Thin Ice

“There are times when the ground we stand on loosens and shifts. Sometimes we regain our footing. Sometimes we fall and get up. Sometimes what shifts is dramatic and sometimes subtle. Whatever the cause, each shift opens a different stance of being.” – Mark Nepo, The Endless Practice

As fall gives way to winter, we linger in the middle with one foot in what was and one foot in what is to come. The in between, the middle, thin ice time. Seasons, stages and transitions are guaranteed in this life. And we are called to move through them, no shortcuts, no skipping past, right through the messy  middle. And there’s a tipping point where we need to take the leap into what’s next, releasing what was or should have been.

“Patience is necessary, and one cannot reap immediately where one has sown.” – Soren Kierkegaard

Elisabeth Kubler-Ross’ Five Stages of Grief – denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance – help us understand not only the grief that comes from the death of a loved one, but the grief we face as we die a thousand times to our ego, assumptions, expectations and control.

If we move through the stages, acceptance comes, allowing us to move confidently into what is meant to be. We let go so we can move forward to experience the world differently and our place in it.

And the angst of death of the familiar and comfortable gives way to the joy and release of birth of what’s next in our becoming and unfolding. The cold ground warms, the bud breaks through and then slowly and suddenly a beautiful flower blooms. Spring always comes at the right time.