'Tis the season. As the Jewish New Year approaches transitions and winds of change are in the air. Days are slightly shortened with a cooler evening breeze, and it is time for self-reflection again. I think about how many times in my life I have weathered all manner of transitions - the list seems endless: changing countries, continents, cities, states; leaving relationships, and entering new ones; shifting professional positions in various workplaces; moving apartments, homes, or offices; traveling or staying close; packing boxes and making sandwiches; hanging up pictures, throwing out old memorabilia, and collecting new memories; repotting plants that have outgrown their space, and throwing out old ones that have given up their ghost; switching titles, name plates, or rewriting business cards.
One would think that I would be used to it by now. However, with each change, reinvention or move, even as I joyously hail in a different era, I experience butterflies in my stomach, and feel a sense of loss. For with each transition, as positive as it is, there is a release of old ways and expectations, and a shift in relationship dynamics until settling down into new routines take place.
Necessary losses are when we shed the cocoon that nurtured our survival, as we fly up and out into unknown adventures on gossamer wings. They are times when we give up old psychological paradigms for new perspectives. Lonely, exciting, and painful ... perhaps ... but nevertheless necessary for emotional growth.
For me, arriving at a new place is hardly instantaneous or coincidence. I have been shedding ancient psychological paradigms these past few years. It has been hard, emotional work, but recently I felt it paying off as I hung up old pictures and posters in my new office, looked out at a different view through old windows, and lined up books on the shelves. I sensed all around me something quiet, peaceful, solid, and authentic. As if I arrived intentionally, and that was exactly where I wanted to be - right there - right at that moment.
A year ago at Mining Nuggets: As in being seized by the moment
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