Your Survival is a Gift. Will You Open It?

Someone close to me is going through a break-up right now.

As we were visiting the other day, I offered that while this was a time of breaking apart, it was also a time of formulation of a changed future.

Tapping in to all I see and feel in the collective consciousness, I know this is a time of major re-calibration, reinvention and shedding for many people. Millions of us are formulating new futures simultaneously as we begin to emerge from the strictures put into place because of the COVID-19 pandemic. This is a time of reordering, rearranging in the world. I forget that often, and resolve to remember it again and again. There are times when I feel the tightness associated with “getting going again” or “ramping back up” take over my mind or body. There are times when I feel the pull of returning to an old pace or mindset. These pulls physically tighten my body.

When this happens lately, I remind myself of this deeper knowing and I do my best to release.

We are in a time of great transition and change as a collective humanity.

Our lives were put into stark relief by the pandemic. As our world slowed and locked down, we were forced to confront so many things: our habits, our distractions, our health, our work, our frailty, our ability to cope and our relationships. It was a rocky, knee-scrapping path. We fell a lot and hid a lot. In many cases, we also had to confront our relationship with ourselves.

Of course, this is really a lifelong pursuit, but one many people doggedly avoid.

As many of us look inward at who we are, where we are going, and how we are spending this precious time on earth, there are changes we want to make.

This collective shift has me very feeling many things. I feel sad, I feel anxious, I feel joyous and I feel excited. To me, it signals a realignment of our lives, a willingness to let go. It feels like a time of grief and rebirth. It feels like sunshine and it also feels like the quiet after a rough storm passes and it’s time to assess the damage.

But overall, this moment signals an opportunity for all of us to live in deeper coordination with the directives of our heart, of our souls and of our passions. From where we have been, we are well situated to place more emphasis on what will bring us connection and meaning. We are also well situated to place less emphasis on what we can get or have.

This moment is giving us the chance to allow what has died within us to be released, to make space for the something new within us to be born. If I extrapolate out, it means truer relationships; with ourselves, with our loved ones and with our community.

It means more intention around what we create and grow.

For many of us, it means creative growth, which is one of my favorite things ever.

No growth comes with an instruction manual or clearly labeled map. In my experience, growth is a process rife with stumbling, falling, looping back and forging grudgingly ahead. So if you feel you are in the midst of that, good. You know you are doing the work it takes to get to the next place.

The idea that we are forming a new future is a hopeful one. Yet, in the midst of the change, the reality is growth is difficult. It hurts. It is messy and uncomfortable and awkward. But it is real. And deep. And life-giving.

If you are growing, you know you are alive.

As we round the bend on this pandemic, we know we are alive. That may be the only thing we know. That may be the idea you start building upon.

You have survived when nearly 3.5 million human beings across the globe, including 600,000 people in the United States, where I live, did not.

Your survival is a gift. It’s also an opportunity for you to live life in a way that feels good to you, that honors what you value most.

Only you can accept this gift, only you can know what wants to die and what needs to be born. And only you can claim it.

Know if you do, you’ll be in good company.