Shaking Things Up
When I was a kid I developed an affinity for snow globes. I found it so fascinating to shake them up and watch where everything landed. Even while the ‘snow’ was swirling around, it was so beautiful, and once it settled, the scene was always a little bit different than before. I don’t know about you, but for me 2020 has felt like a giant snow globe experience. For those of you who don’t follow me on Instagram, I announced recently that we’re expecting our third baby this fall. :) I found out the first week of March that life as I knew and had planned for it, would change dramatically… and then a pandemic hit. Maybe for you it wasn’t a surprise pregnancy, but I have no doubt that the past four months have shaken up your world as well. Someone recently referred to this year as ‘earth shattering,’ but I don’t see it that way – the swirl of chaos around us is intense, and doesn’t seem to be lightening up anytime soon, but it won’t break us. We’re just in the midst of a great snow globe shake up. The problem is, many of us (myself included) got used to the scene we were in. With the arrival of COVID, life as we knew it began to get shaken up. Over the past several months we’ve been shaken up as a collective as we experience protests, hoarding, hiding, illness, fear, confusion, new laws and new norms. We’ve also experienced them on a personal level, whether it’s a shake up in your family, job, relationship, finances, or education. We’re all hanging on for dear life wondering when the swirling will stop and what the new scene will look like when the snow finally settles. The key is to stay open to the possibilities. I know that may be a tough thing to do right now, but stay with me... When we experience change, we create opportunities for new perspectives. When the snow finally settles in a snow globe you see things slightly differently than before. The scene looks just a little different – certain parts of it are accentuated that were hidden before. Others are now covered or look slightly different than they did before. The trick is not to judge it all too quickly, but to simply observe and absorb. Like the child shaking a snow globe and watching how it all settles with wonder and curiosity, we must choose to see this new version of life with wonder and curiosity. Rather than immediately deciding we hate it all because it's different, we must be willing to put our judgement aside and ask, what is new here? What’s been revealed that I hadn’t seen before? What does this new perspective have to offer? The first couple months of my pregnancy were ROUGH. I struggled physically and emotionally for weeks. And then, I found out I was having a girl. In that instant, it all suddenly made sense. The life I’d been living and had planned for myself was shaken up, but with that news I gained insight into how things might land, and I began to see a new scene that was far more beautiful than I could have imagined for myself. I realized that this new scene would reveal so many hidden gems that I never knew were there. In that moment I gained so much gratitude and humility for the great shake up. I’m not saying that things will be easy, but I am saying that when the snow finally settles the new scene that is revealed to us might reveal new beauty, new insight, new paths, that we would have never uncovered on our own. The new scene may reveal progress as a culture and strength in humanity that we hadn’t yet gained. I don’t know what the new scene will look like, and neither do you. I’m simply asking that we witness the change with wonder, with anticipation, and stay open to the possibility that somehow, all of this will work out in a way that serves our highest good.
Wishing you a beautiful day, and a wonderful week.
With love and gratitude,
Robin