In the depth of winter… there was in me an invincible summer
Yesterday, after leading worship services at UU churches around New England for the last several weeks, I came home and lead the service at my own UU church in Hartland VT. The theme was personal healing and transformation through life changes and transitions.
We know in our heads that life is change, life is full of transitions, but we don’t often see change as transformational. We don’t welcome many of the changes in our life, certainly not the unexpected ones, or the ones where we lose something precious. Those changes we may well resist and feel deeply aggrieved.
I’ve been thinking a lot about this lately, especially this month being the anniversary of two huge life changing events in my life. One was the fire at my childhood home, nearly 50 years ago, and the other was the death of my mother 3 years ago. What I’ve discovered from my own inner work is that such changes and transitions can truly be transformative and renewing, IF we are willing to experience them fully. It means experiencing what Miriam Greenspan calls the “dark emotions” of grief, despair, and fear around major events – not