Blog by Susan K Furness, Senior Edgewalker Associate
Giving Integrity Its Chance To Dance
I like it when things are in harmony, and display balance, and that two dance the Tango, and colours match because I like the notion of togetherness and even oneness. I like this notion so much that I find comfort in pairs and even pairs of pairs forming a collective. Common unity for community, that’s me.
Pairs of words fuel my sense of togetherness. Like Ham and Eggs, Bucket and Spade, Swings and Roundabouts, Love and Marriage, Dark and Light. I could pair on and on in this line up of positively positive pairings. But it’s the word Integrity that is under my spotlight today. And I don’t feel good. In fact I immediately feel right off balance.
It’s strange as I think I should like the word integrity because it suggests ‘talking in’ as in the ‘inte’ bit. Plus, it suggests we can be gritty, as in the ‘grity’ bit.
But the word Integrity causes me to squirm.
I know why this is. It is because integrity is a tall order in a world where the next moment is unknown, let alone the knowing of next week, next month or next year. I fear that not knowing places a strain on integrity, and under such stress integrity can be tempted to defer to lip service, instead of its birth partners, honour and trust.
And here lies a golden opportunity.
In these mature stages DC (during corona) as we still have the chance to prepare for AC (after corona), life calls for new set of sets, not the ‘same-old’ of BC (before corona). If we are awake to listen, we are invited to re-imagine, re-purpose and re-start.
This includes re-visiting individual values that guide behaviour and ways of being. It’s been widely proven that values manifest as actions. And our actions result in what each bring to the world.
Now my attention is stoked.
I am excited about integrity and its guiding role in the new realm, especially when acts of integrity include letting go of things, traits, habits and stuff that just does not serve any more.
As these curious corona times linger, we still have time to pack luggage not baggage for AC. The rather long ‘pause’ of DC is enabling a rest on the edge – the quiet time to talk in before we are again called to talk out.
In the book Edgewalkers, Dr Judi Neal names Integrity as one of the five Edgewalker Qualities of Being. Here is how she defines it : A commitment to live in alignment with your core values, to align your words and your behavior, and to keep your word.
We each have the chance to re-pair, re-align and re-set.
So, let’s take it.
Let’s press re-set and dance a new dance with integrity in honour of our role in igniting a world that calls for common sense to nourish common purpose to ensure common good – of love, of prosperity and of peace.
