HONORING TRANSITIONS
This week, I had the privilege of celebrating another year of this life.
Birthdays can be an interesting time to pause and reflect - to think about where we’ve been, where we want to go, what’s working well, and what we might like to shift moving forward.
In a way, we are all navigating a transition as we inch closer (hopefully) to emerging from lockdowns and quarantines and injustices and tremendous amounts of pain and suffering. The question we might consider is: how do we want to acknowledge this transition?
As a western society, we’re not particularly skillful at honoring transitions.
When someone leaves a job - and as a result, a team, a work family, and a part of their identity, we rarely pause to ask “how are you doing?” or “how are you feeling about it?” and instead immediately jump to, “what are you going to do next?”
When someone loses a pet, we are often quick to ask, “are you going to get another one?” rather than sitting in the intense period of grief.
And when we hit a big milestone in our business or our work, it can be tempting to simply move on to the next one, without celebrating or honoring what we’ve created.
If you are feeling called to honor a transition in your own life - whether related to the pandemic or, perhaps, a milestone, anniversary, or birthday on your end, here are a few potential questions to consider.
LOOKING BACK:
Where have I been?
What has worked well?
What hasn’t worked as well?
What do I want to grieve from the past?
What do I want to honor?
What do I want to celebrate?
What has been most meaningful?
LOOKING AHEAD:
What matters most in the weeks and months ahead?
What is my intention for this time?
What is my single most important priority?
What daily or weekly actions support this priority?
What do I want to keep?
What do I want to let go of?
What do I want to shift?
What about you? How do you like to mark transitions in your world?
Drop me a note anytime if you feel called to talk more.
