The Winter of one’s life is the last transitional period and a cause for celebration with all the grandeur and ceremony a rite of passage offers. I have begun the Winter of my life and I am jazzed. Not only is it the last phase of my life, but it is the first phase that I have entered with deliberate intention and more awake, aware, whole, and at peace internally and with my environment than I have ever been. The journey has been…well…interesting. Half-way through my summer phase I began what I would classify as my spiritual journey. This would be my prime purpose through the remainder of summer and throughout autumn; literally half of my life up until now. The term ‘slow learner’ comes to mind yet that merely makes me chuckle because the journey simply ‘is what it is’; time is simply meaningless.
There are, in essence, only three variables: I am responsible for my thoughts; I am responsible for my feelings; and toI am responsible for my choices.
Opportunities, people, joy, suffering, and a vast array of experiences presented themselves and they were directly proportional to the degree to, which I was taking responsibility for my thoughts, feelings, and choices. Before I began the spiritual phase of my journey, I suffered…a great deal. My perceptions/beliefs were, for the most part, out of sync with reality/truth; they were often based on illusions, figments of my imagination, and FEAR. Even late into my journey, I experienced vast suffering as a result of victimization through domestic violence. Following on the heels of the death of my eldest son where my vulnerability was acute, this experience would offer the final contrast that would eradicate a core issue that I thought had been resolved.
While it would be nice to forgo some of my intensely painful experiences, everything contributed to where I am now and was supported by my thoughts, my feelings, and my choices at the time. My journey has been vast in depth and breadth and…today…I can appreciate the journey. I know who I am and I feel my connection to the Source. The pain of the past can fade in the presence of the joy. It is an experience akin to the bliss one feels holding a newborn baby as the remembrance of a painful labor rapidly dissipates. The previous pain and suffering become irrelevant as they gaze upon the tiny being lovingly cradled; the miraculous they are witnessing.
The Crone, as an archetype, can be defined as a powerful and wise old woman; the embodiment of wisdom, freedom, personal power and peace.
Am I now the Village Crone? It is something I aspire and confirmed/denied by my thoughts, feelings, and choices.
Blessings for a beautiful NOW…
From my heart to yours,
Dayton ~ the holistic wellness coach