1. A non-profit President, Founder, Board Member or employee
2. A full-time schoolteacher or caregiver for other people's children
3. Caretaker/Savior of anyone's soul other than my own
4. Time waster or baby-stepper
5. Workshop addict/Self-help junkie
6. Unfinished
7. A beginner, a newbie, a novice, an apprentice
8. Superficial
9. A waiting-to-retiree
Midway through this list, I decide it may be a good idea to make a record of what I indeed AM
1. Mom to Zoe and Rae
2. Woman, Partner to Jeff
3. Listener/Observer for the purpose of uncovering/distilling/maybe giving insight
4. Wild
5. Capable
6. A figure-out-er
7. Team member with high expectations of my self and my team
8. Born with a raging thirst and a hunger to be free
9. A believer in the unseen and almost known
10. The sense of touch
11. Over-sensitive
12. Honest
13. Fierce
14. Storyteller
15. Seeker of participation with the eternal
As I shared with Chris, the first list was forged with Fire and Heat and Brilliance. The second list seemed more of a Spring rain - light, refreshing, nourishing. The first was born of full-on life experiences, of crashing and burning, and trying again. The second reveals the priceless gems left glittering on the workshop table of my soul after all had been said and done and swept up. Both lists live within me everyday.
The gift of feeling in my bones and in my cells who and what I know myself to be is a GPS tool truly worth having.
4 comments:
Yes. . . and using your title as a springboard, I realize that "growing up" once meant an END, a final destination that our culture taught me I should achieve at some point in my life (and if I hadn't, I'd somehow "failed"), when actually, it's an organic and continual process and yearning toward light: to grow UP, as a plant toward the sun, as a bulb from the depths of dark, moist earth toward the lighter air. And, of course, this growing up also entails cycles of growing down, of living within, of waiting while expanding ones roots, too.
Oh, that's exactly right! I wish we could change the cliche to say "What do you want to be when you GROW"! Thank you for this new way to tell our stories! Lisa
As Chris knows :-), that idea of the one, driving passion in one's life has been on my brain too. I'm tossing that notion of "the one thing" out the window. For me, its an ecology, with plants and critters and nooks and clouds and invisible things that I know and have yet to discover. I'm just tending the garden now. At some point I'll add a path over to that tree, or scratch the soil in this sunny area and plant some poppies. Maybe this idea of "just one thing" is out-dated :-) -- to be tossed out with many of the other myths of our western culture.
Hey, Lisa, I miss you :-)!
I had read your reply on Chris's blog and thought "Oh, I miss Jane"! It was such a perfect articulation of your gift of seeing the world. I hope your February is going smoothly - we have been thinking of you lots this month. Big hugs, Lisa
Post a Comment