The Bridge of Transformation
Visionmaking is the art and craft of walking the bridge between the present and the future. Like anything else worth doing, Visionmaking requires discipline, practice and skill.
Many people find the journey into the future challenging. It requires that we hold the creative tension required to depart from the comfort of the status quo into the wilderness of new experience. Creative tension is the stretching that is required to hold the present circumstances and possibilities in the future simultaneously.
When this stretching occurs- and we are able to hold both time frames simultaneously – the bridge to the future appears. Walking that bridge requires courage, self-trust and resiliency. Walking that bridge, we will be tested and initiated.
The tests we meet as we focus our vision on navigating the journey of transformation into the future comes in the form of paradox, ambiguity, confusion, chaos and other obstructions and challenges. We must demonstrate that we are capable and resourceful in overcoming these challenges so that we continue to advance, grow and learn from the passage.
These initiatory rites of passage are not meant as afflictions. On the contrary, they are meant to challenge us to grow.
Many of us can't stand the pains associated with growing. We prefer the sedate life of predictability and repetitive experience. We believe falsely that through knowability comes mastery. Of course, this notion is based in flawed reasoning. All repetitive experiences provide is an opportunity to refine our strategies... and grow bored.
It is only by turning away from the status quo of our own experience that we can expect to grow and change, to transform through an encounter with our own potential.
That is what the future provides - a space in time for transformation. This is the Visionmaker's quest. To learn to walk the bridge of transformation from our current circumstances to a preferred future, one that allows us to experience the thrill of living.
What we discover on the journey is that which we pursued – a possibility made manifest – we have become.
© Patrick O’Neill 2009. All rights reserved.