Life can
seem to progress at remarkably different speeds. We can have periods, often
lasting many years, when we seem in full control and we can glide through any
challenges thrown up for us. In these periods, the pace of life can feel
gratifyingly relaxed – it is as if we are being driven slowly along a beautiful
road and enjoying the view.
In most
lives, these stable periods are interrupted by times when everything seems to
happen at once. We don’t feel in control, and are often stressed, but somehow we
put one foot in front of the other and instinct helps us through. For many of
us, these periods are thrilling and do most to define us. These times usually
correspond to life’s transitions.
A full life
will usually have many transitions, some larger than others. The earliest ones
we know little about, such as conception and birth. I find the first one with
any consciousness to be around age ten, when parents no longer resemble sages
or Santa Claus or Dumbledore, and we willfully start to place more faith on
ourselves and on other friends, with missed effects.
Next comes
leaving home for a substantial part of the year, often to college. Before of
after that comes a first deep partnership experience. Eventually that might
lead to a fuller commitment, moving in together, and in many cases an ending of
that commitment, often messy and challenging.
New jobs,
new homes, new partnerships and even new marriages can signal transitions
through middle life, and a big one for most of us is becoming a parent. Twenty years
or so after that, the kids start leaving home and an empty nest results. Some
have extra transitions, perhaps a religious conversion, an addiction or a jail
term.
Finally we
might get retirement, forced or welcomed, followed by health episodes and loss
of loved ones. Life can start to resemble a series of small defeats that might
be deferred but have to be faced eventually. Moving into a nursing home could
be one of those, and finally we have to face our own impending death.
I was
reflecting on this because somehow over the last few years people close to me
have been experiencing transitions, and I have been trying to help them as best
I can. I had my own run of them in 2009-2012. Volunteering has brought me
closer to some facing their final transitions. And for the second time in a
decade I am about to face the empty nest.
Which
transitions are the toughest? Those involving a reversal are probably the
hardest, especially when that reversal requires standing in front of friends a
diminished person. Redundancy and separation are the most common of these. In
the age of social media, when we all paint picture perfect lives with our posts
of escalating competitive optimism, these reversals can be sudden and
humiliating. By the same token, social media can help us gain the support we
need to see us through.
Of the
other transitions, I wonder if the one faced by 18-year-olds leaving home for
college is the hardest. It is such a big change and few have the maturity to
understand it or prepare themselves. Before the change, life was regular and
lived under a protective umbrella. High school has a routine, and life with
parents involves meals arriving on the table and clean laundry in drawers.
Suddenly
all this changes. Kids are thrown into a looser schedule while being required
to manage much of their own business and surviving in an environment with few,
or even no, acquaintances.
Perhaps my
own first week at college was a bit typical. I was desperate for the first
couple of days, confused, worried, and fearful. Then I happened upon a group of
people at an event organized by the college and had fun and found some others
in the same boat that I could relate to. From then on I could face the
challenges and forge a way forward.
Colleges
realize the strain of those days and go out of their way to help, but there are
no guarantees that it will work. Some kids are more prepared than others and
the sorting process happens so quickly that many will end up in inappropriate
groups and some in no groups at all.
This transition
is also tough as a parent. Our heads tell us that letting the kids fly is the
right course, indeed a cause for celebration, but our hearts share their
anxiety and want to hold them tight. Meanwhile, the house and life may suddenly
seem empty, perhaps putting new pressures on marriages. My first experience of
an empty nest as a parent was certainly a big catalyst to my own burst of
transitions.
What can we
do to make transitions easier, for ourselves or for loved ones? Denial or
deferment are bad options. Transitions are necessary for us to grow, and we are
better facing them head on. The 18-year-old may be dreading leaving home, but
there is not really a good alternative, we can’t just live all of our life at
one age.
As good
friends, we can reach out to people in need, looking out for when a transition
may be imminent or already in full swing. In the turmoil, some stability, some
diversion, some humour and some honesty can all help a great deal. We try to
use all of these with our friends in the nursing home.
What if we
are the ones needing help? Well, our best bet is to ask for it. Facing up to
such a need can be the hardest step. Transitions can be the best time of all
the cement our most enduring relationships.
Further, we
can try to enjoy the ride while we are in transition, much as we enjoy the
thrill of a roller coaster. Wow, did all this really happen to me in the last
week or the last year? And I’m still here, and some of my decisions under
pressure have been good ones. I can do this.
We can also
be thankful for the periods of calm between transitions as well. A body needs
rest as well as exercise, and a healthy life needs some periods of recuperation
too. I try to celebrate the most stable and peaceful aspects of my own life.
They might not seem special to someone on the roller coaster, but I’m quite
enjoying my spectator role thank you very much.