On the second visit, my truth wavered.
On the third visit, I discovered the truth.My stepmother, the woman who married my father when I was 10 years old, is in the final stages of Alzheimer’s. Her mind shut down long ago and now her body is following suit.
I visited my stepmother in Halifax three times over the last few months.
On the first visit, I was stuck in my truth.
When I visited for the first time, I hadn’t seen her in quite awhile and I was struck by the emptiness gazing back at me through her eyes. I took her hand when prompted but it was a gesture born of obligation. You see my life with this woman was not a happy one. But she loved my father dearly and so did I. So she and I found our way, not because we wanted to but because we had to. And that was the truth – a truth that outlived my time at home, that outlived my life far away and that even outlived my father himself. So on that first visit, although I wanted to feel for her – to feel for anyone forced to live in this state of emotional and intellectual exile – my hurt and anger, built up over years of frustration and loneliness, were the only truths that I could see. On the first visit, I was stuck in my truth.
On the second visit, my truth wavered.
How can anyone stay angry with someone so helpless? How can anyone not be moved by the purity of her fear or by the innocence of her smile? How important is the past when someone else has completely forgotten its existence? On the second visit, my truth wavered.
On the third visit, I discovered the truth.
She reached for my hand and this time, I didn’t just take it, I held it. She held it back. She struggled to reach for my face so I reached for hers and softly stroked it as I would a child’s. She smiled and I smiled back from my heart. And as I looked into her eyes, I realized that it was time to let go of the past – for both of us. The only difference was that she already had. Not because she wanted to but because life hadn’t given her the choice. On the third visit, I discovered the truth.
Because the truth is that truth is what you make it and we can either choose to reinvent it now or we can wait until life decides to take that choice away from us once and for all.
One of the fundamental skills of true innovators is their ability to challenge what most people believe to be true. Often that truth is entrenched in years – sometimes decades – of seemingly irrefutable history. But what about our own truths? Are we sometimes so focused on influencing other’s perception of the truth that we escape the obligation to examine our own?
In fact, the truth is no more and no less than what we chose to make of it. We can, at anytime, choose to recreate a new truth. To believe what we choose to believe. To act as we choose to act. Because without the willingness to create a new truth, there can be no new ideas. And without new ideas, there can be no change.
Take a few moments this week to challenge yourself to redefine your reality. What versions of the truth are holding you back? What versions of the truth are holding your team back? What versions of the truth are holding your organization back?
What if, all of a sudden, there was no past? What truth would you create for tomorrow if you had the choice to start over today?
Why Not! discover a new truth and Imagine the Possibilities!
Quote of the Week
Barack Obama
Inspiration of the Week
Obama on Change
Turning Ideas into Results!
Please feel free to contact me at toni@toninewman.com
with any stories about how Innovation Insights has helped you to turn ideas into results.
