In the midst of the late summer warmth, laying back in the shade in my zero gravity chair, dipping into the cool ocean waves, watering & more watering of my garden, the lazy, hazy days of summer are still with me as I make plans for our fall adventures.
In June, I celebrated my 73rd birthday & it dawned on me that my mother died just before her 83rd birthday & my maternal grandmother died when she was 85, so I may be facing the last decade of my life! Dealing with the events & thoughts around aging, along with the added impetus of the health issues brought on by post-polio syndrome & hip replacement surgeries, has occupied much of my thoughts, as well as influencing my dreams & visions in this, the latter part of my life.
It is still a mystery to me of how exactly I will spend these coming years.
Needless to say, I will continue to enjoy & appreciate my life, my community of family & friends as well as continuing in whatever way emerges, to contribute to my community. However, what palette will my life enhancing paint brush bring to this period?
In listening to an interview by Tami Simon with David Whyte (who by the way will be in Vancouver for a day’s workshop on November 20, sponsored by Hollyhock), I was struck by his nuances on the initial phases of the transitions we face, where you are turning a page, ending a chapter in the book of your life, and things are starting to emerge which are somewhat unclear. It is important to be able to keep your focus on what you are entrenched on in your life, and also keep the edges of that peripheral vision, catching the shadows of this something else which is pointing to new pieces of this giant puzzle you call your life.
The following is a poem by David Whyte, entitled No Path, which speaks to this part of our journey.
There is no path that goes all the way. Not that it stops as looking for the full continuation. The fixed belief we can hold, facing a stranger that faces the trouble of a real conversation.
But one day, you’re not imagining an empty chair where your loved one sat. You’re not just telling a story where the bridge is down and there’s no where to cross. You’re not just trying to pray to a God you imagined would always keep you safe.
No. you’ve come to the place where nothing you’ve done will impress and nothing you can promise will avert the silent confrontation; the place where your body already seems to know the way, having kept to the last its own secret reconnaissance.
But still, there’s no path that goes all the way. One conversation leads to another. One breath to the next until there’s no breath at all, just the inevitable final release of the burden. And then, wouldn’t your life have to start all over again for you to know even a little of who you had been?
Hoping you will join us in sharing our journeys through the Continuum path,
With love & blessings, Doris
August 25, 2010
DORIS MARANDA, MA, is an authorized Continuum Movement teacher (www.continuummovement.com), a Registered Clinical Counsellor and a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner (www.traumahealing.com). “To me, this work is a spiritual practice and has opened me up to possibilities of living embodied that I had only begin to envision in my work as a psyche/soma therapist and educator. It is the basis for everything that I do. In movement, there is no separation and as we begin to live, breathing, moving and expressing our experiences, there comes a joining and a wholeness that leads to healing and to a creative excitation that counteracts the insanity and fragmentation that we encounter in the world around us.â€
PRIVATE COUNSELLING & SOMATIC MOVEMENT EDUCATION
SESSIONS WITH DORIS BY APPOINTMENT
604-254-0147 or doris@dorismaranda.com
Free phone consultation.
Doris Maranda