Turning Points

A initial title idea for this week’s post, “The Snow Is Melting!” came to me earlier in the week as a lot of snow transformed and receded from view (and my sump pump worked over time in response). This morning, though, after rereading the quote now on the chalkboard, the idea of “turning points” settled in, such that that is what the title (and theme) of this week’s post will be. I suppose there can be a relationship between these two, with the melting snow feeling as a kind of turning point.

Of course, depending on where you live, you may not have snow, or the snow you have may not be going away. I heard briefly on the radio this morning that northern Ontario is forecast to get up to 25 centimeters of snow and that a winter storm warning is in effect for the region. I wondered how I might feel today if I was facing a few hours of snow shoeveling ahead of me? Hopefully, I’d take it in stride but I can see that as the snow is melting so is my winter activities mindset. I wonder if this will be the last post for a while in which I mention snow? Yesterday, I did a small amount of work in the garden (cutting back old stalks). It wouldn’t surprise me if these sorts of things become a “regular guest” on the blog for a while.

In my work, I have the opportunity to witness over and over again turning points in people’s lives. I find this deeply moving, something very special and almost beyond words in its impact. I see these turning points in my own life, too, and in friends and others around me when given the opportunity and having the awareness to see. When I speak of turning points this morning, I am thinking of the full range from those that are very subtle to those quite clear and overt, from those that may seem more temporary to those that may seem more permanent (although I might add here I am reluctant to describe things that way). I am thinking also of the things that can contribute to a turning point. These can be virtually anything really: something a person notices on the street, a line they read in a book, a health issue, a song, something a friend or stranger says, the way a tree bends and how it speaks to them, a trip, a physical challenge or activity, a loss… on and on the possibilities go. Sometimes, the things themselves are subtle. We can’t quite put our finger on what they were. There was just something…

When I first read the line a month or two ago that Bill Schefell wrote in Loving Kindness Meditation (2003, p. 10), of how sometimes just to remember loving kindness can support a turning point within us, that is exactly what happened. It connected me again to something very calm and loving and that deep desire to love. This would be an example of a turning point on a small scale, one of the thousands of these inner shifts that can occur in a day, a week, a lifetime. In a small scale but no less poignant way, it offered me renewal, and, in a sense, nourishment for my conviction.

I would love to hear about things that have contributed to a turning point within you. I envision a collection of stories gathered here to inspire and give goosebumps–potential “turning point material” to another as needed. Please feel free to provide a story, a quote, a song, and thus build this collection, by adding a comment to this post.

May you have turning points of hope and renewal this week, exclusively or amidst anything else you may be facing or may come your way.