A piece by Bruce Feiler
Today’s piece by Bruce Feiler addresses the many twists and turns in life and how it can often be the impetus for positive growth. Often, it is not a fast or easily solved obstacle, but nevertheless, it is thanks to the obstacle that we are able to forge a new, more meaningful path. Perhaps you can stop and take a look around in your life to see if there are other paths you can explore during this time
I hope you enjoy this excerpt…
“There is no single way to go through a life transition. Just as life is nonlinear, transitions themselves are nonlinear. While this lack of a blueprint can sometimes feel overwhelming, the good news of experiencing transitions—or living life in general—out of order is that we’re freed from the shackles of expectation, whether they come from our parents, our neighbors, or ourselves. We can make our own choices and decide what brings us peace.
Transitions take longer than we think, but not longer than we need—and not forever, either.
William James said it best a century ago: Life is in the transitions. We can’t ignore these central times of life; we can’t wish or will them away. We have to accept them, name them, mark them, share them, and eventually convert them into fuel for remaking our life stories.
The Italians have a wonderful expression for times of upheaval: lupus in fabula. The fabula is the fairy tale of our lives; the lupus is the wolf that keeps showing up. Lupus in fabula means “the wolf in the fairy tale.” Italians use it as the equivalent of speak of the devil. Just when life is going swimmingly, a wolf, an ogre, a dragon, a diagnosis, a downsizing, a death appears. That, of course, is what happened to all of us at one time or another. We come face to face with a wolf and have no idea what to do. And that’s OK. Because if you banish the wolf, you banish the hero. And if there’s one thing I learned it’s that we all need to be the hero of our own story. That’s why we need fairy tales. They teach us how to slay our fears and help us sleep at night. Which is why we keep telling them year after year, bedtime after bedtime. They turn our nightmares into dreams.”
– Bruce Feiler is the author of Life Is in the Transitions: Mastering Change at Any Age, from which this piece is adapted.
Wishing you a zen week ahead.
Warmly, Claudine
