Letting Go

Maybe it's not the new beginning that frightens us as much as the process needed to embrace it. The 3 step process of change begins with the end and ends with the beginning; but, oh, that anxiety-producing middle step of not knowing the what or when creates tension.

We're waiting in the place with names like, the wilderness, void, middle-muddle, even neutral zone, and that doesn't sound like a place we want to be. We prefer to go directly to the next chapter of life. We don't understand why we need to spend time - and time is the issue - in a state of uncertainty. Why can't I just move on?

One reason we can't "just move on" is because often we want to do it without acknowledging what's been left behind. Change begins with the end of something. When we don't identify our old reality, our old identity, we take remnants of it with us. When the Israelites came out of Egypt, they couldn't let go of their identification with Egypt. When they felt challenged by the trek through the wilderness, they kept wanting to return to Egypt and were never able to make it to the Promised Land.

Just as with the birth experience - we can't go back to the womb - so too with transition. We can't go back to the old experience. We must move forward. We must let go of our affiliations with the past, shake off old patterns and routines and prepare for our next experience.

This "letting go" tends to disrupt our idea of new beginnings. We want the new without the work of releasing the old. But it is from the loss of what was that we gain perspective and understanding to move forward into what's next.

Where are you in the change process - letting go, exploring the uncertainty or moving ahead? Wherever you are, there is a path set before you. Take it ... it leads to the adventure called life!