Liberating Discoveries

Discovering the Potential of New Knowledge

Discovering the potential of new knowledge has been part of my experience at the Humanbecoming Institute, which I have attended for over 20 years every June in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Nurse theorist Rosemarie Rizzo Parse, founder of the Institute and author of the humanbecoming paradigm, has generated new ideas about humanbecoming and humanuniverse that have revolutionized the way nurses and all healthcare professionals can think about their way of being in the care for others. The humanbecoming paradigm contains many new life-affirming ideas and allows the possibility for being better at what one wants to do. Akbar and Tzokas (2013), in analyzing the knowledge creation process, affirmed the fact that “new knowledge begins and ends with an individual” (p. 1601), but such new knowledge can be expanded and developed by teams of others. For example, Parse (2014), in developing the humanbecoming paradigm, presented new knowledge concerning four postulates that undergird the humanbecoming paradigm: illimitability, paradox, freedom, and mystery. Understanding of these four postulates can be expanded with the work of other Parse scholars. The first postulate, “illimitability is the indivisible unpredictable, everchanging unbounded knowing extended to infinity, the all-at-once remembering-prospecting with the becoming visible-invisible becoming of the emerging now” (Parse, 2014, p. 31). Being aware that knowledge is unbounded, that anything is possible in the moment, gives healthcare professionals hope and stimulates creative imagining in cocreating positive and nourishing ways of approaching individuals in true presence. True presence “is an intentional reflective love, an interpersonal art grounded in a strong knowledge base” (Parse, 1998a, p. 71). The strong knowledge base that grounds one in true presence is an understanding of the assumptions, postulates, and principles of humanbecoming (Parse, 2014). True presence is a focused attentiveness with the belief that people know their own way and are free to choose their pattern preferences for living value priorities. Parse suggested that to understand and live the beliefs of humanbecoming “requires concentrated study of the ontology and epistemology and a commitment to a different way of being with people. That different way that arises from the humanbecoming beliefs is true presence” (Parse, 1998b, p. 1). In living true presence with others, the health professional bears witness to the persons’ patterns of being: “Illuminating meaning, shifting rhythms, and inspiring transcending happen in the true presence of the humanbecoming professional as persons explicate their situations, dwell with the becoming visible-invisible becoming of the emerging now, and move with possibles” (Parse, 2014, p. 95). Melnechenko (2003) suggested, “True presence holds the other as the expert who chooses freely, according to his or her value priorities, how he or she will live with his or her health condition” (p. 22). Parse posited that individuals gain new insights and have “surprises as situations are seen in the new light that arises with the true presence of those who bear witness without judging” (Parse, 2014, p. 95). The illimitability of surprise denotes that the unexpected can happen when gaining new insight. In an inquiry on feeling surprised, Bunkers (2017b) discovered, “feeling surprised is stunning amazement arising with shifting fortunes, as delight amid despair surfaces with diverse involvements” (p. 44). Stunning amazement is “an astounding wonderment felt when the unexpected occurs and it can be exhilarating and exciting or terrifying and stressful” (Bunkers, 2017, p. 48). When health professionals are in true presence with others, not only do amazing insights occur, but there is also the shifting of fortunes with the surprise. “Shifting fortunes are critical moments of the unanticipated that alter that which was planned for or assumed” (Bunkers, 2017, p. 48). Such critical moments occur in healthcare all the time and are often met with delight amid despair. “Delight amid despair includes the happiness and the sadness present when one deals with the unexpected and unexplainable” (Bunkers, 2017b, p. 49). Delight amid despair surfaces as persons engage with diverse involvements including the health professional in true presence. “Diverse involvements include the relationships with others that involve surprise” (Bunkers, 2017b, p. 49). The unpredictable, everchanging knowing-not knowing involved in illuminating meaning, synchronizing rhythms, and inspiring transcending that occurs for people when in true presence with a health professional is an example of the creative imagining, affirming personal becoming, and glimpsing the paradoxical occurring when gaining new knowledge.

The second postulate of humanbecoming, paradox, is described as “an intricate rhythm expressed as a pattern preference. Paradoxes are not opposites to be reconciled or dilemmas to be overcome but, rather, are living rhythms” (Parse, 2007, p. 309). Understanding paradox in human experience as a choice of pattern preferences gives health professionals the opportunity to appreciate and work with others, while not trying to change a person’s way of living values. Parker Palmer, a Christian professor of sociology, discussed working with paradox in examining the public and private lives of individuals. Parker Palmer (1994), in the book The Company of Strangers, suggested the following:

We need to see that in a healthy society the private and the public are not mutually exclusive, not in competition with each other. They are, instead, two halves of a whole, two poles of paradox. They work together dialectically, helping to create and nurture one another. For instance, the individual who plays an active public role needs a nurturing private life. (p. 31)

