For many of us, the pandemic arrived in our lives with a crash, either jobs ending suddenly, school children home, illness or loss if someone you love was affected. For those in medical hot spots, overwhelm and exhaustion became your new normal. Now that it's clear we are running a marathon instead of a sprint, we can learn how to pace ourselves, to rest whenever an opportunity presents itself. Invest in good shoes.

Unlike the liminal zone that I wrote about in my last post, where the future is uncertain, unknown, and emergent, transition implies that you are moving from one place to another. That is, that you have a defined objective or goal that you are moving towards. Right now the USA is in a wrenching transition at its highest level of government, for good or ill depending on your politics. My intention in this email is not to take sides, but rather to explore how transitions work and serve us, and how we so often find our selves, “lost in transition” (if you’ll pardon the play on words from the book and movie, “Lost in Translation.)

Liminal refers to that space between, not one thing, nor quite the other, determinedly neither. This word comes to mind often these days. One of the interesting aspects of experiencing so much disruption in our lives, is that the sense of uncertainty does not stay neatly quarantined in the areas such as work or school that are actually disrupted. It is as if we experience life as more fluid, less firmly fixed around the edges, rather like a liquid that could bleed through the borders and edges we define for it.

What does a Korean Netflix series have to do with family constellations? A lot it turns out. The whole show is about either generational family dynamics gone awry or the consequences of our actions on other people (and on our potential next incarnation!) All this is mixed with comedy, a supernatural flare, and consequences in the After Life. Like a family constellation workshop, the show revels humorously in the foibles of the human condition, dips into moments of great pathos, unveils longing disguised as anger (secondary emotions!), and reveals the power of enduring love.

This is the first time our modern world has experienced a global threat (not of our own making like war, that is.) It’s normal to experience fear in the face of such uncertainty and changes in the rhythms of daily life. The human brain is able to hold only a small amount of information in conscious attention which is designed to pay attention to the world on a need-to-know-basis, and that assumes tomorrow will look mostly like today.

Tough things happen to good people all the time. It comes with being human (and not the absolute master of the universe, unfortunately). In the face of those times, courage, compassion, and connection to understanding supporters are important resources. Bert Hellinger had a saying that basically went like this: “People come seeking comfort when what they really need is courage.” I find that maintaining a positive attitude and maintaining courage are holding me in good stead. And, I have access to excellent medical care and insurance. (Thank you, former President Obama!)