 Entry
Transition Support Zone
Since the Entry to any Shelter is a transition zone, let me first say something about Transition.
 In our personal world, the experience of Transition comes to each of us during those times of intense change in how we see ourselves in the world and in the lives of our loved ones just before that shift into the new when we’re not “this” anymore and we’re not “that” yet… We don’t know if we want to be “this” anymore, and we don’t really even know what “that” is. We’re in the pivotal moment of our Transformational possibilities and really stretched by the process, and as uncomfortable as can be before resolution.
Some of these opportunities that we’ve come through in ourselves, and some that we’ve had in relationship to others, are birthing, death and dying, beginning relationships, and separation, early childhood/second teeth, adolescence, pregnancy, and first weeks of Life, teething/weaning/learning to walk, parenting, mid-life/menopause, economic instabilities, and job change, illness, and disability, retirement, and loss of a loved one… We often feel overwhelmed in these changes of Life as we’ve known it, or become stuck in a resistance to change, a fear of the unknown.
  Transition is the time when we need a refuge from the confusion and complexity of the world outside, and a comforting space to share our concerns and express the doubts and uncertainty that can extend or even block these shifts of individual growth in our changing participation as human beings in the world that we hold in Common.
 When I started out as a Transition Counselor twenty-five years ago, people would often say to me, “What is Transition, and what does that really mean, anyway?” Now we are rapidly and progressively coming to understand the nature of this challenge, and its rippling effects, through the intensity of these times we’re living through. This is a time of Universal Transition of major proportions that adds a bunch of zeros to whatever number we’re already working on in our own lives.
The stakes seem particularly high now as our focus begins to shift from all that’s happening around us to how we are responding to what’s happening. We can seek to be prepared and proactive in our intent for these turn of events as they appear, and at the same time open to a calm reflecting on those awkward moments that we all have in learning from our choices and moving forward.
  It’s helpful to have a place to sort things out, weigh them against other possibilities, and find the attachments and disappointments that can turn into resentments and unfinished business that carries into the new and returns time and again. What do we want to bring forward, and what are we leaving behind? How can we even know?
 We can cry it out, sort it out, clean it up, move it around, look ahead, and hold the intention to begin to create what we see as possible, sometimes in baby steps and sometimes “in the blink of an eye.” It could come in 12 Steps, or 5 stages of grief, or hours of support in Council, or maybe just a willingness to move on… In these times of great need for Clarity in Intensity, it’s about us being here for each other, one to one, in small groups, and in vast Council Halls, sharing our Wisdom, our Love, our enCouragement, and our Vision for the opportunities in the future we are creating together.
Rituals have been enacted in the past and will be again to hold the intense insecurity of these universal turning points in a Sacred Light that signifies and protects this timeless process, as sustained by those who have come before and those who will follow. These extraordinary shifts in consciousness, and in physical enactment, have been recognized through Ceremony as the Common Ground in which all have participated, and will participate, to bring the necessary Clarity in Intensity to these tasks, and a Universal definition in time and space to the New and unKnown.
 Because of the confusion around letting go of what has been and allowing ourselves to participate in what follows, we can become overwhelmed and stuck in the sorrow of what appears to be leaving and the fear of what might be coming until some strong change or breakthrough pushes us into the opportunity to release and respond. My role as a Midwife, and in Transition Council, and for Education as well, has been to be present to hold the Light on the Process, create a safe and supportive environment, and assist when needed to help with Trust, the most important element in sorting things out, receiving the Gift, and moving along. Often it’s three steps forward and two steps back but it is movement, and movement is healing.
 It seems we are now All being called to be Midwives to Life moving into new forms, and my hope is that this Way Station can be a Light along the Way, and a safe place to pause and check in from time to time for these Journeys of the Heart we find ourselves in on the road to Peace.
In facilitating an awareness of where things stand and how they might go, we can explore our talents and interests, challenges and opportunities, responsibilities and intent – all facets of the Creative Logistics of choice and enactment. This might also show the roadblocks in our limiting interpretations and belief systems that can impede a natural creative flow into new Life, both  internally and externally. We are all experiencing a time of profound Transition both personally and Universally. The outcome is in our choices, moment by moment. That is how we create our reality in the world we hold in Common. I feel the significance in the function of our group work in this is to absorb, share, circulate, and distribute energy throughout time and space.
 As we are detached from our ingrained emotional preferences regarding relationship, and the changing truth, and Lighten up in consciousness enough to acknowledge a Bigger Picture, we can begin to move along into our next experience of Living Love. As we trust in discovering and expressing the layers of feelings that arise in moving through this process of Lightening up it gives us glimpses of the vitality of renewal that is how we heal the hurt and acknowledge the fear. It’s a process that takes us to wherever we are focusing into and choosing to dwell upon, whether it be ascent or descent…
 It seems there has come a turning point in the experiences of all of us who are making a Spiritual Approach to Life along some specialized line of thought, where a meeting place will become necessary and apparent. I suggest this meeting place is first of all in the heart of the matter where essential unity-under -adversity of forms and methods and techniques will be acknowledged, where we pilgrims on all these ways of approach can Know ourselves to be One Tribe of demonstrators of the Unity in All-That-Is. I see that meeting place in the heart as our saving Grace, and our sharing of it also, with the whole world and at the same time. By our group endeavor, we make every effort to establish that stage of Essential Oneness which will confirm our enrollment in Life as Servers of the Whole.
 A Transition Council Movement that meets in the heart and circles the globe…
 We’ve all been talking recently about the intense times we’re going through on this planet, in our families, our culture, and our world as a whole, and the ways it is affecting and influencing our personal lives and commitments. What is the purpose and what is our part in it? We seem to need a place and time to come together in a spirit of cooperation to discern, evaluate, and discuss challenges and opportunities for these precarious times. So often when we have concerns they are brought out into an arena of opposing forces, or one-sidedness, where we feel fortunate if we are even heard.
 We are experiencing intense change in every aspect of our lives; social, political, economic, religious. These are manifested through our challenges in health, education, safety, and the environment. In seeing how others are feeling and in sharing our insights, we can look at the kinds of choices we are making, and can begin to make. We can face our problems and create ideas for working with them, and begin to move forward in creating the kind of world we want our families to grow in, and find meaningful for ourselves as well. What if change is easier than we thought? What if it is the resistance that is so painful? I saw this once in embroidery - We’re safe. It’s only change. Go forward in Love.
 Now, if you have the time, come on into the Parlor and we’ll taste more of the possibilities in perspective…
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