Do you
have transition lenses on your glasses?
I had those years ago and I hear they have improved but the one thing
that bothered me was they only transitioned where light was hitting them
directly. In the car sometimes only a
portion of the lens would transition as the other part was in a shadow and away
from direct contact with sun. I’m not
sure why I thought my glasses should simply KNOW that they should shade my
entire lens…it was doing what it was ‘programmed’ to do. It darkened when light hit it. The glasses actually receive their ‘photochromic’
properties through the embedding of micro crystalline silver halides, typically
silver chloride, in a glass substrate.
But silly me wanted the glasses to actually be smart and tell when I’m
outside and thereby shade the ENTIRE lens – instantly, so I didn’t have to hold
my glasses out the car window in to the direct sunlight until they changed uniformly.
Transitioning
to a New Year is also awkward and seldom uniform in nature. Only when the realization hits us that the
transition has to be gradual, not sudden, can we possibly begin to understand
what it means to transition to a New Year.
Hence the reasons many of those New Year’s Resolutions fail so
miserably. We somehow expected that the
morning of January 1, or January 2, would somehow grant us a renewed interest
in living and would empower us to change.
I
remember counseling a young couple before they were to be married and they left
me with the impression that something magical would happen as they walk back
down the aisle after being proclaimed Mr and Mrs. They were both disillusioned with this notion
that everything will come together. In
fact, they refused to talk about certain topics because it would be “fine” once
they were married. Ah young love – ‘tis
oh so blind, is it not?!
As we
begin our transition to writing 2013 instead of 2012, may we also focus on HOW
our own transition is going to look and feel.
Accepting today that it will not be a ‘hit you over the head’ transition
will make it easier to enter in to. There
won’t be this sudden “Trumpet Voluntary
in G” moment and a ceremonial walking down of some aisle lined with loved ones
and flowers that will change us forever.
Oh don’t get me wrong – I’m acutely aware that there ARE sudden moments
when our lives are instantly transformed but even those moments put us in the
position of having to transition to a new normal. By entering in to the PROCESS of change, the
PROCESS of transition, we can more easily see all the ways in which our actions,
thoughts, minds and our spirits transform, over time, in to that which we
dream.
According
to Miriam-Webster Dictionary, the word ‘life’ is either a noun or an
adjective. But can we consider, for our
own intrinsic interests, that ‘life’ is a verb?
It is action. It is a ‘doing’ and
not a ‘being’. As we enter in to 2013,
let us focus on our life in action – our life as something that evolves and is
continually moving forward, collecting information and experiences, and processing
them, thereby increasing the gift that is the “I” in all of us. It’s not going
to happen overnight – this change for the better of which you seek. Oh there will be bomb shell moments that
force us over the cliff of change – usually of loss; but as I mentioned, those
are the moments when we are still forced to learn how to transition.
A young
man I know has just recently learned what it means to transition. He understands, perhaps for the first time in
his life, that the change he seeks is a process – it is a verb. It is action and it does not, it will not,
happen overnight. There won’t be some
magical “you've-just-won-a-new-car” moment that will finally transport us to
that perfection we seek. It’s the “you've-won-a-new-car-and-now-you–have-to–pay-for-the taxes-license-plates-registration-and-then-learn-how-to-drive-it-and-maybe-in-six-months-you-may-figure-it-all-out-but-you'll-have-repairs-along-the-way”
moment.
As you
transition in to 2013, remember that your life is a verb. An action word.
