Transitions
For many summers growing up, my life was packed in boxes and shipped around the country to wherever the United States Army sent us. It felt like a familiar rhythm – we moved, we settled in and then we received military orders to move somewhere else. Wash, rinse, repeat. With that experience, we always anticipated that at some point during my dad’s active military career, we would move. We became familiar living in the in-between and preparing for transitions.
It’s strange to be more familiar with the in-between feeling and what to do for transitions than knowing what it will be like when you get somewhere. Each state and home we lived in brought different lessons, gifts, as well as challenges and struggles. Still, I learned how to transition and prepare well and to look for God in action.
Before entering the transition time, I always made sure to reflect on what I had experienced or learned there.
Who did I meet? What were my favorite or worst memories there? For me, I journaled increasingly as I grew older and so when it came time to look back, I had some record of what I had experienced there. Even memories captured and posted on social media years ago now come back to my timeline as digital time capsules.
Knowing the starting point and reflecting on a proper goodbye is helpful to fully begin the transition phase. After all, you need to know point one to set the course for the next destination.
Our destinations were always given to us. I loved to research the next area where we’d live, but I learned that I couldn’t jump to this stage too soon. Preparation is helpful but sometimes it can be distracting from the experience at hand. For example, I had to be careful to not become too invested in my next school district on the East Coast when I needed to focus on finishing my courses well on the West Coast. I had to trust that God was already at work in my future home, just as he had been during my time at that past home.
Next came the familiar challenge of packing up a household into boxes. When it comes to moving, it takes an exhausting effort to pack, label and load boxes. Then it takes an extra burst of energy to do the whole thing again in reverse: unload, try to understand the labels and then unpack. The process can be frustrating because it takes time and energy, but there was relief as the new home slowly took shape. We’d meet new neighbors and get started with new schools or jobs. We’d connect with the local church. With tiny steps, we moved away from the transitory space and into the next.
That change took time and was rarely comfortable, but reflecting and being prepared helped make it feel a little easier.
That is how it has been for me throughout my moves across the country. Change is rarely easy or straightforward, but after frequent moves I learned to appreciate the different gifts and challenges in each place and to look for them. I’ve now transitioned into staying in Virginia long-term, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t other changes to grapple with. For any of us it could be a change in relationships, finances or health, and the transition could be involuntary.
I still challenge myself every day and I pose to you that regardless of the changes that come our way, we face them with confidence to learn from where we’ve come from and to know that we’ll learn something from whatever comes next.
