expansion and loss

Life has been challenging in numerous ways this summer and fall, and one of the themes I’ve been navigating is that of loss. I know so many others who are also in this place, in one way or another.

Recently, a friend sent me this quote by author Parker Palmer regarding his own experiences of loss:

“On the surface it seemed that life was lessening, but silently and lavishly the seeds of new life were being sown.”

One of the gifts of the passage of time is looking back at hard experiences and eventually saying, yes, now I see the good that came from that difficult experience, or, I wouldn’t have discovered this new path if that door hadn’t closed, etc. But many times it is hard to think this way in the midst of a struggle.

I had coffee the other week with an artist friend. During our conversation, we talked about the fact that she was going to have to move out of her art studio to cut costs, and as a result, would need to recreate her studio in a second bedroom at home. Our conversation shed beautiful light on the experience of loss and the surprising expansion we often discover underneath.

As I listened to her talk about the felt loss of letting go of her studio, along with the new direction she was exploring in her current body of work, it became apparent to both of us that perhaps the change to creating at home had the potential to support and nurture this new work in a very specific way. And, that she had the power to sanction this new creative space for that purpose.

It was almost as if her creative work and voice were getting refined and coming into sharper focus in conjunction with the move to creating at home. In giving up her external studio, she had to let go of many things. But her creative work was actually not suffering in the process. To the contrary, her new artistic direction was growing more potent.

The experience of loss is difficult, no matter how it shows up in our lives. There’s no way around that. But in addition to grieving what has been removed from our lives, we can also seek opportunity to expand. Loss gives us an opportunity to see our lives with greater clarity and discover what new things might want to grow. In the space loss creates, we can align ourselves more deeply with who we are called to be in the world and find fresh resolve to take the next forward step.

Loss may appear one way on the surface. But there are always quieter, more potent layers hidden underneath - new life waiting to take root in the emptiness.