20. Feet of Clay

"Ring the bells that still can ring. Forget your perfect offering. There is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in!" - Anthem - Leonard Cohen

 

What do we mean by 'feet of clay'?

Leonard Cohen's song says, "There is a crack in everything - that's how the light gets in!" When we talk about 'feet of clay' we are saying that central to life is imperfection. No one and no thing is perfect and that is good.

One of the greatest challenges we face is an inner narrative that says "I must be perfect!", "I cannot make a mistake', 'I cannot show weakness'. This is just crap. We all have brokenness, we all have faults, we all have weaknesses, we all have skeletons in the cupboard, we all have things we are ashamed of, and we are all vulnerable.

Our common imperfection is our starting point to growth. Feet of clay is linked to all our other themes. We don't focus on nor allow ourselves to be trapped by our weaknesses and our brokenness. We accept that that is just part of being human and then we listen to them, learn from them and grow.

In psychology we often talk about our 'shadow' - everything has a flip or shadow side and this provides focus and fuel for our growth if we listen to it, become aware of it and plan our growth strategies from it.

 

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