Vocatus atque non vocatus, Deus aderit...

As summer comes to an end in the Gulf, so concludes what has become a fairly predictable pattern of my existence. Summers in the academic world provide opportunities to escape mandatory work-related reading in order to explore more personally-related topics. Each summer I try to dig into something new in my reading that broadens my view of life, work, or just the journey of being. This summer was no different (except that summers for me are now a bit longer and hotter) and I've had a phenomenal awakening that has been stimulated by four books - Gates of the Sun (Khoury), Einstein's Violin (Eger), Integral Spirituality (Wilber), and Synchronicity (Jaworski). I had no clue how these four books would relate when I picked them up thinking there was no relationship - what a fool! They turned out to be deeply related, creating what Jaworski refers to as a predictable miracle in my life experience.

Earlier posts commented on Gates of the Sun and Einstein's Violin. I never commented on Integral Spirituality because I couldn't figure out what to say without becoming so complex and unfocused that it would be distracting. Having finished rereading Synchronicity today (I read it several years ago and put it away afterward.), I now see the relationship and it has to do with the title of this post - Vocatus atque non vocatus, Deus aderit.

Khoury is Palestinian and wrote cogently of the wrongs perpetrated on Palestinians from 1951 forward. Eger is a Jewish American who was awakened to a new perspective of the world when he visited Israel, Jordan and Palestine in the 1970s. I'm not sure how to describe Wilber other than a person who is having an enormous influence on many around the world through his integral theory ideas. Ultimately, Integral Spirituality is about his views that the world's religions are holding humanity back from a transformation of the human condition. An "integral spirituality" could make a place for all faith perspectives, could allow each of us to find meaning in our own cultural contexts, and could transform the warring and devastation we presently experience.

Integral Spirituality is complex and difficult reading. There are many times that my understanding simply could not grasp all the details and the evidence that Wilber quoted. But, the meaning that I drew from Wilber's perspective is what Jaworski described in Synchronicity. In life's journey we can either stumble through oblivious to our surroundings or we can allow ourselves to awaken to what's going on around us, thus unleashing that part of everyone one of us that wants to make a difference. Once awakened, we act in ways that are initially timid but then become more and more present and courageous. When that deep sense of presence is embraced, the great synchronicity of our conviction begins to interact with others and creates possibilities we never dreamed achievable.

The point of discovering purpose is profoundly practical and, if you want proof, talk to someone who has discovered their deep calling. This kind of calling is unavoidable, concrete, and transformational. When this depth of knowing emerges, it then connects to what Jaworksi and Senge describe as the implicate order which is the interconnected world that unfolds to us when we are ready.

I am deeply indebted to Jaworski for many of his ideas. I have to admit that I'm more than a little embarrassed that many of the ideas I propose in Deeper Learning in Leadership are very related to those Jaworski introduces in Synchronicity. I don't know what happened but somehow the consciousness of the connections just wasn't there. I referenced Jaworski but not in the ways I wish I had. As I finished rereading Synchronicity this afternoon, I was brought to tears as I realized the power we have within us and as we connect with others who are similarly awakened to more integral, inclusive, and transformational ideas. I also realized that at certain times in my career I "woke up behind enemy lines" (a very powerful Jaworski analogy) when I lost sight of the goals that I held dear. I guess it doesn't really matter when we awaken to our deeper potential . In fact, if we're truly alive, the potential is constantly being awakened within us. In this place in Qatar and with the opportunity I've been given here, truly Vocatus atque non vocatus, Deus aderit - translated from its original Latin, "Invoked or not invoked, God is present."