Possibilities Newsletter | Winter 2024

'Tis the season

In late September, in the early 2000’s, surprised to be serenaded by ‘Feliz Navidad’ at Manila airport, I learned that, in the Philippines, any month with a ‘ber’ at the end is fair game for Christmas festivities. Now, as our cultural and religious festivals have increasingly become consumer ‘tentpoles’, retail associations the world over seem to throw up Christmas decorations earlier.

Traditionalists may scoff at Christmas decor arriving before Halloween is over, but in multi-cultural Singapore, depending on when the Muslim, Hindu and Chinese festivals fall, we can find ourselves celebrating from October to February. It makes sense for festive lights strung for Divali to also serve for Christmas, New Year and on until Chinese New Year - with holiday specific decor swapped out in between.

Having been in the northern hemisphere extensively since September, I must say, I’m a fan of this approach: there’s nothing like a dark and windy winter night to remind you how soul-soothing twinkly lights are to we humans.

Let there be light

The metaphor of light symbolizing knowledge, hope, divinity, love and life seems so deeply embedded within us. Conversely, we associate darkness with ignorance, despair, evil, fear and death.

Fire was a significant milestone in our evolutionary journey and although on a day to day basis it is easy to forget our dependence on the sun as the ultimate source of all our energy it is interesting how in so many cultures, fireworks are used to celebrate new beginnings.

We didn't start the fire

There's a joke about a policeman seeing a man searching for something under a streetlight and asking him what he's lost. "I've lost my keys" the man replies.

The officer helps him look for a while and then turns to him and asks "Are you sure you lost them here?"

The man looks up and answers, "No, I lost them in the park." So the officer asks, "Then why are you looking here?"

The man replies, Because this is where the light is".

I'm sometimes reminded of that joke in coaching sessions. We're so used to reaching for the same explanations about the world in our solutions, because this is where the light is.

It's only when we cast light on areas of life that we don't usually examine that we discover things anew. So much of coaching is about making what is implicit, explicit and uncovering what we usually are blind to in order to see fresh possibilities