Dancing with new partners
Michelle and I have danced together for many years. When we dance, I know what to expect. It’s comfortable, smooth, and (mostly) structured.
On occasions when I dance with somebody else, I have to go with the flow, often adapting my style to accommodate theirs. It sort-of works, but it’s not the easeful experience I’m used to with Michelle. I have to let go of the known, to flow with the unknown and sometimes awkward.
At times, life presents new “dance” partners that require us to change past patterns. They may present in different forms: new jobs or entire career change, shifts in health and energy, new dwellings, geographic relocations, children clearing the nest, financial change, new interests and so forth.
Such change involves navigating transitions effectively. Transition refers to the process of changing from one state or condition to another. Generally, during times of transition, we move from certainty to uncertainty, from the clear to ambiguous, from walking in the light to stumbling through the dark. It’s often referred to as the messy middle, and can be extremely disconcerting.
One of the things I have learned in my own journey and from many others who have walked similar paths, is that to navigate new terrain, sometimes we need to let go of the old, releasing expectations to effectively adapt to the new situation.
As the transition unfolds, novelty blends with familiarity and we learn to dance with the new situation or circumstance-partners that life brings. Giving yourself to the new situation and letting go of the known provides a path out of the messy-middle and into the new-known.
Ray
PS. This is a 19 sec. video from a recent dance night with Michelle captured at Soho Melbourne.
ray@rayhodge.com.au; www.rayhodge.com.au; +61 403 341 105
Connect with me on LinkedIn