Journey to Self-Renewal

“It is when we are in transition that we are most completely alive.” – William Bridges

“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

Changes in seasons
In relationships
In jobs
In circumstances
In self
The bridge of transitions
Where waiting resides
Patience demanded
Letting go required
Identity upended
Uncertainty guaranteed
Unsettled ground to stand on
Allow the struggle to do its work in you
And invite joy daily in rituals and practices
Summer to fall
Contraction to expansion
Stagnation to momentum
The sacred space of self-renewal, fruition and harvest
The work of transformation
Fruits of the labor certain.

“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