Transitions

 "I am breathing deep and finding peace in the in-betweens" -Morgan Harper Nichols

When he stepped down off the platform from the plane,  his feet landed on solid ground, and he walked briskly towards us, I could feel everyone's collective exhale. Mark's brother, Carl, was finally here in person after seven years of weekend calls, face times, and cards, we got to see his infectious smile and embrace him in a hug. My only task was to document the forty-eight hours he was with us. I started out strong, as one does with five photos at the airport and two or three back at our house as he curled into the sunshine on our back deck and made his way in for a swim.  As I prepared to send a couple of these photos to his family in Vancouver to assure them he had arrived safely, I had a bitter-sweet feeling in the pit of my stomach. Knowing that we would be sending him off now in a couple of sleeps to the next leg of his adventure, I was consciously aware of what a transition this was going to be.

This was only one of the many transitions that seemed to sandwich us all in the in-between.  As we all near the end of summer transition, holidays, possible work hour shifts and locations,  new schools and learning situations or transitional years to new careers, or in the case of our youngest daughter, the continued transition to what I have previously referred to as a transition to life.  This summer I gave myself the role of Captain of the transition ship. Hiring, planning, executing schedules, activities, summer camp opportunities, and learning.  It was a huge transition to learning new things for myself that came with a lot of failures and adjusting our sails in another direction.  Now the transitioning needed to be to something more concrete, structured, and overseen by the village, I had been encouraged to believe in for the past several years of schooling.  For a few weeks now, posting ads for a personal support worker, and approaching both the job training facilities in our area for options, we met many dead ends and roadblocks.  Realizing why this transition was bearing more weight was the reality that there was nothing to catch us on the other side of this leap. Maybe you too are in a transition with a similar feeling. 

A transition is defined as the process or a period of changing from one state or condition to another.  If this is true then a transition lands us between an ending and a beginning. It is a process that may require letting go of one place or thing to open space for a new destination or experience. This must also mean that possibilities live and breathe in transitions. Possibilities to uncover solutions, possibilities for growth, new ideas, and ways of seeing old routines and patterns. Possibilities for new approaches, changing directions, mindfulness, and expansion. Like the temporary tattoo I had recently been gifted, in the transition, we have the ability to try on a new scenario without fully committing to the direction or destination.  This had me contemplating that we are all experiencing or in the process of one transition or another and in which case how we approach this transition can open us to possibilities not yet considered and this is where our life is lived, in the space between real or imagined destinations.  

As the sun transitions further away from the earth right now, we begin to feel the effects of this process with cooling temperatures, changes in the color of the sky, and darkness moving in earlier. The sun going through this transition does not move back or cling to its last position or anticipate its next for the Fall/Winter seasons but just continues to change its axis tilt ever so slightly, each day that presents itself.  We too are transitioning at this time of year to schools,  schedules, seasons, and relationships. Some of us are even transitioning from one plane of consciousness, thought, or opinion to another.  

One place that continues to challenge me to more fully understand and become comfortable with transitions is my yoga practice.  We are often focused on our mat, on the next pose, our mind may begin to create stories about how challenging it may be or whether we will succeed or fail. These poses become the destination we are seeking like in life.  However, the real practice and benefit of yoga comes when we bring our attention to the process, the transitions. When we can see the transitions on or off the mat as the journey, we can see how each pose or life step we take or do not, supports the next pose or in life, the next destination.  Journeying with this presence brings awareness that it's not about the shapes we can make or where the next step takes us. The fluidity, flow, and movement that happens throughout are actually as important or more so. It has the power to actually change, or improve the destination with this kind of presence of mind.  If we are living in this middle space, the between, then we can create a space here for things to become part of a destination that others may not ever have had the courage to dream possible, remembering that possibilities get lost when we are only destination driven.   If we stay focused on destinations, we can risk being swallowed by the fear of them and the limitations of seeing them through the eyes of those who have transitioned here before.  I often think of the example of the "back to school" when I think of a transition and listening to experts discuss this previously, the idea of there being no "back to" anything when transitioning makes so much sense. There is only going towards something new and taking the present moments with new students and new eyes in possible new directions and towards new destinations.  Children's days are jammed with transitions and as adults, parents, and teachers, it is our role to model ease and presence within the changes for them.  As well as offering an understanding that we don't have to go back to rigid scheduling, activities that don't feel right, rushing and being destination driven.  We can stay longer in the in-betweens, model mindful movement throughout our days and create schedules that support, flow and question or even challenge where we are headed, what we did before, and why. We can check in with how everyone is feeling about moving on, and protect the energy here in the middle, in the present. This is where quality of life is created. 

Like a good book, we can rush through all of the chapters to arrive and see how it ends or we can devour each word, contemplate phrases, develop images of characters, and hang in the sweetness of this space as we move through. We know we will arrive at the end of the book but let's arrive with all of the elements, emotions, and energy of life we breathed into the story with the help of the author. 

As for my own transitions. Carl is gone now and we are lingering here until everyone is ready to move on.  We are stretching out the experience and the feels.  For my other transitions and maybe for your own we can repeat the mantra at the beginning of my writing today to let go gently of the destinations, those given but not supported. Maybe there is some part of the process you are in that needs you to hold out hope for an easeful transition and just maybe you will also be part of creating a destination maybe not yet imagined by someone else.  For now, let's linger here where the fullness of life is. Moving, flowing, breathing, and adjusting our axis like the sun, a little more each day.