TRUTH RISES AT VARIABLE SPEEDS// The Window of Opportunity in "Before" and "After"

Close up of ferns, tree bark and light, from Meares Island in British Columbia. Photography by Leah Williams for Life Made Light.

I’m starting to believe (based on experience and intuition) that there are certain times in our life where we are like a vessel. A set of circumstances happens, world or personal events line up and some part of life cracks open.

Something (often you) grinds to a halt in an excruciating way. In my own life, this direct severing, where there is a clear before and after has manifested a number of ways as: a brain and retina concussion, ankle injury, burnout/ptsd, separation/breakup, death and now, in an altogether new way, this period of time. On a more subtle level, it’s any time you have to consider a new path because one door has closed.

Part of what formed your reality (identity, purpose, way to validate self-worth) is no longer available. While you may have one million feelings, when the turbulence settles, there is space. Like a stormy ocean becoming calm, you can observe what’s below the surface.

As though something that’s always been there (your authenticity/ soul/ essence) is finally able to get a connection to you. The upheaval is the initiator, and some part of you becomes malleable for the first time. It is dial-up Wi-Fi waiting for that perfect moment to connect (a download).

I imagine it as a swirling portal from a sci-fi show. Only open for a window of time. You have to gather what’s needed before passing through, like a video game level. If you resist, don’t learn, or try to move past discomfort or uncertainty rather than dance with it, the window closes. You have to start over.

It’s time to learn (remember, reveal or collect some piece of yourself or your life's direction). The thing to learn might not be clear, but it feels important. A call to be present. To surrender, move with flow, follow clues, listen to your gut, heart, intuition so when the time comes, you glide through with what you need. As though in a fog, trying to remember, there is a piece to reclaim, to bring forward.

I think it is about becoming a vessel.

When certain things are stripped away, when there is grief or loss, or you are blessed with solitude, truth rises.