We’ve been on a merry-go-round of sorts for quite sometime and it looks like it may eventually slow down enough to let us get off.
Then what?
From what I recall as a kid riding a merry-go-round, there was a whole lot of spinning involved and it took some time for the momentum to stop. Once it slowed down enough, if you were feeling brave, you would jump off. Alternatively, you would wait until it came to a complete stop and then carefully step off. Didn’t much matter your approach, eventually your feet hit the ground again.
No matter what your approach was for getting off the merry-go-round, the feelings were usually the same…disorientation. The first thing you had to do was find your balance. How long this took was unique to each person. Some were able to get right up and stand steady, however, for most of us, some time was needed to start feeling sure-footed again.
Next was to determine which way you were facing. Sometimes, you were looking in the opposite direction from where you were when you first embarked on the ride. It could take a minute or two to get clear on just where you were in relationship to where you started out. Again, this process varied for the individual.
Finally, you had to decide which way you were going to go and start going. One step at a time until your direction and steps were all in alignment. Maybe you were still a little wobbly, but you knew which way you wanted to go. And so you did.
Balance. Calibration. Movement.
Knowing that as we move forward we will need to continually follow this pattern until we become sure-footed again. Everyone’s path will be different.