Let’s talk about the time in between.
William Bridges refers to it as “the neutral zone.” But it’s more like putting a car in Neutral than something we feel neutral about.
Futurist Marilyn Ferguson has referred to this time as like being “between trapezes,” with nothing to hold onto. Emotionally, that seems about right. I’ve written about it before, as the “hell of the hallway.” We’re in suspended animation for a time. But how long?
Continue reading “In Between”It’s the tail end of summer where I live. Last week, I was on a quick road trip in the US, where school starts a bit earlier than in most parts of Canada. We saw lots of families eating breakfast in our hotels who were clearly travelling to drop almost-grown kids off at college — jam packed minivans, stressed students and sad parents trying to hold it together, and occasionally younger siblings watching with a mix of envy and eye rolling.
Continue reading “A Season of Bird Launching “In last week’s Wiser by Choice book club, it was the first time I compared three books with identical titles (and three others not far off). The unifying theme was “friction” and it’s really gotten me thinking. As Roger Dooley writes in his book Friction, once you put on your “friction goggles” it’s hard not to see examples of friction everywhere. (My parking experience at the Toronto airport at 4:30 a.m. this morning was not pretty…)
Continue reading “Friction Goggles”My mom and my four-year-old granddaughter Tatum are having an ongoing conversation these days about the difference between needs and wants. A recent installment went like this:
Grandma: “I’m going grocery shopping, Tatum. Grandad asked me to get him some ‘wants’ not just ‘needs.’ What do you think I should buy him?”
Tatum: “Definitely cookies.”
“But what if we just want things to stay the same?”
I hear you, sister!
When things are in a constant state of flux, grief is a common and appropriate reaction. And it often shows up as frustration.
We don’t only grieve specific losses, such as the death of a loved one or the loss of a job, but change itself — its existence, its relentlessness — can elicit feelings of grief too.
Continue reading “The Grief of Change”
