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You are here: Home / Coaching / 139: What is black?

139: What is black?

November 6, 2013 by Brenda Leave a Comment

During a recent coaching session with one of my clients, I asked her what colours she could now picture on the blank canvas we used as a ‘distinction’ when starting her coaching programme.  She told me about the splashes of vibrant colours and then also mentioned the smudges of black and other somber colours. She appeared to be seeing these ‘in a negative light’.  This prompted an exploration of the importance of black and I thus introduced her to one of my favourite poems: 

What is Black?

Black is the night, where there isn’t a star

and you can’t tell by looking, where you are

Black is a pale of paving tar

Black is jet

and things you’d like to forget

Black is a smoke stack, a cat

a leopard, a raven, a high silk hat

The sound of black is boom, boom, boom

echoing in an empty room

Black is kind, it covers up

the broken pavement and the broken cup

Black is charcoal and patio grill

the soot spots on the window sill

Black is a feeling, hard to explain

like suffering, but without the pain

Black is liquorice and patent leather shoes

Black is the print in the news

Black is beauty in its deepest form

the darkest cloud in the thunder storm

Think of what starlight and lamplight would lack,

diamonds and fireflies if they couldn’t lean against black

Mary O’Neil

 blog139

Black is important.  Look at how vibrant this beautiful Mandala is against a black background!  The colours appear brighter. Just as my client at first was thinking of the black or somber smudges on her canvas as being negative, characteristics that we perceive as negative often ‘open up’ exciting possibilities.  And the opposite is also true.  Positive characteristics ‘open up’ opportunities, but they have the inherent potential to ‘close down’ other abilities.  So being aware of the potential of both positive and negative characteristics to ‘open up’ or ‘close down’ possibilities helps us to turn our ‘stumbling blocks’ into ‘stepping stones’. 

For more information on Executive Coaching using an Integral approach, please contact Brenda on brenda@146.66.90.172 or +27 82 4993311. 

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Filed Under: Coaching Tagged With: Black, Colour, Light, Mandala, Stepping stones, Stumbling blocks

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