The Opportunity Inside a Transition

So, I’m basically obsessed with transitions. I thought this was a newish obsession, but while clearing out an old blog I found a bunch of posts from all the way back in 2011 about transitions, and the very loose theme of the whole blog was an echo of my then-novel-in-(not-yet-published)-progress, High Turnover. My whole novel was basically about the transitions caused by the very San Francisco reality of people moving out. In fact, my whole childhood was quite shaped by all the moving we did, so perhaps that is really the origin story of my transition obsession.

Why do I love transitions so fiercely? Because I see them as HUGE, MASSIVE opportunities. Opportunities to grow. Opportunities to create meaning. Opportunities to change. Opportunities to explore and mine for exactly what you are needing right now.

The big transitions make for obvious opportunities: marriage, death of a loved one, new child, divorce, moving, new job. But I’m also really fond of the tiny transitions, and I see the possibility in them as being equal to the big ones if you want it.

Let’s take the tiny transition of the close of one month and start of another. If you’ve ever lived through a particularly dark, intense month you know the hope that calendar page flip can hold. It’s nearly always arbitrary, that switch from 31st to 1st. And just because August challenged you to your core doesn’t inherently mean September creates escape. But. It’s still a form of a beginning, an invitation to something—however tiny—that’s also new.

What would you like more of in this next month of life? What would you like less of? What is one thing you can do this week to set that in motion?

Some crazy beautiful autumn light shining down on a gathering of golden chairs in Golden Gate Park. If you find yourself in San Francisco, come sit with me in one of these :)