When change

Arrives like a hurricane

Change can appear like a wispy sea breeze, almost imperceptibly rearranging elements of your life. At other times all you once knew can disappear in a second. A shouted no. A telephone call. A key left on a hall cabinet. And everything you’ve worked so very hard to build vanishes.

You watch, as all you clung to and thought defined you, splinters and shatters. The hurricane departs and you are left to stand in the rubble and survey.

You shake in fear as you feel the wreckage parting and a chasm appearing. A chasm that appears to have no bottom and no light. And there you stand, desperately searching for a glimpse of the life you once knew.

You feel the breeze of despair rising from the crevasse and listen to the unearthly stillness of this time. Your world has disintegrated, but the world outside of you is carrying on as normal. A man whistles as he walks down your street. A child laughs. A dog chases a ball. And all you want to do is scream and point to the debris at your feet and insist the world stops and pays attention to your suffering. Except it doesn’t. It carries on regardless of your anguish and fear, seemingly uncaring.

There is something beautiful in this neutrality, although at first you think this lack of validation will crack you in two. Life carries on, to call you forward, not to crush you. It is whispering to you.

It is calling you to look outside the theatre of your wild mind, full of dread and longing. It is the wind of change and it is showing you not wreckage, but possibility. It is asking if you glimpse some beauty in this ferociously unfamiliar place?

Look, whispers the wind of change. Look past all that’s crumbled and see the space that you’ve created. Because do not think you had no hand in creating this. Everything is a co-creation and despite your horror, you have called this in. And it is too late to erase those silent prayers and idle wonderings, even though you would dearly love that option.

And we have to get up. We must get up and marvel at the space, particularly when it feels terrifying. We must trust that beauty can emerge from the most unexpected circumstances. Creation is always active and a new life will spring forth. There is simply no other option than something new being born.

And it is better to sit in that place of curiosity, than stay looking backwards at what we had or fearfully project forward. In that limbo land, contained in the landscape of our head, we are as far removed from the present as is possible. And the present is the only reality there is. All the rest is story. Convincing and visceral, but story nonetheless. Now is a time to anchor in reality. We can’t see the gifts in what we resist. We remain blind to their possible bounty. So we have to trust and walk forward in this alien landscape.

We have to grasp the tiny moments of beauty and hope as they fleetingly appear and hold those close by. In time the buds will grow into something more substantial. The blossom will appear again. The light we long for will brighten and lengthen and one again, we will feel warmth on our skin and feel content. As impossible and unfeasible as that may sound after the storm has just departed.

And the bravery is to see life as it really is. You will not stay lost and terrified for ever. A new life will and must emerge and life will keep gifting you the opportunity to create. This is your time to become a creator and fill your blank canvas. Do not be scared to gather and crowd your life with as many slivers of hope and beauty and fun as you can imagine. Now is the time to claim every shred.

Curiously explore all you are creating with a childlike awe and know with certainty that the tide will turn again. There is no other option. That is where to put all your love and trust.