“Spring drew on…and a greenness grew over those brown beds, which, freshening daily, suggested the thought that Hope traversed them at night, and left each morning brighter traces of her steps.”― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre
“March came in that winter like the meekest and mildest of lambs, bringing days that were crisp and golden and tingling, each followed by a frosty pink twilight which gradually lost itself in an elfland of moonshine.”― L.M. Montgomery
March 1st.
The snow is softly falling.
And it’s March,
Threshold month.
One foot in winter.
One foot tipping into spring.
Not before.
Not after.
In between but tilting to the promise of spring.
The harvest of wintering, of preparation to fruition.
Bloom coming soon.
Colors to burst.
Sun to linger longer.
The power of transformation, and of seeing it unfold.
“It is spring again. The earth is like a child that knows poems by heart.”― Rainer Maria Rilke
“Life is the flower for which love is the honey.” – Victor Hugo
“There is a time in the last few days of summer when the ripeness of autumn fills the air.” – Rudolfo Anaya
Cool mornings
Warm afternoons
Cool evenings
Summer not quite over
Fall knocking on the door
Flowers in bloom and drying up
On the cusp
The balance beam
The edge
Multiplicity, both and
Threshold, a foot on each side
Transition time, a familiar place of life
Do not surpass or rush by
Stay awake on the path to transformation
“Leaving the old, both worlds at once they view, That stand upon the threshold of the new. – Edmund Waller
“April hath put a spirit of youth in everything.” – William Shakespeare
“The earth was all before me. With a heart
Joyous, nor scared at its own liberty,
I look about; and should the chosen guide
Be nothing better than a wandering cloud,
I cannot miss my way.”― William Wordsworth, The Prelude
Those moments before spring, tipping point to awakening, the prelude;
The anticipation of the kiss, the unfolding, the sweetness within reach;
Our winters to springs;
Within and around;
Alone and connected to all at the same time;
Joy in the prelude, the postlude, the new beginning;
Celebration and exultation in each day.
“Here must thou be, O man,
Strength to thyself — no helper hast thou here —
Here keepest thou thy individual state:
No other can divide with thee this work,
No secondary hand can intervene
To fashion this ability. ‘Tis thine,
The prime and vital principle is thine
In the recesses of thy nature, far
From any reach of outward fellowship,
Else ’tis not thine at all.” ― William Wordsworth, The Prelude
“Bliss it was in that dawn to be alive But to be young was very heaven.”— William Wordsworth
“Light precedes every transition. Whether at the end of a tunnel, through a crack in the door or the flash of an idea, it is always there, heralding a new beginning.” – Theresa Tsalaky
A Blessing for the In-Between
“Blessed are we, somewhere unnameable, fully present to our reality. Tracking it, with all its subtle gradations and colors and contrasts, the sweetness and the struggle, the stuck and not-quite-fitting. Authentic to it, mapping the full strangeness of the new emergent landscape. Blessed are we, dear ones, not calling it too soon. Not settling for the neat and buttoned-up, the too-tied-up, the not-quite-true. Bless all of it, the way we might widen our gaze to encompass it and embrace it. And bless you, moving into the unknown, waiting, daring to hope.”— Good Enough: 40ish Devotionals for a Life of Imperfection by Kate Bowler, Jessica Richie
Lent is in between time.
Two plus years of a pandemic is in between time.
I just quit a job I’ve had for 17 years and will be starting a new job on April 20 – in between again.
The threshold. One foot behind and one on the other side.
We spend a lot of our life in between, hurdling, crossing. Getting stuck in the past one day and stuck in the future in another. Usually missing this day. It’s beauty and blessings. What was or to come than what is.
Change is often thrust upon us, not of our choice or making. We react, resist, hold tight to what is to not make waves. Change beckons us to move out of our comfort, familiarity, certainty, even if false. When we get to choose change, when we dare to move into the unfamiliar, unstuck, new territory, we move into our power.
