How long do transitions take?
I was speaking with a dear and forever friend today, about his transition from the work he used to do . . . into whatever the new phase will be.
“I’m the busiest person without a job ever.”
He’s digging his transition. He’s purging old files. He’s clearing away life debris that’s built up over time. He’s decluttering. He’s exploring possibilities. He’s working closer with his partner.
In some ways transitions are instantaneous. You quit a job and you have transitioned instantly to jobless. You lose a lover and you have transitioned immediately to loverless.
It’s the aftermath of a transition we grapple with.
As we spoke it hit me that Ann and I have been in transition since the 2008 financial crisis spun our business into near collapse. For years.
In a hot flash we transitioned into desperation and urgency and sometimes going to prayerful meditation many times in a day to achieve equilibrium. And grace. We simultaneously transitioned into grace. Surprise assistance came in unexpected and at times near-miraculous ways.
After it was evident we’d survived when most of our local competitors had not (7 out of 10 galleries in our area went under within two years), we transitioned to relief.
Now we have transitioned to wary acceptance. Once you’ve gone through something cataclysmic in your world there’s always this in your mind: Cataclysm can visit again. And cataclysms often come unannounced.
We’ve also transitioned to exuberant claw back. We’re excited to be standing. We’re daunted a little by the enormity of what we need to claw back, but only a little.
Those who survive are sometimes crushed, sometimes elevated. I feel elevated. Ecstatically alive even. The stages of disaster and recovery have shown me in a way I could never have understood intellectually that all you can do in any given period is what you can do.
It sounds simplistic. Yet that simplicity frees you. Whether you are transitioning from divorce or into an explosive business opportunity, you are freed to live it fully.
Everything is a transition, whether we know it or not.
If you are a parent your child is evolving in quantum leaps before your eyes. Even rote jobs transition. Your relationship to mundane tasks changes over time. Sometimes you are enthralled with the requirements of your life, sometimes you are overwhelmed. All you can do is what you can do.
Every phase you’ve lived through was in reality a transition. You are transitioning right now!
If you close your eyes and peer into your current life stream, you’ll become aware of the transitions. Even in a life that seems repetitive.
How long do transitions take?
Sometimes years.
And it’s phenomenal. As in, a phenomena worth celebrating.
Transitioning is where the growth happens. It’s where the juice and the challenge is. It’s what you came here for, to fully and creatively experience your self enlarging.
For you —
Evan Griffith
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