This is the fifth post in the Reflection and Readiness series. In this series I explore how reflective practice can help prepare us to navigate life’s challenges and opportunities.
I am writing this blog in my garden. Spring has sprung and I’m surrounded by new growth. I am taking a pause to admire what’s emerged out of the soil – what’s bloomed from the burying and watering of tiny seeds, and hopeful planting of modest seedlings.
Earlier this week I was overwhelmed and struggling with fear of change. Just at a time in my life when I’d love to slow down and consolidate, it seems like change just keeps coming – barrelling down like a freight train.
But the garden reminds me – change needn’t be scary. When understood as renewal, change can be full of beauty and potential.
It seems everyday we are shown reason to fear the world we live in. It has not been a good news week, internationally or locally. The pace and complexity of society can feel relentless and frightening. Equally, the power of nature can leave us truly humbled.
But nature (and society) can also be slow, gentle and inspiring in its capacity to renew and regenerate.
How do you navigate these vicissitudes?
How do you step aside from the freight train to rest and renew?
In what spaces do you reset and draw courage and inspiration?
Where do you look to for hope?
How do you shift from fear of change to the wonder of renewal?