The further I go through my journey of life, the more I am realizing that things generally don’t unfold as I expect them to unfold. The are, more often than not, both more glorious and more terrible than I could envision them being. The unexpected gifts I’ve discovered come from being open to my experience. I honestly have found that when I have a direction but am not fixated on a specific outcome, more good things happen to me. When I have a specific outcome in mind, I stumble more and encounter more difficulties.

I have been transformed into a person with more compassion, both for myself and for others. It is something I need to practice and strengthen, but I’m working on it.

I don’t know that I can describe the shift from transition to transformation. Maybe someday I will be able to have the clarity to describe it.

My further invitation is to go deeper into my profession, but in a way that honours both my profession and me. Having stepped back, now I must step forward.

I have always felt myself a pilgrim, on a journey, never “home”.

I feel more that I have a series of temporary homes for short periods. These often instruct me, or I them, before it is time to move on again.

I haven’t always had this perspective, but it fits my feelings about my past better than most lenses through which I look back. If I switch the direction I look and point forward, as a pilgrim, I am at a transition of recognizing I need to ask for more help, more frequently. I am a long way from losing my independence as I sit and write this, but the future is so unpredictable, it really could happen at any time. I should build that into a practice and soon.

Being a pilgrim fills me with gratitude for the people, the places, the space in my life. I appreciate the transitoriness of it all.

I recently read a delightful story about someone making friends with Death who walked behind them all the time. It was a kind and gentle and wonderful story and one I am trying to engage with in my life. Death follows us from the moment we are born. Why not make it a travelling companion?