Lost

Where am I? I feel lost and don’t know where to go.

No Direction Home

Many of us are in a place we have never known. It is a new territory. We will learn to navigate it. For now, though, our task is to pull ourselves together and get a sense of where we are.

What got us where we are today? Change – the covid virus, political upheaval and polarity, forced changes in our life and work styles, new fears, desire for change and upheaval. All of these things changed our landscape. It happened rather rapidly and had a lot of surprises for us. We adjusted because we had to. In adjusting, however, many choices were made both consciously and unconsciously.

What choices created the new space we are in? For each of us there is an individual answer. Did we face illness, loss, changes in lifestyle or in how we work? Did fears arise? How have we coped? Do we have momentum or are we stalled, not knowing where to go? Let’s take ownership of where we are and how we got here.

Reorienting

Once we’ve looked around, we can begin reorienting ourselves – changing our focus and direction to better align ourselves with where we are.

Here are some questions that may help in reorienting.

What does our current landscape look like?

How have we changed?

Who are we with?

What is life asking of us now?

How does where we are now compare with where we were two years ago?

What would we like to change that is within our control to do so?

What is not in our power to change?

What will we change when the time is right?

Staying still keeps us stuck in quicksand. We have to move forward, even in the midst of great unknowns. We need to update our expectations and not base them on the past. Uncertainty and change are not valid reasons to stop moving. They are considerations. If we do not move, we will start to go backwards. But there really is nowhere to go. The past is gone. What we once knew is no longer with us.

Movement

We move toward a future that is yet unknown. All of us need to create new worlds that meet the needs and conditions of today. There is a huge gift in this that we should acknowledge. There is open space left by a past that is gone.This open space is ours to fill.

We can begin taking one step at a time. We can look at signs that point to what the future will be. We can plan and set some goals that will help us accomplish what we want to. We can stay alert to Openings that appear.

No Longer Lost

As we begin to move, we are no longer lost. We have intention, focus and direction. We are open to where our movement and our actions will lead us. We do not have to know everything about our final destination, just stay true to what we want. One definition of being lost is being unable to find one’s way. Now, we are not lost, we are finding our way.