The Re-start Art

 

                                             

                                Pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding!

-Khalil Gibran.

Allow your heart to be broken so that it may open!

-Rumi

    Transition, especially a major one that happens suddenly and unexpectedly in our life, "often breaks the shell" that encloses our understanding. Pain can show us where we may be resisting the breaking of the "old shell!" And it also displays how we may be fighting/escaping the emergence of a "bigger reality." Indeed, most of our pain arises from our resistance. By understanding the dynamics of the transition process, we can learn how to embrace our pain and facilitate a new life.

There are three stages in any transition process: Endings, Void, and New beginnings! Each transition begins with an ending. It is the letting go of the old before we embrace the new. The Ending is followed by Void, characterized by the feeling of emptiness and a sense of wilderness. Finally, we come to New beginnings! This resembles an ancient ritual called "rite of passage." Anthropologists like Victor Turner and Roy Rappaport have recognized that each rite of passage has three stages: SEPARATION, INITIATION, &RETURN. In the first stage of separation, the initiate (the person who is undertaking the ritual) is removed from the old order. It symbolizes death. In the Initiation, the individual encounters many challenges of "no-where-ness' and finally re-crafts the purpose of his/her existence. In the final step-Return, the individual is integrated back as a renewed person. Apostle Paul reiterates this transition process by saying;" Put off your old nature which belongs to your former manner of life… and be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new nature, created after the likeness of God (Eph.4;22-24).

Joseph Campbell observes that every mythological hero follows a very similar path that of an initiate-Separation -initiation-return. "A hero/heroine ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder. And the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow beings." Each of us going through a transition is a potential hero/heroine, for we are leaving our old familiar world to venture into unmapped territory, not knowing what is ahead. Each change promises us a wonderful gift of freedom and power. But it demands a heart to take up the art of re-start!