In my last newsletter, I said I would explain its newly minted name ‘The Holon’, so here it goes. If you go outside on a clear night and look up, you’ll see a myriad of twinkling lights, dark spaces, and shifting colours. With the help of a telescope, you’d see into the intimacy of our solar system, a beautifully organized theatre showcasing the diversity and interconnectedness of celestial objects- a sun – a ball of boiling, heaving energy that holds our whole solar system together, planets, moons, comets, asteroids and mysterious things that have not yet revealed their secrets. A system of immense size (the edge of our solar system is so far away that it takes light from the Sun thousands of years to reach it) yet it moves and dances in cosmic harmony. Going from the vast to the personal – what happens when you nick your skin? Chances are, a few droplets of blood trickle out of the wound, varying in colour from bright cherry to dark brick red. What you don’t see in these droplets with the naked eye is the multitude of complex components that carry out critical functions for the body- red and white blood cells, platelets, and all the cellular components and dissolved substances that make up the plasma. Had these droplets not left your body, they would have travelled merrily through a vast network of blood vessels, communicating with an even vaster network of other cells, tissue and organs. An infinitely complex system that, at its best, interacts in (mostly silent) synergy. These two examples illustrate the wonder of systems, the dance between the countless things in existence. Each ‘thing’ is an entity that is simultaneously whole within itself and a part of larger and larger systems….think of the cell I just described or a planet in the solar system. This entity is called a holon (A. Koestler). A holon has a dual role as a whole and a part, each informing, influencing and co-creating others in wider and wider circles, building a web of life so intricately interconnected that its facets can never be fully known. Teacher of complex living systems Nora Bateson says: ‘Finding where exactly the outside world ends and I begin—is not so easy’. Zen monk and teacher Thich Nhat Han calls this ‘interbeing’. In many ways, this modern life has distanced us from the awareness of sensing our interbeing. And with this comes pain. One of the most tender and aching things people speak about in therapy is loneliness. Loneliness can be fleeting, or it can be the numbing backdrop to one’s life, or it can be a heartwrenching, gutpunching, lifedarkening, energysapping experience that knows no end. In loneliness, the lines of connection that tie us into relationships with people and the world have grown dim, sometimes even seeming extinguished. A sense of belonging growing ever fainter. Days might be filled with busyness, activity and entertainment (such as TV or social media) yet the heart remains unfilled. The soul grows quiet.
In the grip of loneliness, it’s hard to remember that we are a story, intimately intertwined with the story of all of life. We may have forgotten that we are a unique being that has its origins at the beginning of time and that our contribution, no matter its size and seeming significance, shapes the vast web of interconnectedness into the future. With our being, we shape the world. Loneliness is but one experience that reflects the dimming of our sense of belonging. In the newsletters to come, I’ll continue to offer insights, reflections, and resources to strengthen our sense of wholeness and connection. The aim of The Holon is not to add to the chorus of life advice already out there but to share canapés of nourishment for the heart and mind. My hope is that, with my words, I reach across space and distance and create a sense of community and refuge by sharing what is emerging out of my doctoral research (which is about inner and outer peace), Buddhism and psychotherapy, my experiences over decades of being an adventurous journeywoman in life and the contemplation of it all. Warmly
Sabina |
