Wayfinding

Navigating Change with Grace

Much as we may like stability, it's by way of the human condition to be betwixt and between.

Between seasons, between relationships, between jobs, between homes...we're always straddling something, it seems. Our only permanent residence the ephemeral, the transitory, the fleeting.

We're juncture dwellers, forever learning to inhabit the hinges.

Which isn't to say all transitions are alike. Sometimes we may switch pages or chapters in the stories of our lives; sometimes we switch entire volumes.

If you sense you're at one of these larger crossroads, I’m here to say you probably are.

This can be a potent but confusing, uncomfortable place to be. The changes afoot are deeply personal, and even the most well-meaning advice (whether from friends or professionals) may fail to speak to that specificity.

I think we all get that there's no one-size-fits-all formula for this life transition stuff. But it can still be tempting to latch onto someone's program or protocol as if it will save us from the chilly waters of uncertainty, only to find later that their approach was a ferry to somewhere we didn't need to go.

It's hard listening to our own life, to the soft voice that threatens at times to devastate the very ground under our feet.

Difficult and delicate as the terrain can be, this is still some of my favorite work to engage with. I feel blessed to get to help folks orient to the changing landscapes in which they find themselves. To help them sense potentialities and steal glimpses down different possible paths. To help them catch glimpses of deep and subtle karmic currents, and to access quiet truths that can be hard to hear beneath the everyday noise.

I've been calling this work "Wayfinding.”

It's not exactly coaching, not quite counseling or spiritual direction, but somewhere near the nexus of these modes. It's certainly work that brings together of a good many of the methods I've gleaned over the years. Sometimes my herbal training contributes. Divination arts always a big role.

But this is work that refuses to be boxed in or entirely systematized. People are too interesting and particular for that. For that reason, it’s work in which I tend to find myself surprised, challenged, enlivened in the opportunity to meet the moment and the person across the table, as we look up from the wrinkled map and compass we’ve been stuyding.

In case you feel a spark of curiosity kindling, here’s a new write-up on Wayfinding on my website. If it happens to be a great rushing wave of ‘yes’ you feel, I have space this summer for a handful of new Wayfinding subjects. (I err on the side of too few rather than too many, because I don’t like to rush or cram this work, it’s too delicate and important.)

You’re also always welcome to drop me a line at jedwardian (at) gmail (dot) com. We can feel our way into whether it’s a fit.

Whether or not we ever roll up our sleeves together or walk a few miles side by side, may you come across the exact support that’ll carry you through. May be the wind be always at your back, friend.

JEd