Both William Bridges (the classic and best) and Julia Cameron (of The Writers' Way) really get transitions.
From Julia's Transitions: (gift from my Hawaii friend a few months ago after Marina recommended it)
The door to the future may stick when we try to open it. Not all transitions are easy or graceful. Sometimes out past is done before our future seems quite ready. We are caught in the corridor of in between, a limbo that feels awkward and uncomfortable. At times like these we must practice the art of containment. Soon enough the future will unfold, the door will swing open and the way be clear. In the meanwhile, we can consider the distance we have come already, the lessons we have leaned and the chapters closed. By pausing to appreciate our growth, we find outselves more restful than restless. The wheel will turn and find us ready.
[end of Julia]
From William, whose Transitions has been on my top bookshelf for 25 years:
[Too many people are] change-heavy and transition-light. Change and transition are different, and both are necessary for any significant change to work.
As I use the term, change is a shift in the externals of any situation: a new boss, setting up a new program, the death of a relative, a move to a new city, or a promotion.
By contrast, transition is the mental and emotional transformation that people must undergo to relinquish old arrangements and embrace new ones.
Transition has three phases: an Ending, a disorienting sort of "nowhere" that I call The Neutral Zone, and a new Beginning. If people don't deal with each of these phases, the change will be just a rearrangement of the furniture. And then we say, "It didn't work."
[end of William]
Ah, "the corridor of in between" and "a disorienting sort of 'nowhere'"--as Sue Monk Kidd puts it, "this spiritual waiting [is like] that of the caterpillar in the cocoon waiting to become a butterfly . . . [and] we tend to be long on butterflies and short on cocoons."
But, in the "corridor of in between,"in the "Neutral Zone," in the "cocoon," I howl, "How long, O Lord, how long?" (Psalm 13)
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
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3 comments:
Oh, sister! Are you where I am right now? Because even though our life journeys are different at this point in time, it seems we are both in the "the corridor of in between". And, boy, does that not feel good, at all. Can I join you in your howling? We could harmonise, you know?
Gosh, there is someone else in the corridor! I feel less alone, and no, the emptiness does not feel good. Let's howl together!
ha-ooooOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!
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