January, 2005
What exactly is mentoring?
I was asked to open a yearly expose of the work but I was not to be the one running it.
Christa Lancaster was to be my mentee.
She was to do this. She was to be the spokesperson of the dream work which I was doing with clients one-to-one.
I was to mentor her.
Like I was mentored.
Exactly like that.
Part#1
How was I being mentored?
How was he teaching me? How was I to teach Christa.
The idea of being the all knowing master was out. THAT is why I was not to be the leader. NO figure head.
I learned from him because I listened. But I saw that this was difficult and I couldn't rely on others to hear what I heard. To be open deeply enough to hear without hearing.
HEAR WITHOUT HEARING!! Now that is a concept.
I am like a boy on a bike and I am peddling fast and hard but his hand is on the bike. I mean every second.
His hand is NEVER off the bike. I know this. I feel this. I hear him but I am peddling fast and I am not always thinking of him and sometimes I veer off…
But his hand is NEVER off the bike and I veer off and somehow I am always back on course…
I don't really know where I am going…
BUT I AM ALWAYS ON COURSE…
And if I really "blow it" I get it in a dream. I am always waiting to be shown but almost always I am on course.
His hand is always on the bike and he is always correcting me and showing me.
I don't know he is but his hand is always on the bike.
That is what I have to do with Christa. Let her run things and talk to her. Encourage her. Support her inner voice which fades and then is clear and fades… in her.
My hand is always on her bike. I am always guiding her bike and she doesn't know it.
She is scared and she thinks she is alone but my hand is always on her bike. Always.
Part# 2
Then there is Steve. She must guide his bike. I guide her bike as he is guiding mine and her hand is never off the bike.
Steve is peddling and doesn't know he is not alone, but her hand is never off his bike.
And now there are many.
On Nov 2003 NOE was born.
It was sextuplets.
They were Deb and Ellen and Sue.
They were Steve, Christa and soon Bill.
Six.
I mentored Christa and Christa mentored the others. Our hands were always on the bike.
His hands were on all of us.
My bike was loaded down but his hands were on the bike and I peddled fast and hard.
His hands were never off the bike.
Now the group has grown again and again and has spawned almost 30 of us.
The mentees are learning to mentor others and there hands are never off the bikes they help steer.
Part#3
Now it is time for the mentors (10 or so) to understand they are being mentored and a hand is always on there bilkes.
There leadership potential now depends on understanding this.
WE CAN NEVER JUST RUN OFF!!
But all children want to run and play. They may do this, but they are not teachers. They are students.
To understand that all the decisions that we THINK we make are really made by others is to BE obedient.
To be obedient is to be a teacher.
If I allows myself to be mentored even though I am peddling hard. If I allow the hand…
…on my bike…if I allow…
The I can make decisions that are already made. Then I can make choices but be corrected and peddle on.
Always veering off but being corrected and shown and seeing I am never the one seeing or steering. I am never the one, but I am peddling furiously and the wind is in my face and I am flying and it is me flying. IT IS ME!!
But I am always being corrected and supported and guided and never REALLY in charge.
Part#4
What is consensus to the mentee?
It is feeling the freedom to make choices.
The wind is in their faces.
But the choice is already made.
DO they know this or do they think the choice is there's.
Is his hand on their bikes? Do they know this?
Do they think they are steering?
What is consensus to me?
What are you to me.
I know I am not steering.
I need to help you to fly with abandon and then show you it is his hand.
Can you see the paradox.
Can you let others guide you that have recently come before…
Can you trust the other hands on your bike that you peddle so furiously…
Can you be frightened and hurt and alone and peddle furiously and know that the hand is on your bike…
IF YOU CAN, then you understand what CONSENSUS is!!
BUT IF YOU CAN'T then you will unknowingly fight the hand. If enough of us fight the hand there will be no more NOE.
NOE is nothing more then a group of us with the CONSENSUS that we are being guided by his hand as we furiously peddle into the future/ present…