I used to look back at phases in my life and flatten them...with labels.
Right or wrong or embarrassing or up or down or in or out or good or bad.
Gradually, however, I've slowly began sculpting them, the stages of life, and stages of belief. Into three-dimensional forms. Like cargo containers.
Sometimes we’re metaphorically on foot, traveling, maybe with on a spiritual path or scouting for a path, and sometimes on our journey we meet a vehicle. A form. A container we step into at the right place and the right time. And we stay on it. Maybe for a mile, maybe for 150. We rest and we eat and we learn the language and we make a lot of progress in a short amount of time. Until it’s time for us to get off. Until we outgrow it. Until the progress is more like tension than growth, until it’s about to miss our departing stop. Until staying now means limitation rather than expansion. Until we’ve arrived somewhere new we’d like to explore. Until we’re ready for the next vehicle.
So maybe we get off this vehicle which no longer serves us. Others get on because it’s exactly what they’re looking for to serve their travel. And the journey continues for all.
All forms serve a purpose, for a time, for a person, for a place. And then these forms reach the point of irrelevance as we outgrow them. In this way the “phases” of our stories are all interconnected. Purposeful. Sequential. Useful. Temporal. Not disjointed or mistaken.
Rest in the forms, then be confident in letting them go when it is time.
Take souvenirs, lessons, from each container, to take with you on your journey.