The Tension Of Transition

This photo was taken on my evening walk yesterday, at the dinner hour, when my neighborhood enjoys the cooling off time. As I study this scene I am astonished and grateful to see the synchronicity all around us. Let me explain.

It’s been a difficult couple of weeks. I’ve set several goals for myself, goals for which I feel utterly inadequate. It’s my lifelong habit to see my world  as static:  who I am today versus who I was yesterday versus who I want to be tomorrow.  I create immense stress for myself. My goals (and feelings of inadequacy) are reflected in two of the books open beside me:  A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle, and Writing From The Inside Out by Dennis Palumbo. As I was reading the Writing book this morning I came across this passage about writer’s block:

Imagine it like this: You, the writer, stand on one plateau, staring across a chasm at another plateau at a slightly higher elevation. You want to make that creative leap to the next plateau, but your fears and doubts hold you back. … What exists in that tension–old beliefs, self concepts, past writing experiences, etc.–is what needs to be explored an understood.

And then it hit me. My habit of viewing my world as a sequence of static states is the cause of my suffering. I fail to bless and welcome and be grateful for the process. How many times have I heard the aphorism: “the journey IS the goal” and I just say (smugly) yeah, yeah, I get that.  Except when it happens to me.

And so in the midst of my distress I went for a walk yesterday evening, and these beautiful kids were skateboarding along a bumpy path, and other people were walking the same path. The Universe blesses us with synchronicity to remind us that we’re on the path of our choosing. Or, to quote another aphorism: “Coincidence?  I don’t think so!”