crystallize!

For me, “crystallizing” evokes natural organic pattern, orderly structure, beauty, clarity, simplicity, brightness, shininess, and settling into a right/optimal form. I first latched onto this word a couple of years ago, as part of an exploration into how I might characterize my core interests—an exploration, in fact, inspired by the entertaining book Is Your Genius at Work?. I wanted a word that would capture aspects of my work with coaching clients, my work with informational structures/patterns, and my affinity for dance/music/weaving/handcraft patterns. It’s not 100% perfect as a descriptor for any of them, but I still find it a pleasing solution.

As a coach, I like to think of myself as being able to catalyze a process of transformation that helps my clients achieve their own crystal shapes, as it were—to find the clear, bright state they visualize for themselves. I could even push this analogy by talking about solutions and precipitates, but I won’t.

There are a couple of ways in which the analogy gets problematic. Like, how can you be seeking both a fixed form and a state of flow? Or, aren’t I implying that there’s a single right outcome for anyone? If these trouble you, perhaps it will help to remember that at the molecular level, even a rock is in constant flow, and even humans are mostly space between molecules.

The image in my blog header is fluorspar crystals. Not Jell-o. Honest.