Transition: Noun: The process or a period of
changing from one state or condition to another.
Talking
with a friend yesterday about unexpected life changes caused by health
conditions, I was reminded of my early adult life when health challenges caused
my body to not function the way I needed it to as I began to fulfill my life
long dream of country living. My dream became derailed at the same time it was
becoming a reality.
Miraculously,
I recognized the letting go process necessary to move forward. This
process of grief and adjustment is one I've had to repeat many times, not
without struggle.
My
friend also lives with a life-changing health challenge. We discussed how
traumatic events are a component of life, no one escapes them in one form or
another, yet understanding them as an inevitable part of living, to be used as
a catalyst, is not taught to children.
And how
would you teach it, without causing anticipatory fears?
Watching
the preview of the documentary, "Class of 9/11" about 6 year olds,
now 16, who witnessed the attack on the World Trade Center and were evacuated
from their school located close to the site, I was struck by how the different
young people assimilated the horrific experience. I think about
children worldwide who witness and experience trauma at an early age.
Many grow strong, becoming agents of change in their communities; others
suffer from post-traumatic stress, depression, even suicide. Is the difference in their personal
make-up? In how they are taught to
view the experience?
I think
about the fires raging in Texas, destroying homes and leaving behind charred
land where few people will want to return and rebuild lives. Yet nature will return, many plants
even thriving in the blackened remains.
Much is
written about how to engage young people more with Nature. The concern is that
without an appreciation of Nature, the technology-raised generations will not
care for and preserve it. Perhaps the importance of understanding Nature
is not only for the environment’s sake, but also for our own psychic survival.
Nature
is a magnificent example, the best teacher of the cycle of destruction, change,
and rebirth. It is constantly adapting to it's own challenges - a river
changes direction after a land slide or earthquake, wildflowers bloom in
profusion following flooding, and, like the mythical Phoenix, there are plants
which require fire to exist.
Nature also constantly adapts to the unpredictability (from it's point
of view!) of human impact. People cause trauma to the earth in small and
grand ways, yet the earth seems to rebound, recreate, restore itself. Yes,
there are concerns about how much trauma certain environments can endure, but
looking at Nature’s recovering process has helped to understand what Nature
needs to survive, and it might help teach us that rebounding, changing course,
redefining is part of living. If
taught that we too may need fire to thrive, might we then be better prepared
for the inevitable sufferings in life?
(I wasn’t
sure where this was going, but I had this photo to share and butterflies are certainly
wonderful examples of transitions, perhaps not brought on from trauma, since their
process of metamorphosis is part of their life cycle. But again, Nature teaches
– using its inevitable change to emerge to a higher place, the butterfly is an age-old
metaphor. Enjoy my resident
Lorquin’s Admiral!)
