WILDLY FREE ELDER
The Artistry of Aging
Loss Of Identity
“Leave it all and let yourself just slip back into the rhythms of your intimate wildness.”
John O’Donohue
Identities we have crafted for fitting in, belonging, survival or that have been culturally bestowed upon us, can imprison in a cage of our own unrequited longing.
If we had no words we would simply be present to the landscape and relationships with all of our senses without capturing them in definitions, culturally prescribed boxes and assumptions. Yes, language has the power to expand our embodied life experience, but how freeing it might be to go beyond words and identities that we are caught in.
During this powerful shift in consciousness, and also as we age, it is our task to untangle ourselves from identities that are stale like old bread though they served us at one time, and cast them gently aside as a fresh recognition of who we are in our wholeness slides into our awareness.
Not to immediately form a new identity to “secure” our place in the world – but instead to wake up to the passion and wildness that has somehow been left on the highest shelf where we never looked collecting the dust of what we had covered up long ago.
How we clamber to find out who we are and where we belong only to step to the precipice, look down, and decide we are not courageous enough to take the leap into discovery and vulnerability. As we face the last part of our embodied lifetime we may be more willing to take those leaps.
So many humans on all levels are being confronted with having to do just this right now, for there doesn’t appear to be any place to run away from ourselves in mindless business or how we have contributed to our own neglect and seeming powerlessness. Instead we are challenged by the discovery and appearance of our desires beneath our worn out identities and illusional restrictions.
It is not easy to discard old identities that no longer serve the “one” that is emerging. There is a sense of loss and uncertainty as we stand at the threshold of being more fully ourselves.
This was clearly shown to me through a dear friend that recently transitioned out of her body. She was aware at the end that the identities she claimed had relentlessly imprisoned her, and at the same time were doorways she could walk through at any time. She had started to courageously cast off these identities, yet the cancer kept claiming her back into a narrowed landscape where fear and doubt rose up like a seemingly never ending flood.
Where are we as we come up against our own worn out identities that smother wildness, passion and discovery?
Recognizing them for what they are and with great compassion and mindfulness unraveling the binding threads to reweave ourselves in the wholeness of our wild untamed being.
“One of the sad things today is that so many people are frightened by the wonder of their own presence. They are dying to tie themselves into a system, a role, or an image, or to a predetermined identity that other people have actually settled on for them. This identity may be totally at variance with the wild energies that are rising inside in their souls. Many of us get very afraid and we eventually compromise. We settle for something that is safe, rather than engaging the danger and the wildness that is in our hearts. We should never forget that death is waiting for us. …….”it is a great liberation because it means that you can in some way feel the call to live everything that is within you.” John O’Donohue, from Walking In Wonder
Copyright Gaye Abbott, Natural Passages Consulting, June 2020
Elder Muse/Day 17: A Few Words On Aging
“None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm.’
~Henry David Thoreau
The natural evolution of an embodied human is to change with each year we are here. Not just physically, but within the heart of our emotions and in the deepest energetic recesses of our mind, thinking and creative potential.
For some this is a very conscious process. An unfolding of acceptance, transparency, trust and surrender revealing our life path. Every year brings new opportunities and awareness.
Some accept the societal story and common narrative of aging, or impulsively seek the next “anti-aging” supplement or practice which denies what is a natural process for all living beings.
The continuum of birth to death reveals a pathway uniquely our own. No one else has our challenges, experiences, opportunities and possibilities.
For some this is a short spectrum and filled with challenges that can’t simply be overcome with facing them head on. Acceptance of disabilities, dis-ease and even death are at the forefront during these final embodied years.
Impermanence beckons us from everywhere. We see it in nature, our friends and loved ones, the animals special to us and at every turn of life. Everything ages and dies within the cycles and rhythms of life here on Earth.
What our unique path will be is simply a matter of perception and is revealed in our unfolding life moments. That we will transition in death at some point is inevitable.
Many of us have been blessed with more embodied life moments to dig deep and find our passions buried beneath complacency, fixed identities that do not honor the wild soul inside, and ungrounded fears. Free of the pressures and stresses of youth and mid-life we are invited into the stage of elderhood.
Elder saturated in the experiences, wisdom and innate sense of belonging, woven with an unrelenting sense of humor that surfaces in a multitude of moments during our days no matter what chronological age we are.
Being an Elder is not defined by age, but rather Elders are recognized because they have earned the respect of their community through wisdom and actions or their teachings; through the vibrancy that radiates out from their presence and the unique artistry that only they can bring into the world.
Let us return to acknowledging elders in the fullest sense of the powerful presence they can be and are becoming. Respecting the life artistry that has been necessary to bring them to where they are today.
As we ripen into our aging beauty may we be heard, seen and respected for what we have to offer. May we trust and respect our own becoming with grace, curiosity and surrender.…and a strong dose of humor!
The time is now to free yourself into the wildness of elderhood. To ground who you are and what you have to bring into the very center of your being in spite of the challenges, or better yet because of the challenges!
You have stories to tell, wisdom to share and artistry to impart.
Don’t die now….before you die!
Maureen does not believe in giving up on life’s pleasures simply because you think you are too old. For her, becoming an enthusiastic person is a choice we make. It’s a mindset. It’s an approach to life. Don’t set life behind you. Try new things and be sure to keep doing all the things that give you pleasure.
Filmed in Napier, South Africa by Reflections of Life (previously Green Renaissance)