Transitions

Transitions seem to be those precarious moments when what we’ve come to know has changed, and we don’t know yet the new things that will come to give us our bearings. There are ways however to think of transitions that may help the feeling of loss (in foundation and in bearing).

In the tap dance world the word transition is used to delineate the space between one step and another. You can tell the level of the dancer by how smooth their transitions are. However, thinking of transitions this way separates each step from one another, when there isn’t any actual separation.

A time of transition is actually an end of something and the beginning of something else. The thing that is ending might be larger in scale than the thing that is beginning. I think of what it might feel like to be retiring from a 20 year job, and have your days completely free, or finishing a big project and entering into a time of rest and recovery.

While dancing I’ve tried to eliminate the word transition from my vocabulary. I think only of the ending of one step and the beginning of another. I think about how the ending of one step should place me exactly where I need to be for the beginning of the other. They are the same place, there is no third place, no transition.

In times of transition maybe it’s better to think about how we have ended a particular time, and the work set before us to begin the next time well. In this mind we won’t get caught thinking that we’re in limbo, or in between things, or having not yet started a thing. We are always in the middle of something, it just might not be what we’re used to or what we want. The time we’re in is not a transition, it is the ending of one thing and the beginning of another. Close one loop and begin the other, lest our focus wanders.