A Time for Renewal & Transformation - Part 2

                                          Our deepest fears are like dragons guarding our most valuable treasure.
                                                 On the other side of fear is the freedom to be all we can be.

This is a continuation of my Easter blog.

I did spend some time reflecting and writing a few words over Easter but have not completed what I started to write, so I've decided to make this a 3 Part Blog..... read on if you are interested in philosophy!

Rather than elaborate on the story of my brother's death and the consequent grief I experienced which I may share later when it seems more relevant, I thought instead, I would share the mindset that enabled me to transform that grief into something constructive. I hope that this has some relevance to what we are all experiencing at the moment and that you will be inspired to look for the renewal and transformative aspects of this current global crisis....
 
A Time of Renewal and Transformation - Part 2
In a book I read some years ago while on holiday, titled the Critical Journey – Stages in the Life of Faith (Hagberg & Guelich) there was a chapter on the ‘Dark night of the soul’ describing the places in our life when we hit rock bottom, have our backs to the wall or are forced to face challenging circumstances that stir fear and doubt. This dark night of the soul is represented by the metaphor of a wall.
 
When we come to this place, it forces us to be vulnerable enough to listen to the messages of our wise self. It can also be a transforming place which although not without pain, can be a place of learning and personal growth. At the walls in our life we begin to see things for what they are and can start to feel gratitude for everything, good and bad.
 
The Wall can be a ‘place of revelation’ that helps us to see and hear more clearly what it is that we are supposed to do with our life. Sometimes the prolonged courage and strength needed to take on a task such as this, requires half a lifetime of preparation and yet some have faced it with very little preparation and have been up to the challenge.
 
The Wall can therefore be a place where grace and suffering meet to transform us.
 
This line from a children’s book called the Flavia and the Dream Maker which we used to read to our little children (now grown men), has some Sage advice which is perhaps relevant for someone reading this:
 
                                               If one dream should fall and break into a thousand pieces,
                                                  never be afraid to pick one of them up and begin again
                                                                       Flavia Weedn – Flavia and the Dream Maker

At this time of disruption, uncertainty, death and isolation, I’ve also noticed something else going on, something I didn’t expect – I’ve noticed myself and those around me, even strangers from afar – many of us re-discovering the simple things that may have been displaced by the busy-ness of our lives such as time with our loved ones, the joy of play, the beauty in nature, listening to the space between the notes in a melody and the feeling of a deep inner peace, that comes with rest, reflection and renewal. I have noticed that Nature is reclaiming it's well-being. 

Many of us have jumped off the treadmill of busy-ness for a while and in some cases we've realised that we've been perhaps playing a game that we didn't realise that we were playing...

                                                           For too long I’ve been playing someone else’s game,
            a game that took me away from what was important and required me to play by rules I didn’t want to live by.
                   I squandered time for the ones I loved and missed the beauty in the red, green and blue of our planet.

                                     I'll have more to say in Part 3, about the 'Game Changing' event that we are currently experiencing and how, as more and more people are recognising, this can be a time of renewal and transformation.....