COMPLEMENTARITY
Have you ever met someone by following the flow of synchronicity and suddenly ‘just knew’ that you would know them for the rest of your life? This is exactly what happened to me when natural magic led me to Lorna Howarth, my lifetime(s) friend and co-author of our new book baby, The Soulistic Journey.
The back story
I had neared the end of drafting my first book Tough Bliss and was looking for a publisher who could help me to bring this into the world. One afternoon, as I mulled over whether to follow a traditional or self-publishing path, I happened to be looking at the bookshelf in my office and saw a friend’s book leap out at me. ‘Future Fit’ by Giles Hutchins had a large seed of life image on the cover which mimicked that of the cover image a friend had designed for especially for Tough Bliss. I reached out, opened the cover of his book and saw The Write Factor as the publisher. Intuitively, I picked up the phone and called Giles.
Wind the clock forwards by a week I found myself in Scotland, supporting a workshop from a retreat space that had little to no phone signal. Taking more than an hour, I rambled out into the wild landscapes from the centre to find a shred of signal with which to call Lorna. When I heard the warm voice that answered the phone, I knew that I was talking to a soul whom I recognised by the cellular shiver that went through me. After almost an hour of laughter, shock at how many of the same people we knew and the innate understanding that Lorna had for the material I was writing, the deal was done, and my book was born less than 6 months later.
The new story
Since then, Lorna and I have developed an exquisitely graceful collaborative working style that rests on the deep foundation of our soulful friendship. Not only are we very similar in some ways, (which makes co-creation and co-facilitation super easy), we are also intensely different in others which means that we bring healthy levels of challenge and a difference in perspective into our creations.
As we will be speaking about in future videos and The Soulistic Journey Mentoring Journey (which is due to launch on the Spring Equinox), neither of us expected the process we went through to design, write and birth The Soulistic Journey.
As I often say of these storyhacks, “I don’t know what I am going to write until I sit down at my laptop and put my fingers to the keyboard”. Whilst this is disconcerting enough a process to get used to for a short article, writing like this for a whole book and journey of transformation is another level.
Both Lorna and I had to undertake the entire journey we write about in the book ourselves several times so that we could embody it in our own ways. It was only then that we could weave our experiences together into a narrative that was concrete enough to act as a guide but lose enough to facilitate a unique invitation for each person who embarks on it to travel their own way.
No mean feat I can tell you!
There were times when we would ‘rip up’ whole sections of the text because it wasn’t ‘real enough’ for us’.
There were others where one or the both of us would wake up in the middle of the night and write pages and pages because they were ‘just coming through’.
The archetypal story
The Soulistic Archetypes that feature in each month of the book are characters that came to us in the form of drawn symbols initially. Symbols that we then invited story and persona to clothe and weave around over a period of months as we sat with them, dialogued with them and walked with them in our lives.
This was a creative process that pushed both of our boundaries as writers and as adventurers of life. One that has changed us from the inside out forever.
One of January’s primary archetypes is that of Complementarity. A strange word and one that didn’t make sense to either Lorna or I when it came through from her Lunar symbol. But one that has deepened for me as I reflect on the amazing friendship and creative partnership that Lorna and I share.
We complement each other.
And not because we are the same.
Because we are diverse and different but trust each other’s perspective as one aspect of the whole.
Our uniqueness adds to the other and brings a richness through challenge and grace that helps us both to grow and evolve.
You may wish to contemplate the wisdom of complementarity in your own life.
“You are emerging from below into the light, as the final weeks of Winter. Open your eyes and look around you; see how, despite the cold, there is enough warmth and daylight for life to reappear in all its glorious diversity. There is Complementarity between the light and the dark that is divinely whole. There is Complementarity between Winter and Spring that allows for growth. Without one, there could not be the other. Mystery may fill your heart with hopes and fears, but Complementarity distils them into choice. What choices are showing up for you right now? Can you see their new shoots arising?
Complementarity often shows her face in opposites and contradictions, but what may seem paradoxical is actually at the very heart of wisdom. What is Wisdom whispering to you as your energy begins to flow in this turning of the year? Paradox may also show you a mirror image of yourself; you may find yourself judging a friend for their actions and then realise that you do the same thing yourself. Always, when we judge others, we are judging ourselves. The gift of paradox is clarity, though it takes a degree of playful enquiry to see through oppositional energies. In truth, we are all mirrors of each other and are therefore able to remind each other when we have strayed off the path of our true destiny”.
Extract from The Soulistic Journey
Your story
How do others mirror back to you your own inherent creativity?
With whom are your most fruitful collaborations?
Why?
These are likely your ‘Soulistic companions’ on the adventure through life.
Cherish them.
Trust them.
Love them.
For these ones are special.
