If your work involves caring for others, you know how easy it is to become overwhelmed by the needs around you. Each week, I share stories and practices on building the capacity, relationships, and habits to sustain care over the long haul.
To Be Held in the Midst of Transition and Change: The Wednesday 1-2-3
Happy Wednesday Reader!
Today’s teaching is based on a poem from my good friend and poet James A. Pearson. On February 10th, James will be leading a workshop on the survival dance and sacred dance as part of our upcoming cohort. If you're interested, more information on the cohort can be found by clicking the link!
Here’s today’s teaching, with some questions and resources to explore this week:
1. Teaching
One of the scariest aspects of personal change – no matter how big or small – is that we can’t be sure of how we will be held in the midst of it.
- I’ve given 30 years to this business – what will people say when I walk away?
- When our divorce is made public, will my community still be here for me?
- How will my partner respond to this new belief I seem to have?
- With this diagnosis, will people look at me differently?
- What will my family say and do when I tell them?
- Will I be able to hold myself with kindness?
Whether it’s a shift in our identity, a midlife transition, a change in our belief system, or something else entirely, this space of unknowing can often fill us with anxiety.
I invite you to reflect on the poem below and how you have experienced being held (or not being held) in the midst of your own life transitions and changes.
2. Questions
- Who are the people in your life, past or present, who have held you with the gentle tenderness this poem evokes?
- How do you listen and hold others in the midst of their transitions and changes? When you are fully present, what is your emotional and physical posture when listening? When you are not present, how does it change?
3. Resources
- Read more from James A. Pearson (website)
- Howard Thurman on Solidarity and Suffering (article)
- The Art of Listening with Simon Sinek (video)
⏪ If you missed last week's email:
Hope you're well or well-enough,
Andrew
Gentle Change
If your work involves caring for others, you know how easy it is to become overwhelmed by the needs around you. Each week, I share stories and practices on building the capacity, relationships, and habits to sustain care over the long haul.