It’s all Greek to me

My father always says “If you’re not learning you’re dying”. He is a voracious reader. So much so, that he would be in the room with us as we watched a movie as a family, but with book in hand. His most treasured pastime (besides geneology and Buffalo Bills games) is reading. Ask him just about anything, he’ll know something about it. My mother continues to be a further example of this idea for me: it took her 11 years to finish her masters degree because, as a military family we were always moving, and her credits from one school often didn’t transfer to the next. After she retired, she has continued to develop talents she already had – their home looks like a magazine thanks to her visual design skills and practical talent with a paintbrush – AND learning new skills to venture into a new career.

I know how blessed I am to have parents such as these. They have taught me, through their actions, by just being themselves, that we can truly learn whatever we want, do whatever we set out to do, and there is no age limit. And I am thinking of them today, as I discovered something powerful, and I learned a new word (that I’m sure dad already knows) – entelechy.

Entelechy (pronounced en-te-le-kee) is originally a Greek word that Aristotle defined and discussed. It is the actualization of a cause which gives form. This is in contrast to a potential. “Huh?” you say? Yes, at first, I did too! Let’s unpack that a little:

We are as beings, full of potential. The space we occupy in time and in the universe is full of potential. Skills, events, paths, seemingly infinite potential. We feel it every day. We know it because there are things we want, desires to be expressed, places to go, experiences in which to partake. And all of these are MANY because we are, individually, multi-faceted and composed of many different selves. Now I’m not talking about Freud’s ego and id. Today, we tend to call this idea of variety within ourselves as “roles” we play. We’re a friend, we’re a daughter, we’re a mother, we’re a partner, we’re a name-your-profession.

“Yawn, ho-hum, Angela I know all this”

Yes, you do! But I want to call your attention to that facet of you that you may not often consider. It is the facet of you that is at your very center. That which has given birth to all those other aspects of you – your entelechy. Jean Houston, one of the founders of the Human Potential movement has said,

“We don’t live in the cosmos, the cosmos lives in us, which means we have access to all ideas,
all possibilities, energies, transformations because we are…
cosmic agents planted in time on this fascinating little planet.”

Your entelechy is that powerful, connected-to-the-universe aspect of you. It is the part of you that can see the potentials and bring them to pass. It is your deep-seated, knowledgeable, driving force; and she loves you. That bears repeating, because I know you’re reading fast: She LOVES you. She is wise, she is understanding, she knows you through and through and she is timeless because she is that which is connected to the eternal. She does not doubt you, though she knows your trials and tribulations. She is confident, sees all potentiality and she is ready to make it happen. So let us have a true relationship with our entelechy. Let us talk to her, let us listen to what she says to us without words, let us feel her unconditional love. She is gentle yet strong, and respects you – she will not shout her opinions over your other thoughts. We have to be receptive to hear her speak. And perhaps the most amazing thing is that this is not difficult to do. It does not require deep meditation on hilltops, our hours of space in our schedule.

We only need a few moments, at any time, to hear the potentiality she is whispering, the force she is ready to unleash unto the world.

All we have to do is feel her presence there and ask her, “what should we do today?”