My family is in a huge time of transition. In just a few weeks our daughter will graduate from high school. It’s a ritual and rite of passage signaling that this stage of our life as a family is over. She just turned 18 so is now legally an adult. We celebrated that mile stone by texting her god parents and letting them know they were off the hook. We had named them in our will as her guardians, but now that she is an adult if we die she is on her own. Although we know that isn’t really true. Her god parents and many others would support and guide her. Even though she is finishing high school and is now an adult our relationships don’t end, but they do change.
There are so many points of transition and change in life. Not all of them involve a ceremony or gaining the legal right to vote. So sometimes we forget to honor the transition or we dismiss it, not realizing how the change can impact us long term. Transition and change are times of celebration and also of grief. I have cried so many times in the last week because I’m joyfilled and nostalic. Saturday was my last time to attend the state band competition and cheer on my daughter playing her clarinet. On Monday she voted for the first time, filling in the bubble for one of my school board friends as her first vote. These moments are so precious, so full, so rich, so complicated.
We have seasons of transition at the end of every season as life switches gears. We have transitions as we age and our brain and body begin to work differently. We have transitions as we face the realities of ministry from a building that was created with a 1958 ministry view in mind. It is important to rejoice in the ways our world connects and operates and also to take time to grieve and celebrate what was.
Don’t rush the transitions, don’t ignore the changes and how you feel. As spring slips into summer take some time to notice, to wonder, to celebrate and to remember. God is in all of it, celebrating and remembering right there with us.
-Eilidh
Recent Comments