From Transition to Transcendence
There are transitions in life that we can label…empty nesting, retirement, marriage, child rearing to name a few; and I believe we think of them as temporary, as the next stage follows quickly after an event. Then I think there are periods of time in history where we see the transition as the long haul. The dark ages before the renaissance. In such a time as this, I think it looks more like the long haul then a short burst of change. I keep hearing things like “well we are kind of back to normal.” Whatever that is.
I think we are in a period of transition and it has a periodicity that is lasting longer than our comfort zone – that is pulling for something and we are attempting to pull back in the opposite direction. Like a tug of war – we can’t quite get out of the back and forth …and needless to say it is wrecking some havoc in lots of places. Why aren’t people going back to work – why does everything take so long – why is the supply and demand chain seem so laborious and unpredictable. Statistics of the stress response rising and the volatility of reaction appears in the news daily. Humans and transitions that last too long appear to be on a crash course.
I believe there is a new way coming out of what looks like no way. The method for moving through transition is not a push or a pull – but a subtle movement to values and qualities that mirror transcendence.
To transcend means to go beyond limits – not by bulldozing over them but by flying beyond. After years of plotting and planning, and then faced with an event that had no plan ( a world wide pandemic) it is clear to me that there is a
call to move through life in a different way – to become adept at developing the qualities of transition so that transcendence follows with grace.
Some of those qualities include patience, a vision of a new uncharted future, a letting go of what is in the way of that vision and an embodying of the new with gratitude and graciousness.
This week – contemplate the way through is the way beyond and for the next few weeks, I will write about the qualities and how you might join in the expression of those in our collective life and in your individual experience.
Peace in the meantime,
