Wednesday, March 15, 2006

Autumn – ‘it’s just time’ - threads of thought

Thread One
Last year in winter and this year in summer I have been asked “why”?
My reply; “it’s just time”.
So simple really – each time there has been a list of reasons and yet it was just time. Time last year to leave my salaried work and work for myself. As autumn approaches, yes, I am reaping the benefits of that leap of faith.
This year, time to sell the home I have lived in for the longest time ever and yes, it feels the right time to us all. Now is the time to find a home that takes different care of me - a place of sacred retreat. As autumn draws near it is my wish that we will be settled in our new home ready for the winter.

Thread Two
Autumn is a time that just is – each year it is autumn – just because. The seasons parallel our outward experience of aging. Simply by living we experience the cycle of seasons in nature and we age. How we think about this though can affect our experience of the seasons of our lives.

Juliet Batten talks of the autumn equinox as a ‘transition from outer to inner, from above to below, from light into dark’.

My ‘it’s just time’ is my inner, deep intuition of time and timing, while the outer experience of this is making the decisions happen. In the case of my house using the energy and vigour of summer to clean, repair and present our home for sale!

Thread Three
As the outer world comes into autumn my inner autumn begins. I will turn 49 in April and I regard this as a time worth marking and celebrating. In Hebrew tradition they speak of the Jubilee Time – where one dons the mantle of all one’s life that has gone before (the 7 x 7 years) and sounding the trumpets triumphantly stepping into the life that is to unfold. Barbara Sher talks of the first half of our lives belonging to society and our biology – working, raising families etc. The second half of our lives is ours to craft if we would have it be so. And for me ‘it is time’ for this to be so.

Living
Working
Hanging in
Holding on
Leaving
Reaping
Blessings
Blessings of marriage
Weathered this time
Life persevered
My turn
My time
Time in spirituality
Feminine divine time
Right time
Enough time
Time it is
Blessed be


Arohanui
Kerry-Ann

Highly recommended reading:

Batten, Juliet, Celebrating the Southern Seasons – Rituals of Aotearoa, Random House Publ. Revised edition 2005

Harris, Maria, JUBILEE TIME – Celebrating Women, Spirit, and the Advent of Age, Bantam Books 1995.

Sher, Barbara, it’s only too late If You Don’t Start Now – How to Create Your Second Life at Any Age, Dell Publishing 1998