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ARTICLES SECTION
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Mid-Life Should Be Called Full-LifeI've been more excited by life in my 40's than virtually any other time in my history. I'm taking risks I never thought I would. While always a bold, independent woman swashbuckling my way through life on my own terms, I'm now bolder... spongier. (Sorry, the Sponge Bob movie introduction popped into my head right when I was typing bolder, so I went with it.) I'm so bold and independent now, at 45, that the things I'm contemplating now would have seemed like lunacy even 2 years ago. But they don't seem like lunacy now. They are clearly the way. I'm on my galleon ship in uncharted waters, but my lamp is lighting the way in digestible tidbits. What I can see, I can see clearly, yet what lies outside the swath of my light remains a mystery until little by little I cut through that water. Cut, cut, cut. I'm okay with that. I make the best decision I can based on the information and clarity I have right now and then I shift on the fly as new information comes in. I don't know any other way to sail.
One can perfectly plot a course right down to the last detail and it's a beautiful thing. It glimmers, tangible, there in the light. However, journeys rarely - if ever - stay 100% on course. Plotting the course is art. Making the journey is adventure - an unadulterated, white-knuckle, seat-of-your-pants ride. The shores I have touched in my questing and the indefinable treasure I have found defy belief. The knowledge that I have the rest of my life to wiggle my toes in unfamiliar sand thrills me in a way that even sex cannot touch. I couldn't have made this journey at 20, 30, or even 35. This journey can only be made by the initiated... those with enough age, experience, and internal depth.
In my wellness center I intend to wake anyone who wants to awaken, but I'm most excited about working with people 40 and up. This is an exciting time for people in the new mid-life. Mid-life now is a mid-life as other generations have never seen before. We are more attractive for longer, we are fitter (or can be), we are generally healthier (provided we can stay away from prescription drugs as much as possible), and many of us in mid-life are facing an empty nest or soon will be. It's like getting another set of teen years for ourselves only now we know what we didn't know then and we look old enough that we've lost the predators of our youth. There are still predators now, even at our age, but we can see them. Mid-life is the time where we're finally coming into our own, finally comfortable in our own skin, and finally secure enough to stick up for ourselves even if it means that other people might not like us anymore. We have settled our internal noise enough that we can hear our spirituality so much better. We can hear the call of the universe, the call of the wild, the call of the earth. We can hear our own calling too... the calling to make our bold strokes - whatever they may be. We start getting a sense that we really do have a purpose - even if we don't yet know what it is - and we want to fulfill that purpose before we run out of time here on earth. We may feel a sense of urgency and a general sense of excitement. ::: Sade sings in the background, "I'm loaded... don't know where to point this thing..." ::: I love this time of life so much and feel so catalyzed by it that I want to help other people in this phase of life feel something similar, so it came to me that I should write a workshop for it. I got so excited I nearly jumped out of my skin. One thing I know about myself is that I'm a very passionate entity - very intense and full of fire. When I'm lit up, I'm a very exciting creature to behold. It's when I do my best work. I notice when I must stifle my burning, like in some personal relationships where it causes conflict, I smolder, and that means something explosive this way comes. It's always a cleansing fire for me, but the trees don't fare so well. If the men in my life knew me better, they'd know it's better to burn with me than it is to be a tree. But they all find out eventually. I'll only take someone peeing on my fire for so long before I rise up. I'll smolder for you for a little while, baby, but then I need to BURN like it's my nature to burn! (Besides, if I'm smoldering for you, then all you're getting is smoke up your ass ;) I used to shrink inside and feel badly whenever someone pointed the "i" word at me (intense). When I was growing up, and even in young adulthood, intensity wasn't spoken of favorably. But then I hit 40 (5 years ago) and realized that people like me aren't accidents and there's nothing wrong with us. We are often under-utilized or misuse (or misunderstand) our power, but we are the way we are for a reason. The universe needs people like me to inflame and excite other people. I have the fire so I can light other people up. I touch my torch to yours and you touch the person next to you and so on down the line. The fire is contagious and makes other people want to burn too (unless you're dead set on being a tree, but fire is pretty contagious in a forest too, but not in a way that's good for the trees). In this wonderful mid-life, I've learned the power of my fire. I've learned there's a use for it after all. I've learned to harness it and these next few years will be an incredible time where I can burn for all I'm worth! Never in my life before have I just let it go without trying to reign it in to an acceptable level. It's go time!
© 2008 Copyright Cynthia Clinton Wholy One Wellness Center
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