Dandelion
Fluff
“I
live my life in widening circles
that
reach out across the world.
I
may not complete this last one,
but
I will give myself to it.”
Rainer
Maria Rilke
Jungian
Analyst, Jean Shinoda Bolan, now in her 85th year, gave a TED talk
recently, titled: “Crisis as A Turning Point: The Gift of Liminal Time.”
She spoke about life as a series of smooth patches, followed by a crisis,
either large or small, followed by a new normal. According to her we pass through
at least a dozen of these cycle over the course of a lifetime. In other words,
this is “normal life,” and not some aberration. The common denominator is that
what was is no more; we cannot go back. What will be is not yet here, and we
have no idea what the “new normal” looks like. This is the liminal period,
which is both dangerous and holds the possibility for unparalleled creativity.
As the Chinese symbols for crisis connote, both danger and opportunity.
Dr. Bolan
reports that the space created by the pandemic has given us time to think
individually and collectively about what we want going forward. We have an
opportunity for drastic change, not just minor adjustment. She suggests that we
pay close attention to our dreams, both our night- and daydreams. When you were
young, what did you truly want to do, to be? What was important to you but,
perhaps, you were told, “Oh, you can’t make a living doing that!” What are you
drawn to? What rings all your bells? What dream has lurked inside you for as
long as you can remember? Now’s the time.
There
are three guiding questions that Dr. Bolan puts forward in her TED talk: “Will
it be meaningful? Will it be fun? And will it be motivated by love?” And
here are a couple more from me: Will it shift your life’s course? Will it contribute
to the forward movement of humanity?
Each of us comes to planet
earth with a mission—a task, perhaps many tasks, that we are supposed to accomplish
while we are here. What is yours? Where are you in accomplishing it—beginning,
middle, end? Haven’t started yet? No problem. Liminal time and space are now provided
for us to decide how to proceed.
What we do with this time
matters. It makes a difference in our lives and in our family’s, but also, in
the world. Dr. Bolan compared it to blowing a dandelion puff and watching the
seeds catch in the wind and travel to who-knows-where. When a seed falls on
fertile ground, a whole new cycle begins—for the dandelion, and for us. When
our seeds are motivated by love that difference is huge. “Life unfolds at
the turning points of crisis.” (Jean Shinoda Bolan) If we are awake to the
synchronicity and magic of this liminal time, we will come out the other side a
new creation. And a better one.
In the Spirit,
Jane
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