At its core, sense making is the way our consciousness functions, both when we are awake and when we are asleep. Through evolution, humans have awoken to consciousness over vast eras of time. Every moment, we are bombarded with pieces of data and stimuli. Our senses and intuitions act as finely-tuned receivers that keep us safe, while also creating synaptic pathways to order the random chaos of information that we receive. This cascade of information enters our minds in rivers and requires attentive ordering if we are not to be overwhelmed.
African bead work can be a useful image for the sense making process. Beads have been used by cultures to symbolize and communicate iconic messages of identity, culture, and clan. The beader must use a needle and thread to pick up the random beads and create an orderly pattern on a string; similarly, our consciousness acts as the stringer of experience, feelings, and information to create patterned stories, beliefs, and prejudices about the world around us. This is the work of sense making that happens almost unconsciously in each moment.
Engaged, participatory sense making becomes necessary when our ordered strings of beaded meaning break or no longer represent our reality. In these moments of overwhelm, it can be healing to reflect with another beader on our strings of meaning; patterns we have made (or were forced to make); and why these threads or patterns no longer sustain a meaningful life. This reflection and repatterning is what I offer through my practice.
My journey to this work has unfolded over six decades of a quite diverse life:
After school I was a conscripted army officer in war I also worked in the gold mining industry.
Later I was a preacher and pastor for 30 years during which time I served as hospice chaplain, seminary lecturer, and retreat leader. During this time I was involved in underground struggle politics against Apartheid and was a member of the National Peace Accord during South Africa’s transition to democracy.
I have completed formal studies up to Masters level (in philosophy, theology, logic & conflict resolution); qualified as a Specialist Pastoral Counsellor.
I currently run my sense making practice & serve as a trauma debriefer for an NGO working in poor & vulnerable communities.
Pivotal positive experiences in my life include:
Parenting to adulthood two very different and amazing men.
Failing spectacularly in ways that taught me how to make sense in chaos. “I learned balance from imbalance”
Attending The Parliament of World Religions 1999, which is where I realised that Karma can run over Dogma.
Subsequent explorations into Eastern philosophy & religious experience (including pilgrimages to Ramana Maharshi’s Ashram and a Zen Seshin in Bodhi Zendo Kodaikanal India.
I have completed numerous retreats at Dharmagiri South Africa where I also spent 2008 in a year-long retreat.
I was also a keen ultra marathon runner, and am still an amatuer photographer and writer.
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The Listening Hermit 