A very warm welcome to the third in our series of brief conversations and blog posts exploring the notion of wisdom in the 2020s!
Hosted by the Primrose Hill Golden Civilisation Conversation community, we have taken the following motif to guide our exploration.
‘What might we ask most of our wisdom in these challenging times? As individuals, as families, as communities, as organisations, as society more broadly?’
Hard on the heels of Alison Hogan exploring the notion of ‘Dwelling in the Empty Space of ‘not knowing’, please tune in now to Adam Wells bringing alive for you ‘The Wisdom of the Camino de Santiago’ – a perfect companion on the notion of liminal space, since the Camino is nothing if not a liminal space.
A Camino mentor, Adam talks about the inner pilgrimage of the 500 mile Camino trail through Northern Spain to Santiago de Compostela, ‘a powerful catalyst for changing our personal narrative’. He tells several stories about other walkers, and draws on his own recent personal transformational journey, bookended by his own walks of the trail in 2011 and 2019. At the core of his depiction lies the notion of the Hero’s Journey - moving through the stages of Hell, Death and Creativity; using our wisdom and inner resourcefulness to find a way through suffering; carrying the joint call of ‘The Seeker’ and ‘The Provider’; and emerging renewed.
Framing the current COVID-19 crisis as a giant liminal journey for humanity - he hazards that, right now, we are probably no further than day 2 on the Camino trail! – Adam offers a number of reflections from the wisdom of the Camino to guide our aspirations to live and lead wisely in current times, including:
Accepting and respecting the current reality that confronts us
Taking the perspective of a journey, a long walk through different stages, ‘staying and going with it’
Being thoroughly mindful in all the uncertainty, embracing the present moment each and every day
Exercising our muscle of trust in self and others, stepping in to whatever community surrounds us at any particular time, offering and accepting help and succour, riding the serendipity of what emerges
Adopting a spirit of patience, allowing the new to emerge and take hold of us
Wonderful Adam, just great to be on the journey with you and I am sure that our readers and listeners will wholeheartedly agree! Please do connect with Adam at adam@adamwells.com; +44 (0)774 7698785; www.adamwells.com. Adam has also written about his journey on the Kinder Institute blog.
Next conversation in a couple of weeks’ time! Many thanks to all who are listening and reading – and please take care.
Julian
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