You aren't failing. You're ripening.

Some thoughts on navigating transitions

I’m navigating a boatload of life transitions right now.

If you’ve been following me for more than five seconds, I know you’re shocked — shocked! — to read this.

I wish I could tell you how inspired I am by all the uncertainty possibility in front of me. I’d love to say that every morning, I leap out of bed and joyfully go about the work of following my dreams, earning six-figure passive income, building a life I love so much I never need a vacation again, or whatever bullshit the influencers are peddling these days.

The truth is, it’s really hard. It feels bad a lot of the time. BUT — and this is a huge, maybe life-altering “but” that I have only just realized:

Feeling badly in the midst of a transition doesn’t mean the transition itself is going badly.

It just means that the old way of being has ended, and the newness is still emergent. The painful in-between time that we perceive as “things going badly” is actually a normal and natural part of the process.

A gorgeous ripening red pepper — photo by author

We see a ripening fruit and think it’s beautiful — the shifting colors, the daily changes, the sense of possibility and anticipation. We already know what the fruit can become, and we’re excited to witness its transition.

Have you ever wondered how the fruit feels? Its insides and outsides are shifting all around. Its physical form changes daily. Various parts are getting bigger, brighter, firmer, squishier, juicier. All the parts the fruit thought it was made of are changing. I thought I was green. I was happy with green! What’s with all these blotches of yellow and red?

I know how the fruit feels. Sometimes humans need to ripen, too.

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