Page 12 - Summer 14

The Times They Are a-Changin’
Jane Keogh, BAHVS Junior Vice President
to recruit numbers, so that the next generation ‘...the Association will follow on. But it may be that it is time to let
itself faces change on
a deeper level.’
All things change. The seasons turn; as I write the Solstice, that movement of the year from expansion to introspection, is upon us. By the time you read this, the harvest will have been gathered in and the colder winds of Autumn will begin to remind us of the Winter to come. Our children grow up in the blink of an eye, our lives move forward, however much we may cling to the familiar. As you digest these words the posi- tion of President is about to transfer from Mark to myself, and perhaps we can take a moment to reflect and thank Mark for the fantastic job that he has done these past three years.
This is my last opportunity to write as Vice- President, with perhaps a greater freedom to ramble than the office of President confers. And maybe, as the year turns once more from that lush, verdant, joyous energy of high Summer to the cooler, time of Autumn, when we instinc- tively withdraw to consider the year past and that to come, we should remember that nothing stands still. Not only in our own lives but also in the life of our Association. On the surface a change of President is no huge thing, but the Association itself faces change on a deeper level. Thirty years ago those pioneering individ- uals who started the Association created some- thing fairly unique. Today there is an International Association with over 500 mem- bers worldwide and we are only a small part of that bigger organisation.
We cling to the familiar and worry about membership numbers and how to improve them. We look at our aging membership – sorry guys, that's most of us – and fret about what will become of us. It is good that the teaching options at Bristol and the British Academy strive
go of some of the anxiety, to accept that the Association will change as all things do, and that if what we are doing is right, and our heal- ing parameter is a medicine of the future (which it is), then we can trust that we will survive.
This does not mean letting go of our pas- sion, or sitting back and allowing our group to die. It may mean, however, letting go of our need to cling to the familiar, to try and hold together what has been at all costs. Change has already started with a shift in Conference layout [BAHVS] over the year. Some of us may like this change, others may not, but do not condemn it simply because it is different. Rather let us concentrate on making this the best Association that we can with the tools we have to hand now. Let us practice our art of healing, each one of us, to the best of our abil- ity, so that when we come together as a small group, and also on a global scale, we create a vibrant energy that attracts others in, rather than trying to drag them to our cause. Let us embrace the changes that are happening to our Association and watch where they take us with optimism and excitement, instead of clinging to the past because it is familiar.
Perhaps we can even extend this to our own lives. Accept that all things change and trust the process, to view change as an oppor- tunity rather than a negative thing. For if each of us can accept the shifts that seem to gather momentum as time passes, then who knows where we will be and what we can create, when we gather as a like-minded group of individu- als. We are each a small part of that greater whole, and just as all things change, all things are possible.
Let me leave you with an excerpt from a lit- tle book by Richard Bach: “Once there lived a village of creatures along the bottom of a great crystal river. The current of the river swept silently over them all – young and old, rich and
poor, good and evil, the current going its own way, knowing only its own crystal self. Each creature in its own manner clung tightly to the twigs and rocks of the river bottom, for clinging was their way of life, and resisting the current what each had learned from birth. But one creature said at last: 'I am tired of clinging, though I cannot see it with my eyes, I trust that the current knows, where it is going. I shall let go, and let it take me where it will. Clinging I shall die of boredom.' The other creatures laughed and said: 'Fool! Let go, and that current you worship will throw you tumbled and smashed across the rocks, and you will die quicker than boredom!' But the one heeded them not, and taking a breath did let go, and at once was tumbled and smashed by the current across the rocks. Yet in time, as the creature refused to cling again, the current lifted him free the bottom, and he was bruised and hurt no more. And the creatures downstream, to whom he was a stranger, cried: 'See, a miracle! A creature like ourselves, yet he flies! See the Messiah, come to save us all!' And the one car- ried in the current said: ' I am no more Messiah than you. The river delights to lift us free, if only we dare let go. Our true work is this voyage, this adventure.' But they cried the more: 'Saviour!' all the while clinging to the rocks, and when they looked again he was gone, and they were left alone making legends of a saviour.”
From “Illusions” by Richard Bach
Let us let go of our rocks and see where the adventure takes us in the next three years!
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