The town where I live just West of Portland, Oregon got up to 118º this week. It was fierce. And while there are many places in the world that see summer temperatures this high on the regular, the Oregon rainforest is not one of them. Most homes here don’t have AC and the ones that do still struggle to meet the demands of a heatwave like this.
When the wave finally broke, I felt like we’d been through a collective rite of passage. This feeling has intensified now that, as of this week, all remaining Covid restrictions have been lifted in my area. We have come out the other side of a brief-but-excruciating heat dome and the other side of a much longer pandemic-necessitated period of social isolation.
What happens on the other side of a rite of passage? Traditionally, it’s a time of re-integration… which can be accompanied by confusion and uncertainty.
Think about a wedding: happy newlyweds coming home from their honeymoon may feel discomfort as they adapt to married life, especially if it impacts their sense of identity.
Consider a birth: first-time parents thrilled with their new bundle of joy may also feel sad at their loss of freedom or dysregulated by things like sleep disturbances.
A recent graduate may be excited by their new horizons and be completely daunted by the prospect of beginning a new chapter.
The passages that my local area completed this week were not joyful, planned events like these examples. Rites of passage are sometimes difficult journeys to the underworld and back again. A health challenge, especially, can be like that: an initiation into a new way of being. Not easy. Not fun. But a profound teacher that guides us into new dimensions of wisdom and presence.
We can only integrate an initiation on the other side of it. Not while it’s happening. In an ideal context, there is space to metabolize the changes we’ve undergone. It is in that space where we gather the gifts of the experience. Some of our most precious gifts in life emerge from the depths of shadow during difficult passages.
Perhaps you are experiencing some disorientation as your local area rolls back its own coronavirus restrictions. Maybe your line of work was drastically affected by the pandemic and you’ve had to pivot… and now you have to pivot again. Maybe you adapted to sequestered life and the thought of extending your energy back into community feels completely overwhelming.
You have been through an initiation. We all have.
Be spacious with yourself. Give yourself time to integrate the new now.
May the expanded sunlight of the season illuminate what’s true for you at this moment and what you may need for the pathway forward.