I truly believe a place can be both wild and peaceful.
I spent last week out at the Pacific Coast and I was struck by how wild it is at the end of the world. And yet, there is a vast and deep peacefulness. The giant waves crash, the wild grasses grow, the birds and sea creatures each play their unique role in the circle of life and death and rebirth.
The wildness of life continues, yet peace prevails.
Standing on the shore, I realized that perhaps wildness and peace are not opposites after all.
It made me think about how wildness and peace can cohabitate in our workplaces, our relationships and within ourselves.
Because some of the deepest forms of peace aren’t the absence of wildness. In fact, I think our greatest discomfort is in resisting the wild, in trying to control every uncertainty, eliminate every tension.
We have all experienced organizations, institutions, relationships with their own version of wildness. Competing priorities. Strong personalities. Unexpected challenges. Traumas triggering traumas. And many of us have spent endless hours, sleepless nights and unending stress working hard to minimize the wildness. I know I’ve done this professionally – I have spent years of my work life focused on structuring everything to be predictable, with the underlying belief that if there is enough structure, then everyone will flourish.
But I’ve recently learned that not everything needs to be tamed.
The truth is that systems depend on a certain amount of wildness. Wildness brings life, creativity, innovation, and change. It is fertile ground, and the places of unrestraint spark evolution.
The same is true within us.
Carl Jung said, “The tree whose crown would reach heaven must send its roots to hell.” He believed that wholeness comes not from eliminating the wild parts, but from integrating them.
What would happen if we allowed wildness and peace to coexist?
What if peace isn’t found by pruning away the wild parts of ourselves, our organizations, or our lives?
What if peace comes from making room for them?
The ocean doesn’t become peaceful by stopping the waves.
The waves are part of its peace.
Perhaps the same is true for us.