May you feel blessed in the in between times, the endings and new beginnings. Hopeful, steady and renewed in the dance of transition. Winter to spring back to winter and then finally spring. Move into the growth, the present, the possibilities.
“It is when we are in transition that we are most completely alive.” – William Bridges
“I want to think again of dangerous and noble things. I want to be light and frolicsome. I want to be improbable beautiful and afraid of nothing, as though I had wings.” ― Mary Oliver
May you always hear your own voice above the noise.
From whispers to wings.
Take flight.
Complete your journey.
The Journey by Mary Oliver
“One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice —
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
“Mend my life!”
each voice cried.
But you didn’t stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do —
determined to save
the only life you could save.”
“Is not this a true autumn day? Just the still melancholy that I love—that makes life and nature harmonize.” – George Eliot
“Poetry is an echo, asking a shadow to dance.” – Carl Sandburg
Summer lingers and leads the dance a bit longer. The last waltz coming as summer begins the release to fall. Temperatures swing from 40s in the morning to 80s in the afternoon. Early sunsets shortening the light span of each day. The grass growth slows, preparing for rest, dormancy and rejuvenation.
As summer takes its last waltz and fall appears in one leaf turning to brilliant orange followed by the next and next, enter the gift of transition time. Grateful for what was then releasing it to sweet memory, opening arms to ready for what is to come.
Each season builds and weaves into the next, often for reasons we do not know in the now. Trust the surety and process of seasons, transitions and new beginnings. While often not on our time, never failing and always the right time. Awaken and enter the flow, ease and glide of the last waltz.
“Go, sit upon the lofty hill, And turn your eyes around, Where waving woods and waters wild Do hymn an autumn sound. The summer sun is faint on them— The summer flowers depart— Sit still— as all transform’d to stone, Except your musing heart.” – Elizabeth Barrett Browning, The Autumn
“Winter is an etching, spring a watercolor, summer an oil painting and autumn a mosaic of them all.” – Stanley Horowitz
“Beauty is the only thing that time cannot harm. Philosophies fall away like sand, creeds follow one another, but what is beautiful is a joy for all seasons, a possession for all eternity.” – Oscar Wilde
There’s a crispness to fall’s entry. Cool mornings, warm days, cool evenings. Shorter days. Light beginning the journey to solstice. Colors shift to harvest, transition ensues. Remain present in all seasons and cycles, aware and awake to abundance in the present moment.
Keep planting, keep nurturing, keep harvesting, rooted in gratitude.
“What we plant in the soil of contemplation, we shall reap in the harvest of action.” – Meister Eckhart
“Not in his goals but in his transitions man is great. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
“We resist transition not because we can’t accept the change, but because we can’t accept letting go of that piece of ourselves that we have to give up when and because the situation has changed.”― William Bridges, The Way of Transition: Embracing Life’s Most Difficult Moments
In many cultures, the black butterfly is a symbol of transition, renewal and rebirth. A dying to the old, creating space for the new to enter. When we cling to the familiar, limiting narratives and beliefs, we waste our energy, get stuck in the past and miss the gift of new beginnings.
We are built to grow, evolve, expand, change and redirect when the road becomes a dead end. Stop circling the culdesac. Move forward into unknowing, to new beginnings, fresh starts.
The Bridges Transition Model describes the three stages of transition – endings, neutral zone and new beginnings. Allow the neutral zone to do its work and don’t get stuck there. Allow new beginnings to take center stage and welcome you home to yourself.
“transition always starts with an ending. To become something else, you have to stop being what you are now; to start doing things a new way, you have to end the way you are doing them now; and to develop a new attitude or outlook, you have to let go of the old”― William Bridges, Transitions: Making Sense of Life’s Changes
“Everything can be taken from a man or woman but one thing: the last of human freedoms to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” – Viktor E. Frankl
“Cast Light” is an invitation to release your inner light, your authentic self every day. Choose light and cast it to the world.
Featured Quotes
“Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?”― Mary Oliver
“I do not understand the mystery of grace — only that it meets us where we are and does not leave us where it found us.” — Anne Lamott
