Winds of Change

It seems as though the past several months has been very consistent: that the only constant in life is CHANGE.  Like so many of us, I have found myself tying up loose ends in the mist of strong winds of change.  How to stand strong while going with the flow? From evaluating what is working and not working in my life, to clearing out items that are no longer needed. I have had to get tough with myself (gentle tough love) to release patterns of acting as well as reexamining attitudes that once served me well, but are now feeling faded.

I have been through similar purging episodes earlier in life. It sounds straight forward, but this time it has been different; where the definition of the word ‘thorough‘ takes on new meaning and I find myself approaching every day tasks from different angles. This process involves making friends with shadows, dusty dark corners of not just of my cupboards , drawers and closets, but also of my attitudes… making peace with my inner shadows as I clean out my drawers. Expressing gratitude as a way to make peace with old hurts…. bringing love into the mixture of sadness and acceptance.

I have been deeply inspired by Maria Condo’s Tidying Up strategy for my physical house. Of course, it has felt glorious to purge cabinets and closets (which I am still tackling). But the process out outward cleansing has triggered the shedding of many more layers than just outward appearances. A comprehensive restructuring is still underway and it is still difficult to see the light at the end of the tunnel, but such profound transformation is worth it.

A powerful metaphor presented itself to me while standing in line at the grocery store…. a symbol of this restructuring of life as I know it. Now, I am a bit weird when it comes to grocery shopping. Some folks detest grocery stores. But I love my neighborhood H.E.B. grocery, where I can find everything from healthy organics to technological necessities. And I feel grateful for the resources to meet the needs of my family with such convenience.

Anyway, the metaphor came as I was checking out. Down the conveyor belt rolled a dichotomy of the restructuring of not only my life, but the life passages of my family. I realized that I was buying family supplies for both a parent’s Hospice and my daughter’s Baby Shower. That tender place in the heart serves the same love of holding dear ones, regardless of age. And yet, it also highlights how physical existence that rests on the head of a pin.

The clearing of space in the home is but a reflection of restructuring the mental and emotional paradigm, to prepare for new ways of being. I believe that to commit to releasing  what is no longer needed with gratitude is to surrender to unknown benevolent forces for good. For it is the love that endures all things, beyond time and space. Indeed, if there is anything, any particle, any force, any wave that can travel faster than the speed of light, it is LOVE!