Broken Open

For two years Elizabeth Lesser's book BROKEN OPEN has sat on my book shelf.  I cracked the spine a few times but never got further than the introduction.  Timing is everything, and I knew the time was right when I read these sentences today

How strange that the nature of life is change, yet the nature of human beings is to resist change.  And how ironic that the difficult times we fear might ruin us are the very ones that can break us open and help us blossom into who we were meant to be.  This book is about such times.  

Something has broken open inside me.  During other transitional times in my life I could point to a specific occurrence, a catalyzing event, a cause for transformation.  Yes, there has been a lot of change in my life, but not recently.  I've been enjoying a life I used to dream about and yet something has shifted.  The path is no longer recognizable.  Lesser describes it as

where the straight path vanishes, and there is no turning back, only going through.  This is not easy. It is not a made-up fairy tale.  It is very real and very difficult.  To face our shadow - the dragons and hags that we have spent a lifetime running away from - is perhaps the most difficult journey we will ever take.  But it is there, in the shadows, that we retrieve our hidden parts, learn our lessons and give birth to the wise and mature self. 

Finding myself on this route is completely unexpected.  I naively thought I had done my work, faced my shadow and was reaping the rewards.   I come to this place in the woods humbled, grateful and seeking the courage to continue into the unknown.