the integrity spiral
This morning I stumbled on a personal journey entry from June 23rd last year in which I coined a term that seemed to describe some patterns in my life. I left home in January 1981 as a 17 year old, spending a year as an exchange student in Japan before moving to Hobart to go to Uni. My journal entries over the next years captured annual goals and commitments that at the time reflected what felt like significant changes year to year. But looking back, I can see that the entire decade of the 80s was spent in deep inner world formation. I had left the security and unconditional love of my parents’ home and was trying to figure out who I was in the world without them. Much of my sense of self was contained within the faith communities that were increasingly where I felt at home and provided a platform for me to make a contribution in society. But a burgeoning unease with religious institutions and (from my point of view) the unconscious hypocrisy of those that represented them, drew me awa...
