Hiraeth: My Welsh friends have a word that describes ‘a mixture of longing, yearning, nostalgia, wistfulness or an earnest desire for the Wales of the past’. Not my quote, as I would not attempt to describe this feeling from the Welsh.
Having been away in London this week I marvelled at the lights, the congestion, the energy of the young leaving work full of chatter and plans for the evening. The pace of a city and I am a city born girl, so this energy resonates with so many parts of me. So many people focused on the arrivals and departures board at Paddington station, mindfully awaiting the arrival of their often-delayed train and then the sudden mindless collective surge as the board directs them to the platform and their train.
And then I was home, to my adopted environment, to the light of a moon and stars in my ‘favourite kind of blue sky’, a manic Labrador that had missed me and a very calm husband, struggling to the car, to help me with my bags. Home: where the house wrapped itself around me and I changed my internal state, promising myself a kind day, an ‘anything I feel like doing’ day tomorrow.
What I did realise is that the external does not give me that feeling of hiraeth. For me the habit of knowing that wherever I am there is a shadow part of me that can be brought to the fore and belong. I am no one thing but the product of all my experiences, the people I have met and the heartache and joy I have ever felt. That comforts me and hopefully comforts you, too. During my coaching sessions I often help truly wonderful and vulnerable professionals focus withing. To their natural energies, talents and gifts all brought together in a human experience. Unique, often undiscovered, but most definitely there.
My questions for reflection this month?
- What do you consider to be your value to the organisation, the team, this day?
- If you are sheltering that uniqueness, how might you take yourself 1% closer to communicating it so that both you and others benefit?
