 Recently, my husband and I had the amazing opportunity to take a cruise along South America and through parts of Antarctica. Our cruise included a few experts who educated us about the early explorers who courageously ventured out into the unknown, the sea life and birds who live there, and of course, the icebergs. Reflecting on all this new knowledge, I realized that there are many parallels between icebergs and relationships. Did you know that there are different classifications for icebergs? They range from small bergs that are 5 to 15 meters above the surface to exceptionally large bergs that are larger than 75 meters. Small ones that have broken off are called bergy bits (1-5 meters) and less than 1 meter in size are referred to as growlers. Smaller chunks of ice that have broken off are called brash ice. If we think about the challenges that exist in our current relationships, perhaps we could categorize how we are doing--do we have some small problems that float around us and surface now and then? Or do we have a small or medium berg that is we know are there between us, but we are cautious about getting too close? Are we avoiding the bergy bits and the larger bergs or are we courageous enough to begin addressing them? In many ways, understanding and deepening our connections with those we care about is one of the biggest unexplored areas with amazing and wonderous discoveries to be made Like the iceberg, often, what we see and experience in another person is what is visible "above the surface." Like the cruise ship, we must navigate carefully as we discover what lies below the waterline. For each of us, we have our personality and inventive minds, but we also bring with us all our life experiences, what we learned from our parents, caregivers, and teachers, and what we have inherited from our ancestors and the world that we live in. Our past impacts our present relationships. Discovering better ways to listen, understand and have empathy for ourselves and others takes intention, willingness to grow, develop, change, and learn new ways of connecting to each other. If you have an area of your life that you would like to explore how to do this, I encourage you to find a small group, a coach, a book, a partner, child, or friend to begin working on this. You can check out what I am offering below and message me if you have questions. Doing Life With Your Adult Children (starts Sunday, February 18) Adult Children Creating Connection in Relationships Create Connection 1-1 Coaching Coaching With Myrna Stay tuned for an Inner Child Small Group starting soon  Comments are closed.
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