Transitions
by Kayce Stevens Hughlett
“In his book Transitions, William Bridges says: “Every transition begins with an ending. We have to let go of the old thing before we can pick up the new one—not just outwardly, but inwardly.” It feels like I am always letting go of something. Something forever ending. A new thing beginning. At times, the transition is joyful. Other times it’s heartbreaking. Occasionally it goes unnoticed. Letting go of even the hard stuff is not easy. Welcoming in the new can be terrifying. Transition seems to be the way we move forward and grow. If nothing changes, our lives become stagnant.” KSH - As I Lay Pondering: daily invitations to live a transformed life
I’ve been thinking a lot about transitions lately. As I write this piece, I’m preparing for a transition from home to extended travel while I continue to integrate the in-depth time of exploring the transition to elderhood I experienced at Aldermarsh with Joanna Powell Colbert. (See September 1 post, A Note from the Inner Elder).
Daybreak to morning, afternoon to evening, evening to night, and each movement throughout the day is transition or threshold. (I’m pondering whether those two words (transition & threshold) hold the same energy. Methinks they do. What about you?) As you read this post in late September, we are experiencing two more significant transitions: one from Virgo sun season to Libra sun; the other from summer to fall in the Northern Hemisphere.
The more I ponder, the more I come to believe that living and growing older is simply a matter of one transition to another … like a breath prayer … breathing in and breathing out. I adore that it is exactly these movements that we are exploring here in the Garden of Old Bones… these cycles of life, rhythms of the wheel, astrological turns, and time outside of time. And in this vein of cycles, I shall finish this post where I began with the August 26 post from As I Lay Pondering: daily invitations to live a transformed life.
“Beginnings and endings are the way of life. Our lives begin at birth and end when we breathe our last breath on earth. The sun rises in the morning only to set in the evening. The hours of the day circle ’round the clock. We have to say hello before we can say good-bye. We have to let go before we can receive.”
I’d love to know your thoughts on transitions and thresholds. Do you notice them, welcome or reject them? What feels like the big “transition” for you around the experience of growing older. (You know we ALL do it if we’re still breathing …grow older that is). How (or what) do you let go, so you can receive more abundantly the gifts of these thresholds?