We’ve all heard the phrase “can’t see the wood for the trees” – getting so lost in detail we miss the bigger picture. We know that experience all too well.
In helping professions we can get so caught up in the day to day to do list. Perhaps it’s back to back appointments, targets and competing demands. There’s paperwork and data entry. Too many meetings with too little focus. The scramble to book rooms, cars and other limited resources.
We often need to remind ourselves to take a step back and reconnect with what we’re really here for, the bigger meaning to all the busyness.
We can also extend the concept to ourselves. When we see ourselves as one tree in the woods, we are more likely feel disconnected. We may be tempted to compare ourself to other trees, notice who is bigger, or stronger, or who gets more sun. When we see our differences, we increase the potential for competition or the risk of feeling insignificant.
But when we see ourselves as part of the one forest, we can connect to something bigger than us. Feeling a part of a community of care relieves the pressure to be everything to all people and allows us to make our contribution as well as we can. We don’t have to have all the answers for our part to still be helpful.
In an ecosystem of empathy our combined strengths and aptitudes add up to something far more beautiful and profound than any one individual needs to be.
Helen Mentha 