Transitions

Every time I think of a title to a post, I immediately think of what image I have that would, graphically, describe that post.

Trouble is, I don’t index or tag my images…. Duh

So I’m relying on an ageing hard-drive. My brain as well as my LaCie.

When I think of this word, my mind immediately goes caterpillars to butterflies.

Not, expensive photochromic sunglasses. (it’s a super domain name isn’t it? transitions dot com. Boy do I wish I had bought that way back…$$)

When I don’t have a caterpillar to butterfly image, or whatever it is I’m looking for - I turn to Unsplash. Problem is that searching for this title in Unsplash, I get shown all of these images that look like AI. They may not be, but to my eyes, they just look too “perfect”.

Last course of action - what photos do I have (that I can remember) that could reasonably describe this word?

And you’ve got it

Changing from a knot on a stem, to new growth, soon to be leaves…

This is my young Wisteria btw I planted last year at A Little Cabin in the Alps.

I could have shared a photo of Euplagia quadripunctaria (also taken at the cabin) which some weeks prior would have looked a lot different…

In common parlance - a Jersey Moth

Anyway - transitions.

I was on a Zoom call recently where we talking about this very word.

Question was:- “how are we experiencing them?”

Great question - but let’s backtrack. What does the word actually mean?

Well, according to the Webster Dictionary, we’re talking about a change or shift from one state, subject, place, etc. to another. We can see changes (present or past) in the above images.

But as people, how do we experience transitions?

In Life. Career. Family. Finances. Spiritually. Health.

What needs accepting? Letting go of? Sitting with?

How comfortable are we? Do we want to be?

Where does challenge or sense of adventure come in? Or does it / or can it?

Big questions and not to be answered in a few minutes read here.

The conversation flowed to reading Mary Oliver’s poem “When Death Comes”. It is a remarkable poem which I have sitting on my shelf (Mary Oliver: Devotions) and encompasses the lines “tending, as all music does, towards silence"…”

However we view a changing in seasons, of life, of times, I’m encouraged by the final line of this poem “I don’t want to end up simply having visited this world”.

Crazy as the world is now these days (and I’m privileged to have lived through decades of relative “peace” in Europe unlike my parent, grandparents…) I am still mindful of the questions in that Zoom conversation.

What do I accept? Or what needs change?

In the areas of life that I have direct control over?

And that’s not related to camera settings…

Thanks for reading. Until next time…