MOVING FORWARD WITH HOPE
Everything Ends…
The German poet Ranier Maria Rilke teaches, “Everything that happens keeps on being a beginning…perhaps the time when everything in me is working at God.” This encouragement can be challenging when we’re in the throes of transition and certainties we had counted on disappear. We know that usually an old job needs to end before new, more fulfilling work can begin. But to believe that God is in the difficulty may be beyond our capabilities. Rilke’s key phase “working at” is what we should ponder…
Parker Palmer (Let Your Life Speak: Listening the Voice of Vocation) also discusses “denying death” as a “shadow” which blocks the light to our path. He’s not talking about mortality, (a seminar for another time) but rather aspects of our lives where things end. It’s hard to see our kids grow up; hard to move and change cities; hard to see meaningful, often loving relationships end. We don’t do well with endings. We want most things to continue–especially the career we built. And sometimes even jobs we don’t like or from which we find little meaning. We ironically prefer the status quo to change. Even when our work is getting in the way of larger life plans, deeper meaning and the call to something else.
Maybe this transition can be viewed as an opportunity to find something better. Is there any downside in looking at it from this perspective?
TODAY…
Find the silver lining in a job ending and how new work is going to positively change your life.
Thomas Bachhuber, Ed.D.
President of the Board and Executive Director for The Center for Life Transitions. Tom is responsible for overall Center leadership and strategy. His individual coaching/counseling as well as workshops and retreats focus on integrating leading career development ideas with spiritual exploration. Read more.