“Not in his goals but in his transitions man is great.” —RALPH WALDO EMERSON
I’m thinking of so many of my endings and beginnings personally and professionally lately. EXHAUSTING. And some discernment is needed, so today I thank God for William Bridges. I’m floating in and out of this book a few mornings a week since March. No, this is not an ad for the book, Transitions, although maybe it’s worth owning. Just that I need to re-ground and center myself in these things for springtime, especially this year. I’ve acknowledged endings/ sorrow/ forgiveness needed for the things I contributed to that I could’ve done better. I’m trying to get ready for new beginnings.
I’m going through a transition, ok?
And I also want to be careful to hold these things in a small basket of faith, not too seriously but with honor and acknowledgement. What is beginning professionally that I am avoiding? Or ending that I just can’t let go of? What’s on the edge of my transition- and can I really show those I love presently that I have learned how to be there in an ending? Welcome a hard beginning?
Not sure I’m there yet, so a few quotes and a link to a great resource for us all on the journey.
-M
“CONSIDERING THAT WE HAVE TO DEAL WITH ENDINGS all our lives, most of us handle them poorly. This is in part because we misunderstand them and take them either too seriously or not seriously enough. We take them too seriously by confusing them with finality—that’s it, all over, never more, finished! We see them as something without sequel, forgetting that they are the first phase of the transition process and a precondition of self-renewal. At the same time, we fail to take them seriously enough. Because they scare us, we try to avoid them.”
― William Bridges, Transitions: Making Sense of Life's Changes
“In other words, change is situational. Transition, on the other hand, is psychological. It is not those events, but rather the inner reorientation and self-redefinition that you have to go through in order to incorporate any of those changes into your life. Without a transition, a change is just a rearrangement of the furniture. Unless transition happens, the change won’t work, because it doesn’t “take.”
― William Bridges, Transitions: Making Sense of Life's Changes
