Growth

If you are a parent, you have had the opportunity and pleasure (?) to watch your young child go through growth spurts.  They suddenly become clumsy, emotional, tired, restless, and anxious in response to all the physical changes occurring within their bodies.  The same reaction can be seen when they reach puberty – not only are their bodies transforming and developing into their adult selves, their brains are evolving into their mature beings.  This is when in one moment they seek out comfort - they want to be coddled, cuddled, and reassured and in the next they forcibly push you away to strive towards independence.  
 
In some ways, the essence of puberty remains with us our entire lives.  While we may stop growing taller, and for most of us, our middle age bodies and minds only slightly resemble our teen-age selves, we still change dramatically over time – not only physically, but emotionally and philosophically. I personally notice that those periods of adjustments are still as angst-y, powerful, thrilling, and intense as they were for my fifteen-year-old self.
 
Yes, growth is exciting, fun, intoxicating, and purely exhilarating, all the while being daunting, awkward, painful, exhausting, challenging, and utterly terrifying. However, when you comprehend that in the absence of growth there can only be stagnation, inertia, atrophy, and eventual death --- the search for ways to stretch, progress, and change becomes absolutely addicting, despite the potential for discomfort, and, yes, even, failure.

---

Deep Root Center is currently going through that twitchy, edgy, and free-wheeling adolescent phase.  We have definitely outgrown the rental space that we have occupied for the past three years; however, reaching towards the independence of ownership has offered moments of overwhelming optimism and joy, as well as intense fear and deep frustration.  The emotions change in heartbeat, as we negotiate this unfamiliar path littered with financial obstacles, bureaucracy (paperwork), and growing pains (we have the potential of adding to our student numbers, significantly), as well as the continued feeling of inevitability. 
 
Thanks to loans from a few generous folks, who will be named in subsequent posts, we have made an offer on the house that I identified in the last post.  We will know on Friday afternoon whether the seller has accepted our offer.  The waiting is “killing” me; however, I continually remind myself that while growth brings discomfort and restiveness, it also makes dreams come true.
 
* A note of thanks to this blog from Seth Godin for instigating this entire thought process, when I had absolutely “nothing” this morning.

Emmy and I had a great time talking to folks at the 1st annual Kid Expo yesterday!