Wandering Along the Path: Right Speech

Transitions are hard.  I've watched my son and daughter-in-law adjust to having a baby, and though he is their greatest joy, it has been difficult.  Now the whole country is transitioning to a new administration and the shock of the new, and our daughter is about to give birth and have her and our son-in-law's lives topsy turvy.  Transitions stun us.  The ground beneath our feet feels shaky.  Our rhythms are disrupted.  Change is the only constant, yet we seem to naturally resist.  We want to hold on to what is "known".  Yet from change we receive blessings like these two little grandsons:  the one year old and the about to be born baby.  Those of us on the outskirts of these big upheavals need to support the ones most affected.  In flux is a state that rightly is the constant.  Everything is changing, transforming, reshaping, surprising.  Many of us were surprised by the election, but when we look at history, we see the arc.  Movements of people, from the Middle East to Europe, from Mexico and Central America to here, distrupt, even as this migration is the history of humankind.  Everything is shifting, and we need to face our fear and know that we counter these disruptions by compassion, empathy and love.  Reach out and embrace the new and unfamiliar, and see what it has to teach us about our capacity to open and learn and become active and awake in the midst of it all.  It can be a gift, if we let it.