In working with individuals from a humanbecoming perspective, the notion of paradox helps one to understand the complexity of the meaning of humanuniverse experiences. For example, Bunkers (2004), in a humanbecoming inquiry into the living experience of feeling cared for, discovered that in remembering times that participants felt cared for, they also remembered times of not being cared for. Thus, “it appears that a paradoxical rhythmical pattern of feeling cared for-not feeling cared for is present with this experience” (Bunkers, 2004, p. 70). One participant in the feeling cared for study, who had experienced living without a home, stated, “Feeling cared for is a real scary proposition most of the time. It isn’t all bad and it isn’t all good” (Bunkers, 2004, p. 63). One other participant who was in the foster care system for some time stated, “Even during the time I wasn’t cared for, God was caring for me at that time, so I wasn’t alone” (Bunkers, 2004, p. 67). Another inquiry that surfaced regarding the importance of paradox in humanuniverse living experiences was one on joy-sorrow (Parse, 1997). Parse uncovered the concept of “pleasure amid adversity” (p. 84). Pleasure amid adversity “is glimpsing the joy-sorrow paradox all-at-once. The shifting of joy or sorrow to the foreground happens as the different insights of imaged possibles arise cocreating the meaning of the moment” (Parse, 1997, p. 84). Understanding paradox, as two halves that create a unifying whole, frees the health professional to be present and be with individuals as they celebrate their joy or struggle with their sorrow instead of trying to fix them or smooth things over for them. Glimpsing the paradoxical in human experience increases awareness and is a liberating discovery.

The third and fourth postulates of humanbecoming present ideas that foster understanding of the potential each person has in living quality. The third postulate of humanbecoming, freedom, “is contextually construed liberation” (Parse, 2014, p. 31). The person and the health professional are always free to choose within a situation. Knowing that individuals are free and choose what they cherish gives health professionals the opportunity to explore with persons their possibilities for what they may want to do in certain situations. Musk, in Lakhiani (2016) stated, “I think it’s possible for ordinary people to choose to be extraordinary” (p. xiii). Deciding to do extraordinary things involves the freedom to choose. The fourth postulate, mystery, “is the unexplainable, that which cannot be completely known unequivocally” (Parse, 2014, p. 31). In working with community, the health professional can only know what others share. As Parse (2014) suggested, “health professionals enter the person’s or group’s world as not-knowing strangers regarding their lives. The person’s or group’s world is a personal reality, the history of living moments known only to the person or group explicitly-tacitly” (p. 94). The mystery of the other is honored by the health professional in true presence as the other lives quality.

Living quality “refers to an individual’s core whatness, the stuff of a life” (Parse, 2014, p. 28). Living quality has three inherent core knowings: “fortifying wisdom, discerning witness, and penetrating silence” (Parse, 2014, p. 28). From a humanbecoming perspective, “fortifying wisdom is invigorating sagacity living with the individual as community who is cocreating what is important in the moment” (Parse, 2014, p. 28). With the freedom to choose and the knowing-not knowing present in human experience, the individual makes choices about what is important and what seems best for them in the emerging now. “Discerning witness is cautiously attending to and distancing from that which enables and at once limits opportunities in choosing the whatness of personal living” (Parse, 2014, p. 28). Part of the mystery of being is the explicit-tacit knowings that individuals possess to decide what is right for them. Individuals will move away from certain choices and move with other options for living pattern preferences. “Penetrating silence is piercing quiet in solemn stillness. … Penetrating silence is there with the possibles of the emerging now in ruminating with illimitable options that cocreate living quality” (Parse, 2014, p. 29). In stillness, an individual contemplates the opportunities and restrictions certain choices bring them. In silence, individuals marvel at the mysteries of the humanuniverse and feel grateful for being; such gratefulness for being is ontological gratitude. Noortgaete (2016) wrote about ontological gratitude as an important aspect of our living experience—thus our living quality. He suggested, “ontological gratitude will seek expression in festive being” (Noortgaete, 2016, p. 124). Desmond (1995) described festive being “as a happening of a community where the community enacts a certain yes, both to itself and to its joy in creation. It does not just celebrate itself, but in joy renders thanks for the joy of being that is given to it” (p. 458). This joy in being characterizes affirming personal becoming when living quality. This joyful gratefulness is seen in the second liberating discovery: the importance of living gratitude.

The Importance of Living Gratitude

As I walk along the white sand beach of the Gulf of Mexico this month of February, I feel like a festive being. I feel excited and am in awe of the unity of sand, sea, and sky; they all become one as the sea fog settles in. My being in this place and at this time helps me to understand more clearly the indivisible, unpredictable, everchanging humanuniverse. I feel the grateful joy Noortgaete (2016) described in an ecological perspective, “spending time in nature is found to be particularly conducive to quite intense forms of transpersonal gratitude” (p. 122). Transpersonal gratitude, a gratefulness for that which is beyond the self, fosters a generosity of being. “Gratitude appears to broaden people’s modes of thinking as they creatively consider a wide array of actions that might benefit others” (Noortgaete, 2016, p. 125).

