Transformation, A New Creation

Choose Life, Choose the challenges, Become a new You.

The initial coming to life wasn’t a choice we got to make but living our lives is one of the most beautiful choices we could make every single day. Not everyone’s living situation is a walk in the park where everything comes easy. Some people may dream of a certain type of life while others believe that life is below them. This post isn’t to turn my back on situations where life is tormenting and inhumane. This post is to acknowledge the beauty that comes with choosing life.

And now the question is what is the beauty in living?

For me it’s transformation. What does it take to transform?

A seed of truth alone can send someone into a rabbit hole until they find enough information to satisfy themselves. It’s usually one thing leading to another until finally someone learns about a dead language in the middle of a desert that was once flowing with milk and honey. You go into that rabbit hole as one person less aware and come out someone new. Someone who understands there was bliss where there is now nothing to show for it. These deep dives of curiosity open our minds to new worlds that maybe no longer exist.

Our perceptions transform and in turn we transform into something new, maybe even a little more unhinged.

Transformation

When we transform, the old falls away and it’s this beautiful becoming is all that’s left to share. Subtle transformations in writing are my favorite. I think Henry James depicts this with skill in his works. In Portrait of Lady, it was the change in the man pursuing the main character. He had never met a woman like her, and she made him quite curious.

Transformation is also biblical if you’re into that type of thing. There are specific instances of Christ’s transformation. There’s one when he is first baptized and there’s one when he returns to heaven called the transfiguration. This is when he is turned into a glorious state on a mountain.

Those are just a couple examples. Transformation is universal. We don’t come into this world knowing. We come into this world learning and adapting to our environment. People reach a point in their lives where they don’t rise or sink below a threshold. They no longer seek out different ways to learn and grow. And they die just like that. That sounds tragic but I think it’s important to point out that they didn’t go their entire life that way.

The beauty I find in transformation is that it’s possible for humans to do often and they don’t have to be very good at it. They just have to stay curious and find interest in life. Being released into the world without his creator transformed Frankenstein and each small event changed him more and more over time.

“Nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change.”

― Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Frankenstein

The challenges that transform us are cumbersome and sometimes debilitating. Yes. They don’t have to be the end of it all. Challenges can be invitations to become something new and unfamiliar even to yourself.