«
»

The view from a tunnel

I was talking to my lady wife today, discussing the change in the rate of change in our lives.  When we were younger life seemed to be composed of passing a series of landmarks such as marriage, the births of our children, job & house changes etc.  Then it feels like you get to a place where these waymarks no longer exist; it rather reminds me of my drive across Canada when I got to the plains states and one could drive all day and nothing seemed to change.  It maybe that, like my Canadian road trip, that I am bang on course, but at present it feels like one in sitting in a stationary train in a tunnel, one maybe on track but there are no visible signs.

People talk a lot about the periods in the change cycle when lots is happening, but these more static periods are very much part of the process too. 

I’d be interested to hear how you handle these periods…

“We did not change as we grew older; we just became more clearly ourselves.”  Lynn Hall

“All change is not growth, as all movement is not forward.”  Ellen Glasgow

Technorati Tags: ,,

Tags: , , ,

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009 at 17:43 and is filed under Business Change, Personal Change, Values & Philosophy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

7 Responses to “The view from a tunnel”

  1. Sam Deeks says:
    3 November , 2009 at 18:47

    I used to wonder what would happen if I shut myself in a room without windows, or clocks, or routine or any familiar landmarks of change.

    My theory was that if I removed all signs of change then time itself would become meaningless and strangely elastic. Who knows?

    But maybe that’s a bit of what happens when we move out of the routine landscape of change (school runs, workdays, weekdays and weekends…) – when we move from one stage of our lives into another?

    You asked how people deal with this lack of the signs of progress. At the risk of being philosophical (lols – hey, you DID categorise this post as ‘Values and Philosophy’)…

    I remember once someone saying to me “I like to keep busy, it passes the time”. Duh? To what? Death?

    I’m really not in a hurry any more to be anywhere other than here and now, in the moment. I used to be, but not so much any more. It’s not always easy, but the result is that I don’t worry about change or progress because I’m not so attached to getting from somewhere to somewhere.

  2. richardderwentcooke says:
    3 November , 2009 at 19:04

    Sam,

    Thanks for another thoughtful comment [I always enjoy them!]

    I am inclined to agree with you but find it strange that I find it hard to tell if I am making progress in accepting standing still… I do feel off the map somewhat now.

    I also agree that ‘being in the moment’ is a very powerful state and one I certainly try to attain.

    I don’t believe in ‘keeping busy’ either, more in being still

  3. “I like to keep busy. It passes the time” | 'mu:kaumedia says:
    3 November , 2009 at 19:05

    […] Cooke got me thinking with a post on his i-Change blog.  He talks about how it feels to have lost the familiar milestones and landmarks of change; to be […]

  4. amanda_h says:
    3 November , 2009 at 20:53

    And of course not all change is overtly dynamic … some of it can be a deepening of Self which, while being a profound change of itself, isn’t always visible for a while …

  5. richardderwentcooke says:
    3 November , 2009 at 20:55

    Indeed Amanda… I mean does a seed know it is germinating? Many thanks for this thought

  6. amanda_h says:
    3 November , 2009 at 20:58

    I’m a huge believer in seasonal growth Richard … The idea that we too are affected by the seasons …

    Spring is the time for new beginnings, Summer for ripening ideas, Autumn for harvesting all the hard work, and Winter for going within and doing the inner housework …

    We’re now well into the Autumnal energy and as we get older our lives also match the seasons – childhood being Spring, Adolescence being Summer, Parenthood through to old age being Autumn then old age being Winter ….

    It all fits the wheel of life really!

  7. richardderwentcooke says:
    3 November , 2009 at 21:00

    Thanks for introducing this concept Amanda, I totally agree

Leave a Reply

This blog is kept spam free by WP-SpamFree.