This listserve seems like a smouldering bonfire, you think its gone out
but it just takes someone to toss in a few twigs and the flames start
off again - wonderful.
Last week we had the first meeting of a fledging local reflective
practice group, eight people - health visitors, counsellors,
psychologists and GPs. This came out of my meetings with a counsellor
who acted as my mentor as I prepared a reflective narrative portfolio as
part of a further degree. It is only when I stopped and thought and told
the stories of my everyday work that I realised the complex patterns,
history and interconnenctions we as GPs carry in our heads. And then my
mentor said "and what about your narrative?"
Scary stuff when you've been plodding on more or less alone for the past
25 years but hugely helpful for me and seemingly interesting and
worthwhile for my mentor too. So the reflective practice group was born.
We have decided to record the story of the group as a collaborative
diary in which we all share.
Who knows where this will go, but the journey should be fun.
Charles CS
Dr Charles Campion-Smith
38 Prince of Wales Road
Dorchester
Dorset
DT1 1PW
01305 251755
James Willis wrote:
> Thank you, Boyd
> James
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> *From:* Boyd Rodger <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
> *To:* James Willis <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
> *Sent:* Friday, March 05, 2004 1:03 PM
> *Subject:* Complexity, poetry and stories.
>
> In response to the recent e-mail from Rakesh Biswas on poetry and
> the complexity networks of entire forests, I was moved to consider
> a poem in David Whyte’s book, “The Heart Aroused”. The poem is
> about the advice of a Native American elder. It’s a story handed
> down throughout generations and answers the question of a young
> boy or girl, “What should I do if I am lost in the forest?”
>
> _Lost___
>
> Stand still. The trees ahead and bushes beside you
>
> Are not lost. Wherever you are is called Here,
>
> And you must treat it as a powerful stranger,
>
> Must ask permission to know it and be known.
>
> The forest breathes. Listen. It answers,
>
> I have made this place around you,
>
> If you leave it you may never come back again, saying Here.
>
> No two trees are the same to Raven.
>
> No two branches are the same to Wren.
>
> If what a tree or bush does is lost on you,
>
> You are surely lost. Stand still. The forest knows
>
> Where you are. You must let it find you.
>
> The experience of being lost in the complexity of our world or
> organization requires us to similarly “Stand still” and not rely
> on the false confidence of expertise. That does not mean we are
> passive. Instead, as participants we look at and respond to the
> details surrounding us, “No two trees are the same to Raven.”
>
> My own efforts at understanding the creative possibilities of
> ordinary conversations in a busy hospital, are recorded on my
> website www.learningecology.co.uk
> <http://www.learningecology.co.uk/> In the section entitled “a
> live story”, I write stories each month about my experience of
> working in a current project aimed at helping improve their
> outpatients service.
>
> Often consultants tell narratives of their work that have
> structures of beginnings, middles and ends. This can unwittingly
> infer a linear causal relationship between their intervention and
> the result. Telling stories as you experience events, instead,
> focuses on the non-linear dynamics of everyday talk where results
> are emergent.
>
> I feel exposed and vulnerable in writing this e-mail. This is my
> forest. Its about an experiential journey of understanding
> leadership and my work not by going to a conference, but through
> reflecting on the web of relationships that shape me and are
> shaped by me – an ecology of diverse conversations. I hope it can
> be relevant to you too.
>
> Regards,
>
> Boyd Rodger
>
> Tel +44 (0)1869-321242
>
> mob +44 (0)7941-220058
>
> e-mail: [log in to unmask]
>
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