This Is What Change Feels Like
Dec 27, 2024
I don’t know about you, but I thought 2024 was never going to end! What a crazy frickin’ year this has been. Not just for me, but for many people I know. So, if this has been a doozy for you too, you’re not alone!
Here we are at the end of the year — we made it. Take a moment to give yourself some well-deserved credit. I know I say this often, but it’s worth repeating: the fact that we’re here is a testament to the incredible resilience and strength we all have to face and get through the hard stuff.
My husband is reading a book called ‘All The Beauty In the World’ by Patrick Bringley, and he read me out a bit the other night that I just loved:
“Pure math is obviously extremely beautiful… It’s elegant. Physics too, is elegant. Biology is anything but elegant. It’s an absolute mess. Put it this way, if you or I were to build a machine, we’d go about it logically, with the fewest necessary parts moving in clean, efficient ways. But living nature doesn’t work that way at all. It builds via the most fantastic redundancies and curlicues, millions of little variations around a theme, so that if three-quarters go haywire, life survives. The results are Rube Goldberg* devices, but sturdy Rube Goldberg devices, unimaginably weird and densely layered Rube Goldberg devices, literally unimaginable in that our brains aren’t adequate to comprehend the sort of microscopic megacities hidden within the tiniest cell.”
I just loved that: ‘if three-quarters go haywire, life survives’. Here’s to megacities hidden within our tiniest cells!
One theme that stood out this year is transitions. They’re always happening, but this year, they felt especially present. The Insight Alliance has been in transition, I’ve been in transition, and so many of the people we work with are navigating their own — whether it's leaving prison, returning to their communities, changing jobs, or finding new places to live.
To me, transitions are the spaces between what was and what will be — often uncomfortable, sometimes uncertain, but always rich with potential. They remind us that growth happens not in the destination, but in the in-between. In every transition, there’s an opportunity to let go of what no longer serves us and to embrace what is yet to come. It is in these moments of change that we find the deepest parts of ourselves and the strength to step into new beginnings.
I feel like I’ve been in a transition for a while and I know I’m still in the middle of it. I’ve had personal transitions, letting go of a friendship recently that no longer felt good or supportive. It was important that I was loyal to myself. That’s something I’m learning to do. I’m good at being loyal to others but always to myself. The transition in our organization has been uncomfortable and at times even wondering if we’d make it, but ultimately, it’s been so necessary. And we’re doing great. The transition that’s coming for me to leave this country and move back to England to be closer to my family and friends. Definitely not an easy transition. It’s one that will probably take some time, but it feels right.
Transitions are not just a part of life — they are life. While they can be disorienting and uncertain, they are necessary because they push us to evolve, let go, and create space for what’s next. And they remind us that nothing is fixed; everything changes, and that’s where possibility lives. Even when we can’t see what’s ahead, we can trust that we have everything we need within us to embrace the shift and move through it. Our resilience, creativity, and courage are always there, guiding us forward. Instead of fearing transitions, we can lean into them, knowing that they are pathways to becoming more of who we are meant to be.
As we step from this year into the next, I hope you find moments of peace. If you're navigating a bigger transition, remember — you’ve got this. You’re not alone, and you’re in the company of countless others growing, changing, and embracing what’s next.