As I look back at my journey, I see that at times the choice to keep it simple worked out for the best, and at other times simple was a regression. When I stuck with simple love and kindness it generally served me. When my head would run out of avenues to pursue, when I was on the edge of my understanding, which was often and still happens, I eventually learned to breathe deep, feel my heart, and let the intellectual work go. Most of us have acquired the wisdom not to use our heads always. It can be the wrong capacity for the challenge or opportunity we face. As Carl Jung said, when the intellect is not being used in service of the wholeness of life, when it is serving on our small goals to acquire or succeed, the intellect can be the devil.
Conversely, when I have used simplicity as an excuse to block out the big questions, in order to be lazy and fit into the world or coast, I was often headed for a minor disaster.
So what are you up to now—good balance, too much simplicity, or too much intellectual complexification? At work and at home, what are you facing that takes discernment of head and engagement of heart? This balance is what our leaders owe us if they are to be our leaders—a balance. The balance between enough thinking sophistication to move us ahead in our governments, schools and businesses, and enough heart and empathy that whatever brilliance is engaged, the our empathy protects the good of the whole.
Photo credit: Creative Commons License: Attribution, Noncommercial. Some rights reserved by Wade Morgen