|
Sit down and be quiet. — Rumi |
||||||||
|
The Heart's Desire |
||||||||
|
Life is always inviting us to
WAKE UP and live more deeply. A new urgency
— an urgency captured inimitably in
the short poem above by Rumi, the 13th-century Sufi poet —
colors this invitation as we approach elderhood. The
heart's fourfold desire — to
rediscover ourselves, to live more simply, to recover a sense of
place, and to live in community — is stirred |
||||||||
|
. Tell me, what is
it you plan to do In the passage from midlife to elderhood, the personal challenge we face is “that of confronting the lost and counterfeit places within us and releasing our deeper, innermost self — our true self. [We are called] to come home to ourselves, to become who we really are” (Sue Monk Kidd, When the Heart Waits).
Sometimes external events are the catalyst for our soul searching:
Other times the call — the invitation to embark on a journey of self-rediscovery — is prompted by a vague, lingering discontent, “a still small voice”:
The call to rediscover ourselves is essentially a call to inner work — or mindfulness. When we recover the unlived parts of ourselves and touch those original passions of our childhood or youth — passions that we repressed, to gain acceptance, or deferred, to make our way in the world — we unleash new energy and new creativity and often embark on a whole new direction in life. |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
|
||||||||
The Call to Rediscover Ourselves
Go to
