Shannon's Corner

  Today in the United States, we pause to remember those who sacrificed their lives for our country and for the freedoms we experience today. Memorial Day is more than a long weekend or the unofficial beginning of summer. It is a sacred reminder that freedom often comes through sacrifice. As we honor those who gave everything, perhaps it is also a meaningful time to reflect on our own lives and journeys through transition. Many life transitions involve loss. Sometimes it is the loss of a role, a relationship, a dream, a season, a home, or even the version of ourselves we once knew. Walking through change can feel disorienting, exhausting, and at times deeply painful. When we are in the middle of transition, it is easy to focus only on what is missing or what had to be left behind. But what if we also paused long enough to reflect on what has been gained? Growth often comes quietly. Healing can happen so gradually that we do not realize how far we have come until we stop and look ba...

  Have you ever traveled and had your toiletries explode or leak in your bag or suitcase? What a mess! You open your suitcase expecting to quickly settle in, only to discover shampoo coating your clothes, lotion smeared across your shoes, or toothpaste somehow finding its way into everything. Suddenly, what was supposed to be simple becomes frustrating, time-consuming, and inconvenient. Travel has a way of shaking things up. Life transitions can feel very similar. Many of us carefully pack our lives with plans, expectations, routines, and goals. We think we know exactly how the journey will unfold. Then suddenly something shifts — a job change, retirement, grief, burnout, a move, a relationship ending, a health challenge, or even an unexpected opportunity. And before we know it, the emotional “contents” of our lives feel scattered everywhere. Transitions often expose things we thought were securely contained: old fears, unresolved pain, disappointments, exhaustion, uncertainty, or ...

  While attending a retreat recently, the speaker shared the image of a chambered nautilus shell as a metaphor for growth. The shell is made up of chambers that spiral outward, each one larger than the last. As the nautilus grows, it does not stay in the same chamber. It moves forward into a new space while still carrying the previous chambers behind it. What stood out to me was the reminder that growth is often circular, not linear. In life transitions, it can feel frustrating when we find ourselves revisiting something we thought we had already learned. Maybe it is a familiar fear, grief, relationship pattern, or question about identity and purpose. We may think, “Why am I back here again? I should be farther along by now.” But perhaps we are not going backward at all. Like the chambers of the nautilus shell, each return may actually be an invitation to go deeper. The circumstances may look similar, but we are not the same person we were before. We carry more wisdom, experience, ...