New Growth

I’ve been waiting for spring! Everything is lush green here in Florida’s horse country, and the Spanish moss hangs low, as life continues its cycles.

It’s been a year marked by generational transition that’s made me contemplative.

One of my dearest sister friends in the world recently lost her mother. I’ve watched her go within as she comes to terms with this huge change in her life. 

How many times has she walked beside me and listened? How many ways has she offered me unconditional encouragement with her positive, trusting steadiness?

And yet there’s nothing I can do for her now. She’s in her own sanctuary. 

For months, her voice has echoed winter. I've sensed, though, that there’s something growing deep within – a pure, unreasoned “knowing” that brings light.

Spring is a time of rebirth. My friend is listening for a new relationship with her mother, one that transcends our experience of time and space. It requires new perspectives that expand who we are and how we view Life. 

Shifting paradigms takes time. If we force the cocoon open too soon, the butterfly’s wings aren't fully formed.

It took years for our own family to settle into a new generation. 

In the years after my husband’s parents passed, our family rarely gathered. Though we welcomed the chance to see each other at big family weddings, we were spread across the country, ensconced in busy lives working hard and raising our families. 

This past July, the clan gathered on the beach where my husband grew up. We were there to celebrate my husband’s brother and parents and return their ashes to the coastline that had been their family home.

Something shifted in all of us that week. As my husband and I sat on the beach with his sisters, watching our new generation of “Littles” play with shovels and buckets, it dawned on me that WE are the “Elders” now. 

We’ve discovered a burning desire to rekindle the close knit family we’d been in the early years of raising children together during summers. 

We’re in closer touch now and see each other more often. And we’re sharing the most beautiful spiritual journey! 

Beyond swapping grandparent stories, we now share a hunger for, and an openness to, new spiritual perspectives that stretch us. There’s a whole new depth to our connection as we embrace this new time.

Richard Rohr’s beautiful book, Falling Upward, breaks through cultural expectations of decline in the second half of life.

He says that spiritual maturity is found "when we begin to pay attention and seek integrity" through a shift from our "outer task" to the "inner task." 

This past winter, I went through my own metamorphosis. The extrovert who thrived on being with others transformed into a soul at peace by herself. I’m more drawn to the inner growth and have less need to prove anything through the outer. 

In the midst of managing the numerous tasks involved in building a business, I feel more centered, patient, and at peace. I scurry and worry less and allow myself to sit in moments with no agenda.

This feels like springtime!

In out-of-the-way places of the heart,
Where your thoughts never think to wander,
This beginning has been quietly forming,
Waiting until you were ready to emerge.

- From For A New Beginning by John O'Donohue