FRAGILE IN THE TRANSITIONS [M, 10-19-26]

CHRIST IN WINTER: Reflections on Faith & Life for the Years of Winter—FRAGILE IN THE TRANSITIONS [M, 10-19-26]

 

I’m beginning to have more sympathy with the man who moved because he heard that most accidents happen at home. “Not taking any chances,” he said.

Well, Helen and I aren’t taking chances, either. We’ve signed up for Shady Pines. Except here it is called Bell Trace. They call it “senior living.” It’s popularly called “assisted living.” Helen calls it “No more cooking.” I call it, “No more…just about anything…”

Well, actually my life won’t change much. I can recline on the sofa and drink coffee and read just about any place. Helen has famously stated that “men enter assisted living the day they get married.”

Even though my life won’t change much, I still have to be careful in the transition, because, as Helen’s yoga teacher used to say, “We are fragile in the transitions.”

She was talking about going from downward dog to--I can’t say to what, because downward dog is the only yoga name I know—but I think her wisdom works in all the rest of life. We are fragile in the transitions, be they physical or spiritual.

It is well known that old people fall more often in unfamiliar surroundings, or if they move too fast in trying to get from one position or to another, like starting to walk too quickly after standing up. So, while we are looking forward to someone else doing the cooking and picking up the mail, we are also reminding ourselves that we’ll have to be careful.

We have some time to get used to the idea of moving. We’re only on the wait list. It may be several months before an apartment becomes available. But we’re already beginning to feel the fragility, the vulnerability of being in a state of flux, even if only in our anticipations.

We should have made this decision six months ago, but life is rarely lived that way. In reality, we don’t know what we need until it’s already too late.

As we age, we are not as agile. So often, a fall happens when we’ve tried to make a fast turn. When we are less agile, we are more fragile.

It is not just our bodies, though. Our spirits are less agile, and so they are fragile in the transitions, too. 

Like going from sleep to wakefulness in the morning. If I get up before I’ve waited for a moment or two to let my mind get in sync with God, the transition leads me into all sorts of bad thinking. And bad walking.

Every day, there are dozens of little transitions that can be dangerous. Addicts know this. Just going from sitting to standing, going from one room to another. Those are fragile times. You think, without doing it consciously, “Oh, this is a time I could have a drink,” or “This is a time I could place a bet,” or “This is a time I could grab a donut…”

In psychology, the phenomenon of possession is often triggered by rapid change. Possession means a feeling of losing control of one’s self, of being in the control of some other force.

In the Bible, especially in the story of Jesus, in those times, it is said that people are possessed by demons. Demons are strongest in times of transition.

I wonder about Jesus on the cross. What a major transition. Did the demons get to him? Was his faith fragile in that transition? Is that why he asked, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” [Mt 27, Mark 15]

But the Jesus story did not end there. Despite the fragility, despite the demons, that was a transition to a better time.

Once we get to Bell Trace, I’m going to deal with the demons in the time-honored ways: prayer, friends, and just sitting in one place all day. The demons can’t get possession of you in transition if you never transition.

John Robert McFarland