Rites of passage in traditional societies show a firm grasp of the phases of transition. A letting go or symbolic death, followed by a wandering time until there’s a new beginning followed by a return to the new normal.  There’s not a big signature rite of passage for midlife. Midlife is spread out over time and has lots of events that mark transitions: marriages, births, deaths, home-buying and relocations, work, children, retirement, and all the rest.  There are SHIFTs, however, that tend to find us in midlife. The power and purpose of these shifts varies. The quality of the transformation...

Ah, the joys of uncertainty! Which way forward? Don’t really know? What’s the plan? So fun! No, that’s not actually true. 😂😂  Nobody likes uncertainty. I’m pretty "certain" of that.  We talk about some of the most misunderstood parts about transition: the fact that the discomfort is necessary and not necessarily a sign that "something's wrong." The magic is in the messy middle of the transition. Sitting with the discomfort lets us come to terms with what’s ending and have the internal changes that are needed to come to grip with it: changes in perceptions, attitudes, and perspectives.  It’s counter-intuitive...

I (Curtis) went my adult life without knowing or thinking about transitions as a “thing.” Sure, I understood that changing jobs or getting married is a big transition. But it never occurred to me that there were stages to a transition, or that some approaches to them were better than others. But now it seems as if I can't get through the day without thinking about transition-related themes. Karen shared that, before understanding some key elements of transitions,she was like a lot of people, and experienced transitions as things to just get through. Understanding a few basic things about transitions...