(no subject)
Eight more days until the Vision Fast weekend begins. I am so psyched... so energized, so ready. Not "excited", exactly, which is interesting. But more and more often, very focused.
As I pay attention to the preparation process I see that more is revealed in every conversation, every action. In yoga this morning our regular teacher brought a singing bowl, and then rang it like a bell at several points in our progress through the poses. I don't remember that he's done that before.
I came home thinking my singing bowl wants to be included, even though its brass is will take up weight.
Lying on the massage table I began to notice the different times in our life when different kinds of abilities peak. A mathematician, they say, is old at 25. A swimmer is old at 30, a dancer at 40, an engineer at 55 or 60, perhaps a little bit later, but not much. We are so accustomed to imagining life as a linear progression toward more and better, as in childhood our skills grow and develop rapidly. I see for myself that some of my skills are fading now, both physical and mental. What other skills are developing, or still have growth to do before peak?
What are the skills and abilities that develop fully during the third trimester of this life?
I think I know a few. Lately my function in large groups has been less about 'picking up and doing the tasks we've decided' and more about 'noticing which tasks need doing and selecting the right human for the job.' Lately my usefulness is less in the work of my hands or thinking/planning self, and more in bringing forward the viewpoint from my unique perspective, my richly varied experience, my peculiar childhood history ... and also, in taking the long view, reminding people of previous episodes of the same stuff in former decades.
[Mild rant here: almost all the rhetoric presently used against gay marriage was used in the 1940s to 1960s against 'interracial' marriage, for an example. Less obvious is the fact that, according to my mother, the sexual liberation of the 1960s was pretty much like the flapper era of the 1920s (she said the only difference was that people didn't _talk_ so much about what they were doing). So sexual repression and sexual liberation seem to repeatedly come around in cycles, each an overcorrection for the excesses of the time before.]
But back to the work: Taking the long view, bringing forward a valuable perspective formed by long experience ... these sound like Wisdom work. What other work might a Wisdom worker do?
Is it time to do some counseling work? Is it time to help people get through crises and catastrophes when they just need support until they can find their feet? Is it time to do some deep work in the relationships in my own personal life, and let the outside world recede?
Perhaps the Fast will tell me -- or perhaps during the Fast I'll be ready to know.
Blessed Be.
...
As I pay attention to the preparation process I see that more is revealed in every conversation, every action. In yoga this morning our regular teacher brought a singing bowl, and then rang it like a bell at several points in our progress through the poses. I don't remember that he's done that before.
I came home thinking my singing bowl wants to be included, even though its brass is will take up weight.
Lying on the massage table I began to notice the different times in our life when different kinds of abilities peak. A mathematician, they say, is old at 25. A swimmer is old at 30, a dancer at 40, an engineer at 55 or 60, perhaps a little bit later, but not much. We are so accustomed to imagining life as a linear progression toward more and better, as in childhood our skills grow and develop rapidly. I see for myself that some of my skills are fading now, both physical and mental. What other skills are developing, or still have growth to do before peak?
What are the skills and abilities that develop fully during the third trimester of this life?
I think I know a few. Lately my function in large groups has been less about 'picking up and doing the tasks we've decided' and more about 'noticing which tasks need doing and selecting the right human for the job.' Lately my usefulness is less in the work of my hands or thinking/planning self, and more in bringing forward the viewpoint from my unique perspective, my richly varied experience, my peculiar childhood history ... and also, in taking the long view, reminding people of previous episodes of the same stuff in former decades.
[Mild rant here: almost all the rhetoric presently used against gay marriage was used in the 1940s to 1960s against 'interracial' marriage, for an example. Less obvious is the fact that, according to my mother, the sexual liberation of the 1960s was pretty much like the flapper era of the 1920s (she said the only difference was that people didn't _talk_ so much about what they were doing). So sexual repression and sexual liberation seem to repeatedly come around in cycles, each an overcorrection for the excesses of the time before.]
But back to the work: Taking the long view, bringing forward a valuable perspective formed by long experience ... these sound like Wisdom work. What other work might a Wisdom worker do?
Is it time to do some counseling work? Is it time to help people get through crises and catastrophes when they just need support until they can find their feet? Is it time to do some deep work in the relationships in my own personal life, and let the outside world recede?
Perhaps the Fast will tell me -- or perhaps during the Fast I'll be ready to know.
Blessed Be.
...