Change take 2

In the last post, we explored letting go/grieving changes as a way of transitioning.  Let's take time with the second stage of William Bridges process - known as the neutral zone. 

This is a time in-between or in the meantime.  Something has ended (and by God's grace we've grieved it).  But perhaps something new has not yet arrived.

The neutral zone is aptly named...we shouldn't feel any one way about it.  But it will bring feels of both excitement/freedom as well as some nervous/a sense of being too free.  People may constantly ask you - when is the next blog post coming, the next volunteer opportunity, or you get busy doing something.  We are so used to the litany of being busy...than when someone is waiting with a persistent patience (which by the way is a GREAT prayer posture)...it unnerves us.  So, we nudge them to get with the show.  Or maybe touches that jealous nerve in all of us.  Or maybe holds a mirror to our life we'd rather not gaze in. 

This neutral zone is a time of active waiting.
The neutral zone is the Church Season of Advent...when we are watching and waiting but don't know exactly when the new life will arrive because we did not order it on Prime and we cannot track it through a website.  It moves in the slow, steady work of the Spirit.

In the neutral zone there is work to do...

You wait expectantly...and appreciatively.
You keep open, gently taking each invitation into your hands.
You talk to others who are open to be still with you.

There is a line in contemplative prayer that you sit on the shore watching the boats go by, but you don't board ever boat.  You notice it.  Some may cause some excitement...notice that...ask why.  Some may look boring...notice that...ask why.

The neutral zone looks different depending on where you are at with letting go and grieving what is past.
The neutral zone looks different depending on how soon the new opportunity knocks on the door.
The neutral zone looks different depending on what it wants to teach and tell us for such a time as this.

To be in the neutral zone is to breathe and be.

And to trust that there is more than a trace of God's grace there!

Blessings