

There is a story to be told. And its so big and so vast I don’t know where to begin! So just begin. On Saturday morning I went out to my balcony to take in the beautiful view of the beach and sea and palm trees, and to stir my body into action for the last day of the First Global Co-active Summit in Florida. Then, suddenly a crow landed on my balcony and started speaking to me. This was very powerful because I am very fond of animal medicine! The crow spoke to me and then it turned round 360 degrees and spoke to the world.

This artwork “Roundtable Discussion – Crows” was created by painter Marion Rose.

I was still brimming with excitement about the crow when I saw Henry Kimsey-House. I told him what I’d seen. He asked “well, what did he say?” And because the little girl inside thinks that ‘Daddy’ has the answer, someone else is the expert, someone else knows better than me… I asked if he could help me. “No” came the reply. The crow that came and landed on my balcony not one metre from me and spoke to me said “Wake up.” ”Wake up.” Henry said “that’s pretty cool, that a crow came and said wake up to someone who is already awake.”

The message of the first morning at the Summit was that we as a co-active community of 35,000 trained coaches and leaders, have a job to do. Humanity has a job to do. And the process they designed was a navigation of this journey. Each one of us human beings is a piece of a puzzle, we have our own part to play, we are all part of the whole. Without every piece the puzzle is not whole. The amazing thing about a process like this is that everyone will get what they need, and everyone’s learning will be different. This is my journey as I navigated the Summit!

We started with Compass: Where are you now? How do you view the other? What is the shadow that governs you? For me I had a haunting realization that I was judge and critic, with a strong intolerance of victim. And from that I realized that I had a fear of embracing the victim within me. I also have an intolerance of those who dominate, and yet there is a huge part of me that wants to control. If when we pause and look at that unpleasant energy that sits within it is really very uncomfortable. There is a huge state of chaos within me that I am creating in the world outside. I am also the we. What would it really take to love the other? What would it take to love the other within?

The following day we took The Ascent: the long uphill climb to reach the Summit. I woke up in fear because I had chosen to challenge myself to a physical embodiment of the process. We were going to do a workshop: Coaching That Moves You. I had seen the preview video and I wasn’t convinced my body would hold out…  Fear, is the thing that holds me back, fear that I am not enough, fear that I will die, fear sits at the pit of my stomach around my heart and solar plexus. With high blood pressure, and a string of ancestors who have died from brain haemorrhages or strokes, it is a valid fear… And yet whilst I live in fear, I am only getting half way there. What would it take for me to feel the fear and work through it… what is on the other side of fear? We had been working really hard in this spinning session, and I was on the brink of saying enough is enough… and then the Instructor said that we were half way there. I felt sick inside… he asked the group is this where you usually quit? Half way? Yes I thought… I don’t usually even get halfway!! So I drove my body on and as I did I experienced this incredible opening… my heart opened through the fear. Tears of humbleness, of awe, of love for myself, just kept flowing down my face. The other side of my fear was space.

The final pathway was The Leap. We must do the work on the inside, to heal the me. But there is a bigger picture of the world. A world that is currently on a trajectory that is unsustainable. So in the afternoon we looked at the voice of the Elder. What is the voice within that transcends the chaos, what is the voice of wisdom? And when you find that voice, how do you hold a space for all the other voices in our world to be listened to? As an observer of the angry views that were coming out about issues facing our world in this workshop I wanted to leave, I was judge and jury, and very, very uncomfortable with the mess that was created. All those angry voices, weren’t we supposed to be looking for the Elder? And yet the leaders of this workshop held a space where all the voices could be heard. Can you imagine a world where we started to listen to each other? What would emerge from the chaos if we did?

As is often the case, the real work that happens, happens in the time in between. My friend came out from this session, overwhelmed with love for all the people there. I came out in my observant role, judge and critic. We went for a long walk along the beach. I felt resentful that he could feel love and I felt horrible. What did I need to let go of? All this bitterness inside… Aren’t I doing what I should be? Why is it so hard for me to feel love? We got half way on the walk and took a break, and climbed some rocks. I looked out to sea and there just in front of me were two dolphins… they were playing and leaping! Suddenly I felt that I was HELD. I was held in this huge container of love that is big enough to hold everything. It can even hold my shit!

This is such a simplification of the story of the pathways… and perhaps the most important bit is yet to be told. As a community, we have made a commitment to take a stand. However, this story doesn’t end there because yesterday on my balcony when I was preparing to leave, three crows came and spoke to me. I looked at them astonished. First one, then three? Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!