THE SOUND OF THE GENUINE

E S P í R I T U ?

THE HORSE GUY?

Coaching with Horses?

Story #101

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LISTENING FOR THE SOUND OF THE GENUINE

Black theologian and a mentor of Martin Luther King, Howard Thurman (1900-1981) once wrote, “There is something in each one of us that waits and listens for the sound of the genuine; it’s the only true guide you’ll ever have.” In the midst of all the other noises and demands of the day he encouraged us to “Keep quiet long enough to hear the sound of the genuine within yourself so you can hear it in other people too.”

I never took a course in listening for the genuine, finding what’s real. It would have been helpful years ago when the need was great but the readiness was missing. Absent the genuine, I followed the path many in western nations follow. I searched for the genuine out there in work and career, in accumulation of wealth and status, in the mastery of certain subjects and the acceptance of important others. Posturing to look brilliant was as close as I could get to the genuine. Graduate business school took me further away.

This path, with the weight of social conditioning and expectations, is driven by its own life force even though it is inherently dangerous. Out there everything is in flux, changing. It does not ‘…hold the stillness exactly before us.’ Only the inner world can do this.

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…You and I can turn and look

at the silent river and wait. We know

the current is there, hidden; and there

are comings and goings from miles away

that hold the stillness exactly before us.

What the river says, that is what I say.

( From ‘Ask Me’, William Stafford )

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I have a photo of my mother, sitting on her Harley, while on a road trip with a friend in 1937. The photo captures something genuine about this woman, a willingness to go her own way and live the one life she was given. She comes to mind now because the genuine is not an idea or a concept but most often a felt sense that something is vital and real. It evokes something real in us for reasons we may not immediately understand.?

We just know we have to listen and respond.

Outside my window the wild flowers, trees and shrubs all reach for the sun. They are united by an innate urge to full growth and expansion. No one has to remind them. When I stumble upon and hear the the sound of the genuine it points me towards my full growth. It always awakens what James Hillman calls the soul’s code, that pre-ordained blue print and deep knowing in each of us about who we are and what we are here to do.

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I left corporate American over 30 years ago to begin my private practice as an executive coach and organizational consultant. I knew instantly it was time to leave when a Winter storm blew down a large pine tree in our yard. It fell straight and true between our house and a neighbor’s. When I heard the words ‘straight and true’ I knew I could not remain in my job and stay true to who I was. I resigned the next day.___________________________________________________________________

Today I spend my days in two ways. I continue coaching leaders and their teams to become more effective in their work and relationships with each other. I also work with people at our horse ranch, assisting them to step more fully into their full and authentic expression. The most amazing discovery I have made is —

Horses only know how to listen for the genuine. They immediately sense how near or far away we are from the genuine. In ways that remain a mystery, they evoke the genuine in us and awaken a desire to move more deliberately toward it.

To be a partner with horses in this work is a sacred calling. I hear the sound of the genuine. This is enough.

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E S P I R I T U

www.espírituhorse.com