Tangled Openings
I recently saw an Opening that was anything but inviting – it was complicated, even gnarly. Why would I walk through it? What would I gain?
Oh, That It Were So
We may assume that all Openings are wide, welcoming spaces asking us to enter and grow. That, when we encounter an Opening, we just have to muster our courage and walk through it. Our path will be clear. We will know what we have to do – put one foot in front of the other.
As much as we want to grow and take advantage of Openings that present themselves, we also want some ease and comfort as we do. For many of us, this is our nature. Uncertainty can be unsettling. Change often kicks us out of our comfort zone. So, we hope for Openings that we see as “manageable” – that we can enter without too much disruption.
There are many kinds of Openings. Sometimes we encounter smooth Openings – we know the way. Other times Openings are not as smooth. More challenging Openings are inevitable in our lives, if we are to grow. They make us stretch to get through them and we expand our knowledge, abilities and skills. Our emotional strength, too, expands in positive ways.
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The Nature Of Our Journeys
The Hero’s Journey is a template often used to understand the nature of our journey here on earth – to learn and grow and, ultimately, to bring our gifts to the world. The journey challenges the hero of the story. Often, they encounter unimaginable threats. They often come very close to giving up and even dying – but they prevail.
If we use the Hero’s Journey as a guide, some Openings will challenge us. This is necessary if we are to grow and develop our unique gifts. The hero ends the journey a very different person than when she began. All she has encountered along the way has changed her.
To take the Hero’s Journey and enter its Openings, we must welcome challenging and difficult ones, even if we would rather avoid them. These Openings are integral parts of our journeys. They test us and their power goes far beyond our saying “yes” to them.
Tangled Openings
What are Tangled Openings? They are the challenging and difficult Openings that ask a lot of us to find and get through them. They may not be peaceful encounters. They may involve uncertainty, hardship, confusion or danger. They may ask more of us than we think we can give, but we are capable and can prevail.
A Tangled Opening can be precipitated by a drastic change in our lives, perhaps a loss of someone close to us, a reduction in something we always counted on or a change in perspective that makes our current life untenable. From there we have to find a way, through an Opening, to a new kind of existence. A Tangled Opening is a challenge that helps us grow.
A Tangled Opening can be obscured, requiring us to find it in unusual ways. In the finding itself, we grow. A Tangled Opening can be complicated from beginning to end, asking a lot of us. A Tangled Opening can be the start of a long adventure asking us to endure. An Opening eventually leads us to our unique gifts and is designed for just us.
Getting Through
What’s involved in getting through Tangled Openings? First, expanding our awareness that many kinds of Openings exist. We do not pick and choose what Openings appear before us, even though it is our choice which ones to enter. Some Openings are challenging to even enter. We may have to go through an obstacle course before we get started.
Tangled Openings have a purpose. They demand an agile mind, courage, innovation and persistence. If we don’t have these already, we’ll certainly develop them.
We can master Tangled Openings. We just have to acknowledge their existence and find our way through. Doing so, we will reap their benefits and grow.
Tangled Openings are the stuff of a Hero’s Journey. Why not go for them? It is my goal to grow and learn with mastery. Tangled Openings can help me meet this goal.
photo: Chris F, pexels.com
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