Reflections on what lies ahead… Yesterday I took my teenage son to the airport. This was the meeting place for the Heroic Journey he was about to embark on; a week-long program that blends the grief support of Judi’s House with an Outward Bound experience in the Rocky Mountains. Sounds like a great way to close a painful year for a grieving teen, doesn’t it? He was not so certain. During our last minute preparations, the child towering over me was wracked with fear. Was it the high ropes course or the rocks he would be “forced” to climb? Which would be worse, summiting a 14,000 ft. mountain, or the feelings he knew would rise within with every step? I know he would rather have stayed in the comfort of his home, his basement cave, with his brother and his Xbox than face a wilderness week outside of his comfort zone. And I knew that as a single mother, I would have to find the way to help this boy cross the bridge to his manhood that this week would initiate. I asked myself, “Is this a well? Or is it a moat?”
So much relies on our perspective. Fears can paralyze or propel. As we gaze into that seemingly endless void, there can be a shift in our vision, like those optical illusions we stared at during art class; where once we saw and ocean, now we only see a puddle. It is an internal shift of focus and never will this be more critical than in time of fear or crisis. Is that vast body of water something we draw from to sustain us, or do we use it to create a barrier? Does what we believe protects us also keep us from possession of our castle?
What would it take for you to shift focus?
I am certain the young man I left at the airport has had a change of perspective in the past 24 hours, will go through many more as the week goes on, and so will I.
The moat will become a well…
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