Predawn Chorus: Wildness and Leadership

How unfamiliar I am with stillness when first leaving the office on retreat. How carefully constructed my busyness and the insisting voices of “should’a, would’a, could’a”.  As if the world will fall apart without my constant attention.

I’m on the wild and gorgeous Hawaiian island of Molokai with a land area of 260 square miles, Molokai 38 miles long and 10 miles wide. Yesterday we hiked to a point where we stood on one coast and easily saw the beach on the other cost 10 miles away!

This week I convened a Women’s Leadership Retreat at The Hui Ho’olana Retreat center. A diverse group, we hailed from corporate, nonprofit, and community leadership positions and learned together about the ways feminine wisdom flourishes in a caring circle of women peers.

This morning, sitting in the predawn chorus of raucous birds, I am spiraling into silence. Never dropping straight into silence, like a stone falling from the top of the well into the dark waters below, I spiral round and round into myself. I guess it’s to be expected. Letting go means first receiving rush after rush of unfelt, unloved, wobbly voices lurking below the daily press of doing.  Mixed memories confuse things, intermix ancient and recent times when I felt cut off, shut down, dismissed or even stretched into more happiness than I could easily digest. Part of me wants to run back into busyness.

Welcoming these wild strangers of memory takes courage. Yet, only by embracing them do they relax their stubborn grip. My heart yearns to soften. My belly hungers to fill with the richness of my creative soul. My desire to more completely own my place in the world grows more powerful than my fear.

Quiet surrender arises in the dawn. The good news is that below the excess really does lie authentic essence.

Gray light opens my view of Koa, palm, red earth, water, far off Lanai island. Wildness fills my soul.

Alive, I retrieve memories of this week, knowing only the moment when our eyes meet in mutual recognition, only the moment when you break open and speak your deepest fear, only the moment when you gasp to accept the joy, and only the moment when you become funny again.

All of us who are striving to lead from wisdom can benefit from regular doses of inspiration which is one of the reasons why I have developed the Next Octave Women’s Leadership Webinar. This proven 9Facet method shows women leaders, entrepreneurs and managers how to develop a more authentic and effective leadership style. We’ll also cover 4 steps into personal power that naturally overcome the 3 biggies: self-doubt, shrinking into smallness, or self-dismissal.

Looking for a expert in personal empowerment or organizational change? Contact Karen directly or see a video of Karen speaking directly to women leaders.