Jill Pasquinelli writes: “Moving into the Great Unknown: A Life in Transition” in The Main Central Jin Shin Jyutsu Newsletter, issue Number 77, Summer 2012:

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Transition has to do with the unknown. In every transition we are always on the bridge in the process of leaving the old before coming into the new, passing through the gates into a new territory. What am I entering into? How do I handle uncertainty? This is the story of a life in transition. It’s the embodiment of 9, endings and beginnings, completion, letting go, nothing and everything, change and death. It has helped me to further understand the meaning of 9 and how it translates in life.

The husband of a longtime client has been diagnosed with late stage bladder cancer and is in the process of dying. His name is Henry.

Henry has been a powerful man in his life, he’s very prominent in his community, made millions, is always at the helm navigating forward into the future of possibilities seemingly without limitation. Growing a family, expanding a community, creating an empire, he was a very successful man.

I have watched over the years and find myself reflective now as I witness the current disintegration of this larger than life figure, now 82 years old, grapple with something not in his control. No matter how well-built and carried out, lives the dream that becomes manifest, it’s also a part of it’s nature to dissolve, so there’s space for a new dream to incubate and be born…the embodiment of 3rd Depth, of a life well lived…the movement of Spring seeking limitless opportunities, growth and expansion, metamorphosis and creation, the dreams of life. We’re constantly growing ourselves, recreating who we are in every given moment and at the same time dying to that which no longer belongs or is a part of us. This beautiful and brutal gift we have all in the same breath!

To me this is the ultimate expression of 9 and how the beginnings and endings are but two brief events that bookend the life’s journey.

This giant of a man, diminishing in body, the heaviness of fatigue evident as he struggles to walk, his spirit remains strong even as the body is failing.

One of his sons is getting married in August, so everyone is orienting themselves around the goal of Henry making it to the wedding. It’s such a poignant and momentous time, not without irony – one life passage beginning in a union, the other life ending – hoping for just one more celebration, one last party, just this last dance.

The fact is that the chemotherapy that Henry has been given for the last month has not been successful. The tumors have grown, he’s having difficulty breathing, and the pain is unbearable.

To be continued…