TRANSITION CREATES VULNERABILITY

These words, “transition creates vulnerability,” were penned by an author that I read most days, Julie Cameron. They took on real meaning as I lived life with my sister-niece during the final quarter of 2022.

As we spoke one morning, she was completely frazzled. Her husband’s oncologist had just broken the news that he had perhaps three to four months of life left in his earthen shell. Even though we had theoretically discussed this outcome weeks earlier, she was rattled to the core. Suddenly, in real time, theory had become reality. Thoughts of her old life had to be pushed aside as she struggled to live in the moment while preparing for what her future was most likely going to entail. The safety net of what she knew and had grown to expect were snatched from beneath her. Having never walked in shoes that even vaguely resembled hers, I could only imagine what she was feeling. Through her inadequate words, I felt her angst and panic at walking the tightrope between present and future, the unsteadiness of her feet, and the fear of losing her balancing pole of 46 years. These transitional moments held her tightly in the grip of vulnerability and threatened to send her falling into the abyss of the unknown.

How does one comfort and support a vulnerable soul? Very carefully. Pulling from my personal experience, I gently reminded her of what had sustained her through previous transitional moments. We go through them. They are not the destination. I encouraged her to embrace an attitude of humbleness and to ask for spiritual and physical intervention in her affairs…to ask for help. I listened to her ramblings, repeated what I thought she said and helped her construct an orderly plan of action for the day, not the month, and sometimes the hour.

Transitional vulnerability is a common place occurrence in life. It could be called change by another name. James Baldwin said, “Most of us are about as eager to be changed as we were to be born and go through our changes in a similar state of shock.”

When it is time for a baby to be born, nothing can stop the labor and no good parent would want to. The transition from womb to the outside world creates vulnerability for both.

At 6:10 on a Wednesday evening, her husband’s soul separated from its earthly form. On December 23, my niece did something she had not done in a long time. Laying aside her uncertainty of driving more than a few miles alone, she successfully drove two and a half hours to spend Christmas with her adult son.

2 Corinthians 12:9

PONDER THIS THOUGHT---Transition and Vulnerability fuel growth.