I suspect that many of you have been experiencing some significant transitions over the past years that have caused some concern and consternation. I also suspect that some of these transitions have caused some surprise and delight. Noticing that change contains a myriad of feelings, thoughts and actions is the beginning of accepting what comes and what goes, ebbs and flows in our lives. Making peace with this is crucial to our wholeness and wellbeing. The benefits of transition come from within.

Jim was a driver, an entrepreneur that thrived on building and getting things done. He started a business with one truck and built it into a fleet of trucks and services. He continued to build while some of his employees tore at the fabric of what he was building. He leveraged, overcommitted financially and ultimately lost his business. The loss dropped him in between this ending and a new beginning. He got depressed and angry, struggled, bargained, quit, struggled some more, gave up and finally relaxed long enough to find the step beyond, into a whole new beginning and way of being.

Every transition we’re in challenges us to grow and change; it’s the nature of Life. Having lived my entire life in environments with four seasons I’ve come to know that winter leads to spring which leads to summer which leads to autumn which again leads to winter and so on and; every season has its own uniqueness every year. We observe and participate in the many seasons of life that take us from childhood to adolescence, through the various stages of adulthood and beyond. “There is no beginning that doesn’t require an ending and no ending that doesn’t make possible a new beginning.”

When I reflect back to the nineteen fifties when I was a boy, the sixties when I was an adolescent, the seventies when I was a young man, the eighties, nineties and the first two and a half decades of the twenty first century; I’m amazed at the changes and  enormous transitions that have taken place and continue to take place in our world. The task in all transitions is to remain faithful to the inner promptings of our soul’s code and not get lost in the extraneous external variables that change like the wind.

I no longer complain about the heat of summer, the cold of winter, the rain of spring and the loss of foliage in autumn. I no longer want to be a teen-ager, a college student, a free wheeling hipster, a rock star or man about town. Being in transition is a way of embracing life, of laughing and crying, living and dying. It’s the way of transformation from one breath to another, one day to another, one season to another, one stage of life to another. It’s the way life is and the way it will always be and we’re all a part of it.

Our choice here is to affirm the best in whatever is happening and heal the rest. It’s adding a third neutralizing/reconciling energy to every duality. This simple zone between endings and beginnings is the intervening space that can create a fourth way that’s new, transformative, healing and co-creative as we attend to it. It’s the way we can positively grow each day with one another and bring new life wherever we are.

The pause at the end of each breath as we inhale and exhale is the soul’s code that asks us to stop, look and listen before we cross the street and play for keeps. It’s the moment between here and there, the rest between musical notes, the space between words, the open possibilities for new creation. When we open to this space and give attention to it, we are literally drawn closer together. Here our thoughts, words, feelings and actions don’t get in the way. Here, for a moment, we simply relax in Presence.

Letting go, opening in between and beginning anew is the dynamic rhythm of Life with all its transitions. You can fight it and lose a hundred percent of the time or you can relax, release and realign with your inner guidance system, Inner Being, soulful Presence. The choice is always ours. How are you Being in your transitions . . . ?

• In your daily breathing practice bring attention to the end of each inhale and exhale of breath. Notice the short pause where everything stops and there is a spacious restful moment. Simply experience this ‘in between’ space and allow it to inform your thoughts, words and actions. Allow it to inform the composure of your Life moments.
• Begin to recognize the endings, in between spaces and beginnings along the path of your day to day life. Become aware of letting go, resting and beginning anew with attentiveness. Why and what are you letting go of and letting come to you? Where are you when you’re in between these endings and beginnings? Allow the in-between space to be one of Presence where you reconcile all opposites, conflicts, confusion.
• As you become aware of the interconnected nature of all endings, in-between spaces and new beginnings, play with ongoing alignment, transcendence and inclusion. Slow down, relax and enter into the now moments of surprise and delight. Grow into your new beginnings moment by moment, breath by breath, day by day . . .