deep thoughts

Monday, September 22, 2014









tiny breaking wave on the crescent beach / the view from the end of Water. St. / morning dew / snapdragon-ish yellow yellow wildflowers / a meadow of Queen Anne's Lace / I heart gulls / from inside a meadow / skinny, shaggalicious Winnie Dixon legs - early morning harbour side boardwalk

What we call the beginning is often the end.
And to make an end is to make a beginning.
The end is where we start from.
T. S. Eliot

Transitions is not simply a manual on how to cope; rather, it is based on the theory of personal development that views transition as the natural process of disorientation and reorientation marking the turning points in the path go growth. Throughout nature, growth involves periodic accelerations and transformations: things go slowly for a time and nothing seems to happen – until suddenly the eggshell cracks, the branch blossoms, the tadpole's tail shrinks away, the leaf falls, the bird jolts, the hibernation begins. With us it is the same. Although the signs are less clear than in the world of feather and leaf, the functions of transition times are the same. They are key times in the natural process of development and self renewal. Without an understanding of such natural times of transition, we are left impossibly hoping that change will bypass us and let us go on with our lives s before. If we have learned on thing, it is that change will happen – that change is the norm and somehow or other we will need to develop ways of dealing productively with it.

William Bridges / Transitions: Making Sense of Life's Changes / from Chapter 1 - The Need for Change

Not all those who wander are lost
J. R. Tolkien

Considering that we all have to deal with endings all our lives, most of us handle them poorly. This is in part because we misunderstand them and take them too seriously or not seriously enough. We take them too seriously by confusing them with finality – that's it, all over, never more, finished ! We see them as something without sequel, forgetting that they are the first phase of the transition process and a precognition of self-renewal. At the same time, we fail to take them seriously enough. Because they scare us, we try to avoid them.

William Bridges / Transitions: Making Sense of Life's Changes / from Chapter 5 - Endings

not wandering x stuck x lost = very stuck + very lost

I realize that I have been afraid to wander, afraid to wander ahead into my future, especially my future with a different address, without 29 Black Street (not the blog the home) and it's taken me a long time to solidify these thoughts (as is par for my course). By not allowing myself to really go to that place in my mind (& desires) where I do live somewhere else, walk somewhere else, do different things, see different people and live a much simpler, potentially easier, more stimulating life ...
& one that most likely will be without two senior pets (Bleet & Winnie) I have made myself feel incredibly stuck and incredibly lost. Desperate even. Despair. Saying goodbye to Bleet Thursday was a push, or a slap ... a reminder that change is happening with or without me so I best get with the program.

I used to have a copy of William Bridges book Transitions bought back at that other time, nearly 5 years ago to the day when I was also trying to wrap my mind around leaving 29 Black Street. I couldn't find the book so I bought another copy that and a copy of Gay Hendrick's book The Big Leap.

here's to new adventures, much more wandering & some very big leaping ;-)

6 comments:

  1. Beautiful images dear Susan, those yellow snapdragon-ish wildflowers are so pretty, also Winnie's cute legs.
    Some endings are new beginnings but not when someone we love abandons us or we lose a beloved pet.
    I would welcome some change in my life, I would like some ongoing happiness for a change.
    Love, Dianne
    xoxoxo ♡

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  2. I have the Tolkein quote stuck on my laptop. It's my mantra.

    What is the object in the air in the 2nd image ?

    I look forward to trailing along behind you on your adventures ...

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  3. Here's to you and your potentially exciting future! I like the idea of it being self-renewal, even if there is loss along the way.....

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  4. Dear Dianne I'm hoping that lots of big, happy change is winding it's way to you. In the spirit of - when one door closes another opens ... this quote from Pinterest is for you sweet one "Sometimes the bad things that happen in our lives put us directly on the path to the best things that will ever happen to us". xoxo Susan

    Sybil the object in the air is a crow in flight ;-) thank you for trailing along beside me xoxo

    & much love to the Team, to Rachel & of course to the handsome gardener xo s

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  5. See that's one good thing about moving... you will be able to find both of the books! Change is good, truly. You'll be happy in the end, and proud of yourself. It'll be a new freshness and will bring you new energy and inspiration.

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  6. These are all very good thoughts and a pointer to where you were going for sure. I certainly need to d a better job keeping up with you, dear Susan. Sorry. Life gets so busy but we think of you often. So good to be able to go back and catch up, as it were.

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