As we navigate change and transition, we often find ourselves in one of three places: the ending, the neutral zone or the new beginning. Our current place of change or chaos (for many), has catapulted us into the neutral zone and left us very unsure of what we are leaving behind and with no clue as to what the new beginning will bring or look like.
In managing this complexity, we will try and find meaning in our experience; we will seek to bring clarity and definition to the mystery unfolding. This is the way we psychologically cope with the fear of what is occurring. We will attempt to say goodbye to the stability we have lost and move to understand what is to come after “this” is over. As I consider this basic human need for answers, I encourage you to hold space for the unknown. As David Whyte says, “let the apple ripen”. There is still so much to be revealed through this process. If you assign meaning too soon, you will miss the greater transformation that is unfolding.
Winter Apple
by David Whyte Let the apple ripen on the branch beyond your need to take it down. Let the coolness of autumn and the breathing, blowing wind test its adherence to endurance, let the others fall. Wait longer than you would, go against yourself, find the pale nobility of quiet that ripening demands… let winter come and the first frost threaten, and then wake one morning to see the breath of winter has haloed its redness with light So that a full two months after you should have taken the apple down you hold it in your closed hand at last and bite into the cool sweetness spread evenly through every single atom of a pale and yielding structure, so that you taste on that cold, grey day, not only the after reward of a patience remembered, not only the summer sunlight of a postponed perfection, but the sweet, inward stillness of the wait itself. Extract: Winter Apple From “Pilgrim” © 2012 David Whyte