The liberating discovery of the importance of living gratitude is described by Hlava and Elfers (2014) in a study on The Lived Experience of Gratitude. The authors uncovered a range of appraisals concerning living gratitude, including “joy, love, awakening, release, awe and feeling blessed” (Hlava & Elfers, 2014, p. 435). The experience of gratitude enhanced a “feeling of connectedness” (Hlava & Elfers, 2014, p. 438). Hlava and Elfers contended:

The experience of connection in relation to gratitude encompassed a range of feeling—from sensations of feeling physically close, not feeling separate or alone, having a sense of community, enjoying deep communication, to a feeling of merging with something outside of or larger than oneself. (p. 439)

Hlava and Elfers (2014) identified that the experience of gratitude was about relatedness with an other. They identified three domains of relatedness—“feeling connected with (1) a part of oneself; (2) an individual or group, or (3) something outside of themselves. These three domains are referred to as the personal, the interpersonal, and the transpersonal” (Hlava & Elfers, 2014, p. 439). These feelings of relatedness and connection with self and others appeared to be a source of joy and happiness and are important to human flourishing and living quality. Lakhiani (2016) described such joy and happiness as “bending reality” (p. 118). He suggested, “Stop postponing your happiness. Be happy now. Your thoughts and beliefs do create your reality. … Be happy now” (Lakhiani, 2016, p. 119).

The idea of living gratitude as important to living quality with joy and happiness was also uncovered in a Parse inquiry on feeling grateful. Hart (2013) discovered that “the living experience of feeling grateful is potent elation amid tribulation arising with the assuredness-unassuredness of benevolent alliances” (p. 156). The core concept of potent elation amid tribulation was described as “exhilaration of excitement when acknowledging something important that arises with experienced hardship” (Hart, 2013, p. 160). The assuredness-unassuredness surfacing in the inquiry concerned itself with shifting moments of certainty and uncertainty. “There was a certainty of conviction with the all-at-once uncertainty with known and unknown possibilities” (Hart, 2013, p. 162). The third core concept of benevolent alliances re-emphasizes the importance of relationship and connection in feeling grateful. Hart (2013) posited, “Benevolent alliances as an all-at-once connecting-separating of love, intimacy, generosity, doing good and showing kindness emerged as essential to feeling grateful” (p. 164). The importance of living gratitude fostering relatedness and feelings of connectedness is vital in living community.

From a humanbecoming perspective, “the individual is community and the group is community” (Parse, 2014, p. 117). The liberating discoveries of the potential of new knowledge and the importance of living gratitude are important for the humanbecoming community change processes of “moving-initiating, anchoring-shifting, and pondering-shaping” (Parse, 2003, p. 23) community change. Moving-initiating community change involves abandoning some ideas and projects and taking on new ideas and new projects. It entails forging beyond what was while experiencing shifting patterns of certainty-uncertainty. Moving-initiating change involves the liberating discovery of the potential of new knowledge. As new awarenesses come into focus, the community presses on with innovations. Anchoring-shifting community change involves honoring and respecting what has been but at the same time trying a new way of living with the new. “What is kept and what is sacrificed shows community pattern preferences and incarnates the unexplainable amid veiled transparency” (Parse, 2014, p. 120). Anchoring-shifting community change encompasses the enlightened thinking present with the potential of new knowledge and the thankfulness for what has been in living gratitude. Pondering-shaping community change involves discussing and listening to ideas while at the same time contemplating what ideas or events would be best to implement for the community as a whole. Pondering-shaping community change requires the exploration of new knowledge while being grateful for all contributions to the planning and inventing of something new for community.

An example of living community while acknowledging the potential of new knowledge and the importance of living gratitude is a project called Frank Talk, being conducted by the Great Plains Parse Scholars Group in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The scholars group is reading the book Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl (Frank, 1947). The scholars group planned five meeting times (once a month from January 2017 to May 2017) to discuss sections of the diary. The overall goal of the Frank Talk project is for this community of scholars to gain new knowledge and understanding of Anne Frank’s living quality while she was hiding from the Nazis with seven other Jews in the Secret Annex in a house in Amsterdam during World War II. Through dialogue, discussion, and gratefulness for the contributions of each member of the scholars’ group, the group anticipates that new awarenesses will surface concerning Anne’s living quality with fortifying wisdom, discerning witness, and penetrating silence. After the first discussion meeting, several members of the scholars’ group verbalized the gratefulness they felt in living in a free country and being free from such persecution that the Jews were experiencing in World War II. Noortgaete (2016) identified that feeling grateful “is being aware of the good things that happen” (p. 124) and such gratefulness seeks expression in “festive being” (p. 124). The liberating discoveries of the potential of new knowledge and the importance of living gratitude are integral to living community as a festive being.

A Festive Being

A morning walk on the ocean beach

Is Nature’s finest way to teach.

New ideas floating with the sea

As the ocean’s undertow tugs at me.

Sea fog engulfs and muffles sound

As dolphins play and splash around.

The sun peaks through with laughing rays

It is the EMERGING NOW—the grandest of days.

Fisherman bravely cast their lines

Longing for that special time

When a “Bull Red” takes the bait.

We on the beach are watching—we just can’t wait.

Beachcombers come stalking their prey

A special sea shell will be theirs today.

Children digging deep in the sand

A castle of their making is looking grand.

Liberating discoveries are ours to make

We are living gratefulness for such a fate.

Life is full of connectedness and awesome glories.

A festive being lives joyous stories. (Bunkers, 2017a)