Constellationing
Constellationing fascinates me.
Star gazers created images out of dots in the night sky that enabled them and others to explore the world and find their way back home. In doing so, they mapped the sky so that they could then map the earth. Apparently, you cannot map earth with any real degree of accuracy without first mapping the heavens.
Photo by Greg Rakozy on Unsplash
Constellationing, I admit, is my substitute for “connectedness,” a word that is economic to the point of absurdity. What constellationing lacks in pedigree it makes up for visually. We map what is above to navigate what is below.
I’ve chosen constellationing to describe a process or skill–I’m not sure which is more accurate–that I’ve received. I connect ideas, people, and other wandering points of light within the human experience. I, too, am mapping an external world to navigate the internal.
I’m psycho-mapping.
Concept X in one context appears close to concept Y in another context and my willingness to see them as part of an emerging constellation of ideas allows me to orient myself and my inner world more adroitly. I do the same with networking and music. This ghostwriter in Denver doesn’t know this sales coach in Littleton but putting them together makes sense for them–they are useful to each other’s work–and it somehow helps me navigate my new career with a greater awareness of where I am going; learning facts about a musician’s life and how they relate to other musicians and their lives helps me map my own musical interests.
Mapping the stars is an eternal craft, and I’m privileged with finding my own version.
It also brings to mind something that CS Lewis once said–and I’m paraphrasing: Eschatology is simply studying what is going on in heaven so that we can make sense of how we should live here on earth. Perhaps this was also what he found most useful about theology. Another example of constellationing: aligning human with divine ethics.
I like thinking about constellationing as an eschatological effort. It’s living with the end (perhaps the eternal) in mind. Feels like backward design in teaching. What outcome do I want gives me room to name the steps that will get me there. But these may ultimately prove to be quite diverse. Hold this connection loosely, Michael.
And constellationing is proving to be very useful in my second half of life. I see the bright points of light marking the resources that Source has provided me with. Observing them, studying them and their movements is helping me navigate a new career, new relationships, and a renewed energy toward my calling in life.
