It’s a new year – almost a full month in – and that implies for me a new life. In March I have another 10-month program starting for women in transition: Transitioning into Freedom, Transformation, and Passion (along with power, impact, & purpose.) It is solely the byproduct of my love of transition and recognizing that, for many, transition is thought of as a scary, ungrounded time where they focus on what is being lost or left behind rather than looking forward to an exciting time of new beginnings, a new life force, and new dreams.
It can be so simple. Yesterday, a dear friend asked me to come to her house to help paint an old mahogany desk that had seen better days. After sanding, priming, and two coats of paint, a renewed and fresh looking, beautiful, piece existed. Of course, that then inspired her to want all the basement walls painted making the whole area a fresh, new, and social setting. Why not? That’s a project for another day that I know we will complete.
She said to me, “I’ve never done this before (perhaps too intimidating?) and yet your eyes just light up in joy.” It’s because, for me, it is always a new beginning. Before we were done, she was discussing new scatter rugs, new pillows for the couches, hanging new paintings she could put on the walls. She was coming alive with possibilities.
New dreams come when we take a risk and add new life to a location or even to ourselves. Rather than resolutions which rarely last, what new life have you ventured to undertake as we leave 2022 behind and move forward into a new year? In what way are you committed to coming alive? What new dream or expanded dream are you calling yourself forward to? Who is holding you accountable?
Not surprisingly, that new way of doing your life, that new or expanded dream, calls you to take a look at your body since it is what is carrying you into the new adventures. What does it need? What does it want? More sleep each night? More movement of whatever sort that fits you? More water each day? These gifts that have carried us into each of the many experiences we have had over our journeys need to be tended to as well. Think of the joy they have brought us.
Perhaps you are 1, 5, 10, or even 30 years older since your last transitioning period. Obviously, your physical needs have changed. We are no longer 20 or 30 and some of us are no longer 40, 50, or 60. How that happened is always a mystery but thank God it did. It means we are still here.
This willingness, if not joy, of a new life, renewed body, and new dreams, opens up possibilities you never knew were there. Either because you were afraid to look or perhaps because only now are you ready for what that next transition is calling you towards. Go for it because only then may you discover even more. More joy, more freedom, and more passion could be waiting. They just need you to risk jumping into a new life experience and all that that entails…
Have a great week!
