Architecture of Meaning

Cultivating Meaningful Engagement for the Highly Sensitive Person

Flooding that leaves communities with piles of moldy and mildewing debris - everything toxic after being saturated by water, submerged. Every item which used to be the home, the decorations, the entertainment systems - now worthless piles of detritus with no way to dispose of it all.

While new age or spiritual doctrines encourage people to see beyond the material to what is essential - flood victims are jettisoned to that very reality. The caring of strangers, the gratitude that family and friends are safe - these essentials are the embedded experience. The nature of home, of belonging - these truths come home to the flood victim in a way that those who have not lost homes or communities can only imagine.

This is the core of my work with highly gifted and sensitive people. I spot discrepancies. I spot these discrepancies at the level of the field - I am sensing bumps or twists, or inconsistencies between words, feelings and some deeper fabric. Years of profound work with clients certainly established my confidence in what I do. However, it was 12 hour days on immense, seemingly empty oceans, spotting and tracking whales by employing some kind of sensing that I could not name at the time that became the metaphor for how I work with the highly gifted and sensitive.

Sense of place is a concept rapidly disappearing in a world defined by access that defines all constraints of time and geography. However, the human need to belong, to be defined by larger rhythms, and to feel a sense of fabric or continuity remain features of our biology. Here is a list of some books and films that remind us of the qualities and experiences that influence our relationship to place and that provide us concepts to help us make conscious choices about the world we create.

The resources available on topics of healing continue to proliferate. Searching out topics on www.amazon.com, or browsing shelves in a bookstore to see what jumps out at you are great ways to find what you need at any time. Here is a short selection of resources that I consider to be a kind of backbone to reading on the topic of healing.

At a time in evolution when what we know gives us no indication of how to make it through the challenges of our world, and what we can imagine fails to provide a bridge from the present to the future, perhaps it is useful to find a new way to relate to the notion of intelligence.