Out of Your Comfort Zone?

The great thing about being an adult is that you know how to do a lot of stuff. Walking, talking, balancing your checkbook, doing laundry, cooking a meal- we have so many skills we take for granted. We know our favorite brand of dish soap, what time we like to eat lunch, and whether we like roller coasters. This is also the spiritual challenge of being an adult; if you know what you like, if you know what you are good at, it’s easy to stay in your comfort zone.

Just a few months ago I realized that I was stuck in my comfort zone. At this moment in life when I’ve been in ministry over 20 years, and have a yoga practice even older, it’s easy to fall into the habit of doing the things I know how to do, the things I’m used to doing. It’s easy to lose the beginner’s mind that looks at the world with fresh eyes. It’s hard to step out into a world of unexplored territory. As a spiritual practice, I challenged myself to try things I suspected I’m not very good at. I took up drawing, having given it up at age 7 or so. It’s been a practice in humility (and sometimes frustration) to  be so far out of my comfort zone, to stumble and grow in that way that is natural for children, but antithetical to our adult sense of self.

Then the Pandemic reached our area, and we began to shelter at home. We realized with humility that are all now adult learners. Not only were the stores out of our favorite dish soap, they were out of many of the products we counted on, many of the ingredients for the meals we knew how to make. When our churches began worshiping online, I met with a group of very experienced colleagues who agreed “it’s like we are first year ministers again- everything is new.” The learning curve is very steep for all of us. One colleague shared her mantra for this time: “there is no perfection in a pandemic.”

As our community began its phased reopening, we headed (some of us tentatively, some of us like students on the last day of school) out into the world, and we realized what essential works have been living for months- that everything was new there too. I so admire these business owners who have had to rethink everything. A favorite restaurant just reopened and I was so impressed with how they had rearranged their space to increase safety, how carefully they had created new processes for the new world we are living in, and how the food was just as delicious as ever. And when I visit a business where things are confusing, where the staff are overwhelmed I just repeat to myself “there is no perfection n a pandemic.”

 

We are all out of our comfort zone now. There is no avoiding learning new things; we stumble, we scratch our heads as things we thought would never change have changed. These are not changes that any of us would have chosen, but we can choose to listen for the spirit as we navigate this new world. These challenges have shaken us from our usual ways of being, have shaken our sense of security, our sense that we know what to expect from this world.

It is humbling as an adult to have to re-learn basic things; it is humbling acknowledge how much we don’t know. But the religious traditions of the world remind us that a humble heart is the beginning of wisdom. When we are certain of the world and our place in it,  we often rest in that certainty instead of listening for  the Spirit.  Honor yourself whenever you feel the discomfort of facing a changed world. Let that discomfort soften your sense of what you know about the world, about yourself. Let your humble heart open to the spirit as you step out into this changing evolving world.