A place* called Way Beyond or What I walked to get here
Since I remember (being invited to) think about the future of things and creatures, I would be around the age of majority, but I was, as I still am, far from the majority, the answer, I believe never verbalized, but wandering through my mind, whenever I was struck by the curiosity of others, in the form of "what do you want to be when you grow up?" was, without blinking, "many things!".
“Não haveria criatividade sem a curiosidade que nos move e que nos põe pacientemente impacientes diante do mundo que não fizemos, acrescentando-lhe algo que fazemos.”
A few years later, when I started to make serious decisions about life paths, professional and otherwise, I found myself feeling happy in advance with the "refinement" of my retort, which became, by then already popping out of my head for a few, scarce, conversations: "I want to do beautiful things that change people's lives".
I ended up walking several paths, along which I learned a lot from the beautiful things that others gave me to breathe. And I believe that a handful of people will have received from me beauty and importance in acting, that something will have sown in their days.
At a certain point in my already long journey, my own desire to "change my life" began to reveal itself, slowly, sometimes, perhaps, without my paying due attention to it; I think that the first time I whispered it in my ear must have happened, curiously or not, after my coming to Coimbra, in fact, my return to the city where I was born, 27 years after the first time I raised anchor off the Mondego and took my biography to sail on other shores.
“The ability to perceive or think differently is more important than the knowledge gained.”
I felt that my existence was beginning to empty itself of me and the return to my origins injected me with a powerful and irrepressible urgency to do something, so as not to stop being who I am.
I really wanted to stop. To rest. To stop and rest. And quietly, in repose of soul and body, to breathe the world outside and inside and think, think a lot, think well, about what I would like to do and could do with my inner heritage. I wanted to suspend the world and, slowly, listen to myself and look at my viscera, blood, bone and flesh, through the eyes of my brain and heart, feeling with the urgency of lucidity, the territory that I am and that I want to travel.
In the meantime, an ill-fated pandemic happened. I took advantage of the slowdown of the world, the dear suspension. I listened to myself, I scrutinized myself, I went from side to side. I became immersed in my own questions: Why do we exist? What do we want to exist for? What can I do and what do I want to do that (e)takes me beyond myself and brings me closer to others? After all, what do I have to add to the lives of others and how could I do it?
I seemed to realize, at a certain point, the importance of trying to work in a scenario that contained the following general assumptions:
the usual 1: feel passion and believe in what I do;
the usual 2: work more with people and less with machines, on something that makes sense for them and for me;
participate in the development/transformation of individuals and collectives;
strike a balance between the various dimensions of my life;
to contribute my qualities, skills, knowledge and experience to the fullest extent to the development of new projects with which I may wish to become involved;
integrate a context of professional relationships structured around: mutual learning, complicity, delicacy, understanding, tolerance, empathy, coherence, energy, poetry, cooperation, truth.
“Work can and should be a place for passion, growth, and meaning. A place where you can develop your skills and talents and contribute to something you truly believe in.”
And what scenario would that be?
I came up with two or three hypotheses that could encompass everything I just wrote and that would be very worth exploring, but there was one that stood out, perhaps because it has been flying over me for some time: do a coaching training!
After a series of virtual forays in search of Portuguese companies offering certified training in this area, I discovered Way Beyond.... I dived again and again into their website, explored it, delighted, from thread to wick, thinking somewhat incredulously: "This is exactly it and it couldn't be better! And it's not just coaching, it's many things, it's all things!".
From there until I was following the challenge I discovered on one of the pages: "let's talk?", it was a snap! And then followed some long and very good exchanges of ideas, during which Way Beyond and I got to know each other a little better and which led to my attending the Introductory and Advanced WBCC classes...
Challenged, at some point during this remarkable journey, to imagine myself in a more or less near future, I envisioned myself involved in training / facilitation / capacity building / mentoring projects, whose matrix would be collaborative and participatory processes of individual and collective transformation and development. All this, in a formidable and serene equilibrium-equilibrium of functional, creative and constructive interdependence.
In that same future, I would from time to time plan a trip to a place farther away than usual, to experience wonder again, to open my eyes even wider to new and old novelties, to collect beauty, to add knowledge about others and about things, and to look at myself again from a different vantage point, adding knowledge about myself as well.... I would continue to be enchanted by both the sun and the rain and believe in the possibility of all flowers. I would continue to be in love with life. Always wanting to go further. Without haste. No fear. With eyes bright with enthusiasm. Never losing sight of my substance.
And isn't it that part of my glimpse has materialized? The only thing missing is the trip to that faraway place, in the literal sense!
To find myself where I am, I went through several situations of impasse and complex choices, involving decisions that would place me in almost antagonistic life scenarios, some of which would perpetuate models, for me, somewhat imprisoning, in which I did not want to remain, and others would allow me to continue my search for greater freedom and autonomy, towards places where I would feel both stimulated and stimulating, in continuous and multiple learning, preferably inspired by the dimensions of philosophical thought and language, around the production, renewal and sharing of knowledge. Always with time to think. And also for not thinking.
Over the past year, that place has been, very fortunately, Way Beyond.
Here, among countless other gems, I realized the importance of provoking the awakening of consciousness and reflection on what we want and can change, invariably starting from the intention with which we do it.
Above all, I have relearned that, as in music, one must listen before speaking, controlling the impulse to strike a treble clef. That is, as they say, the other. Rather, discover it, find it, welcome it. And vice versa. And vice versa. Thus building, perhaps, the beginning of a symphony. Which is, as they say, a conversation.
And is there anything more beautiful and life-changing than a good conversation?
*this idea of place entirely dispenses with any association with the concept of territorial boundaries
