In a recent Nourishing Movement class, as I bobbled the shift from one movement to the next, these words bubbled out, “Transitions are the tricky parts.” Truth…in movement and otherwise.
Right now, we are all in the midst of a massive transition: feeling our way, choosing what to do and not do, what to keep and what to let go.
Over the years, I’ve written often about my personal, often jangly, transitions. For the next few weeks, I’ll revisit some pieces I’ve written to see what they might have to offer all of us for this big, sticky, tricky, communal one.
AUG 5 2018
While I was traveling last month, I experienced and witnessed lots of transition. Traveling itself (and, heck, life itself) is a string of transitions from place to place, stage to stage, day to day, moment to moment.
During the trip, I watched family members make some big transitions with grace, generosity, humility, acceptance, kindness. It was a privilege to behold. I came back from my time with them wondering how I could be more graceful and smooth with the transitions of my own life.
The truth is that many of my transitions have been anything but. They’ve been bumpy and awkward and full of resistance and pouting. But the thing is, even those kinds of transitions are powerful and worth embracing.
There is a famous photograph taken by Annie Leibovitz of Whoopi Goldberg in a tub of milk. I love this piece for a bunch of reasons but just this week a friend told me that her pose was a complete mistake. She slipped when she got in the tub and Leibovitz caught it. (You can see it and the stories behind some of her other famous portraits here.)
My transition from being married when I was 25 to not being married when I was 29 was a bumpy, ugly, tearful mess. It was not graceful. It was not smooth. AND there are few circumstances in my life that I have learned more from.
Whoopi’s transition into the milk tub may have been smooth (shloooop!) but it was also awkward and unexpected — and it was an opportunity for great creativity.
We’re all transitioning all the time. What transition are you in right now? Whatever it is, however it is, I hope you embrace it, lean into it and get curious about what happens next.