Radical Openings

In many ways these are radical times. Are Openings bound to reflect them?

What These Times May Call For

So much is happening in our lives and in our world. Here in the United States, the nature of our government is changing rapidly and altering the environment we live in. There are few of us who are unaffected by it. The energy that surrounds us is having an impact – the news we get every day, military in our neighborhoods, the changes we are seeing.

It may be that these times call for Openings that are tailored to what we are experiencing. On one level, we are having to get comfortable with change and an unknown future. On another level we are expected to keep functioning, even thriving, in a world that we have not seen before. Radical Openings can help us on both levels. If we are having trouble with change, for example, an Opening may offer an experience that helps us get more comfortable with change.

If we think of the process of Chrysalis, we are in a time similar to when the butterfly is close to fully formed, but not ready to break through the cocoon. The butterfly does not know what is coming. It has been through quite a struggle. It is tired from all it has gone through. What is happening – change, old systems breaking down – is preparing it for a new existence that has not yet arrived.

Complete Break

In Chrysalis, the transformation is a complete one. The caterpillar that lived on the ground and spun the cocoon is gone. In its place is a butterfly that soon will fly away. Is it possible that what we are going through will be a complete break as well? What we are experiencing is much more than incremental change. Will the new that is coming be welcomed and make our lives better? We really don’t know, just as the half-formed butterfly has no idea of life outside the cocoon.

It is hard to make a complete break from anything. We get comfortable with what we know. That comfort does not mean that we have not been growing – we have. We are taken out of our comfort zones to an unfamiliar place. It can be disorienting. We are not sure what to release or how to prepare for what is to come.

There is an element of surrender here. We are not in control. Our present moment is all we have. We can observe and witness what is happening but have no choice than to surrender to it, as the caterpillar does in the cocoon. By surrendering we are truly in the present moment – not looking back or looking to the future. We are in the now.

How to Do It

Here are some thoughts on radical Openings and handling them when they show up:

• Radical Openings can be intense.
• Radical Openings ask a lot of us in order that we be able to cope with radical change.
• We need to be grounded in the present moment to effectively see and choose whether to enter a radical Opening
• We may not know what radical Openings will bring, as they are helping prepare us for a world we cannot see.
• We can miss radical Openings, if we are living only in the past or future.
• Radical Openings stretch us.
• Radical Openings ask for our faith and trust.