18 years ago, at the tender age of 41, I had a conversation with my Mom who was 80 at the time.
It went something like this:
Mom: One of these days I’m going to figure out what I want to be when I grow up.
Me: Mom, you’re 80, shouldn’t you have it all figured out by now?
Mom: Who told you that??
It was a revelation…and a bit disconcerting.
I feel like I am constantly looking for the adultier adult in the room and one would think that 80 would be pretty damned adult!
But…maybe not so much.
I was reminded of this conversation as I was speaking with a client yesterday.
We were talking about what she wanted to do with her life, having been through two divorces, and a massive career change, she knew she wanted something different, but she hasn’t been able to figure out what. I felt strongly that it’s not yet time for her to know; that she is on this path of reinventing herself and where she ends up will be a combination of many things…but for now, she simply needs to live the question.
Living the question means that one must practice patience, because the answer isn’t here yet.
Our lives are a series of endings, new beginnings, more endings…and more beginnings. It never stops
I told my client:
“Do you know how people are always saying Cher constantly reinvents herself? The truth is, we all do that! We are constantly changing. You’re facing a change now as you approach 40…but you’ll also face it at 50…and again at 60! It just never stops”
And it’s a journey, it’s a process
As a psychic, people often want instant answers from me, they want to know if they are on the right track. Literally in the middle of writing this essay, I had a caller who wanted that exact thing. She hung up on me when I couldn’t give her an instant answer.
But the truth is…there wasn’t one! I can’t tell her what she should know because what she really needed to know was to be patient, to wait for things to unfold, that at this time in her life, she must begin again.
And that beginning again can be daunting!
Beginning again means that you take nothing for granted, that you examine each and every belief you have ever had and see if it fits who you are now! Never mind that you have no idea who you EVEN ARE now…beginning again means that you assume nothing and are open to learning everything.
It is not for the faint of heart.
Perhaps my client on the psychic hotline wasn’t ready to hear that. She just retired, she told me, maybe she thought she would have it all figured out by now.
Your life, your gifts, the entirety of your being is a mystery waiting to unfold.
There is no real secret to discovering your path except to walk it. You simply take a step at a time and you build your life. Along the way you have joy and love and angst and heartbreak…in other words, you get to be a human and you get to experience ALL of it.
It is the richness of the journey that is the blessing. It is the unfolding of all of you and LOVING all of you that is the point.
That’s it.
How you get there is entirely up to you.