Tipping Points

I’m dredging up an old metaphor – a cliché, even. The idea that a tipping point does not usually come from a single change, but from the cumulative effect of a number of aligned small changes. Like tossing coins on the pan of a balance scale, most of the work of change causes absolutely no outward change until, suddenly, all the little changes contribute to one significant change.

It’s an interesting experience to watch a balance scale sneak up on its tipping point, when the pan has not yet tipped but you can sense  it quivering with a pent-up desire to suddenly jump into motion. My fingers get twitchy at that moment. So Exciting!!

It’s somewhat more nerve-wracking to watch one’s life at a tipping point. See, we go through them, too. Life changes and life transitions are, perhaps  surprisingly, built up of classic tipping points where a bunch of otherwise inconsequential and low-impact things all line up to create a powerful and influential body - acting either like links of a chain down taking us down into the pits of struggle, or the rungs of a ladder leading us back out to the meadows of prosperity.

We’ve all seen them both. Chains down and ladders up. Undoubtedly.

Over the last couple weeks, I’ve been having that ‘tipping point’ experience again. I’ve been watching things shift. Little things, changing and re-aligning. Things that were hard obstacles moved, rearranging themselves into avenues of progress instead of roadblocks. Each shift has been a like little bit more weight on the pan. In the past couple days, it just seems like the pan has reached the point where it’s quivering. Like we’re sneaking up on the tipping point.

Back in 1993/94, I went through an experience like this. It was as if my whole life unraveled in about six months’ time. The pan just emptied, and the scales thumped hard against my success. But then, after a period of emptiness, things started to rebuild. Fast. Scarily, eerily fast. As if I weren’t steering, even. I remember saying to a friend, “My whole life came apart in 6 months, now it’s rebuilding itself completely in about six weeks, whether I like it or not!”

I didn’t know it at the time, but I was spot-on. The stuff that happened in that six week time period set me on my new course in life that took me further and higher than before; the course that has taken me to where I am now. And I am the better for this new course. My experiences in 1993/94 were the rehearsal for what was still to come.

Which is what brings us to this blog post. See, that same cycle has been playing out in my family for the last few years. We’ve had a series of challenges to work through. Sometimes, the amount of challenge has been overwhelming. But we’ve gotten through. I remember the feeling of despair that accompanied the six months of emptiness; it’s similar to what we’ve weathered recently.

And, and-and-and… oh, i love this next part….

I feel the same sense of tension and excitement that makes my hands twitchy. The pan is starting to quiver. Back then, my life rebuilt in six weeks. This time may take a bit longer, but I '*feel* it. I feel it coming. And I am hopeful that my family and I will find ourselves embarked on a new course that takes us further and higher than before. And we will be the better for this new family course.