“From Here…To There”

Transition.

It has been part of your life for longer than you can remember. It will remain part of your life until you die. And who knows, it may even continue after that.

Transition is how you get from one place to another – physically, mentally and emotionally. And yes, transition has a price.

Sometimes you’ll know when you’re “in transition” and others you won’t. It’ll just sneak up on you and “wham” it’s done.

People talk about “transition at the top”; usually relating it to their experiences on the job and how changes in upper management affect their position.

This won’t be about that particular type of transition.

I want to talk about “passing the torch” from one family generation to another. Mainly, when or how do we as “children” become the leaders of our families as our parents age? Is it something that occurs over time or is it something our parents “allow” to occur? Then of course, when will WE be transitioned out by our children?

Sometimes this particular transition is brought on by health related issues or when our parents can no longer take care of themselves and/or their home.  Many times this leads to moving our parents into our homes – a role reversal of sorts.

I guess I ponder this because of my parents and my relationship with them. It seems so simple now. As a child, our parents are there to teach and guide us through life by sharing their experiences – both good & bad – so that we may avoid some of the same pitfalls they endured. But we don’t listen to them, do we? We go right out and make the same mistakes. Over and over again. Why?

It’s how we learn. Some things in life we must learn on our own. We have to feel the pain of defeat or the joy of victory for ourselves.  We have to go through the heartache of the “first love” to know what “love is” and how loving another changes us.

We have to learn to lead.

It’s not so much “how” we learn, but “what” we learn and “who” we learn it from. Funny thing, though, is that as we transition through life’s stages there is always someone “there” to teach us.  We may not realize it until we’ve moved on, but the people we meet along life’s journey, we meet for a reason. People may come and go, but their influence stays with us forever.

In brief, everyone matters.

You matter.

A point to ponder as you journey from here to there.

Author: Dan

I love words & enjoy the freedom of writing. I strive to find the exact word to convey not only my thoughts, but also my feelings. I desire to fill the paper with words much the same way an artist fills the canvas with paint. To me, writing is an art form. View all posts by Dan