Читать книгу The Woman's Book of Spirit - Sue Patton Thoele - Страница 24

GLEANING WISDOM FROM INDIGENOUS AND Eastern cultures who revere their elders, our heretofore youth-worshiping society is finally learning to let go of “age anxiety” and value the patina that aging can bring to the soul. Of course not all people magically become wise and wonderful as they age, but those who choose to look at what they gain from advancing years, rather than what they lose, generally have a lustrous heart and a gleam in their eyes.

Ideally, the experiences accrued throughout the years bring increased wisdom and instill an inner security that allows us to speak our truth fearlessly and act from an unshakable sense of integrity. I love the quote from Dorothy Sayers: “Time and trouble will tame an advanced young woman, but an advanced old woman is uncontrollable by any earthly force.” Yes. For the good of the whole, we need to be uncontrollable and untamed in our efforts to invite the spirit of love to quench the thirst of our souls and re-green our world.

I saw the beauty of aging exemplified by nature while on my trip to Arches National Park. In silent meditation, I sat in the protective shade of an eons-old rock that I came to think of as “Grandmother Rock.” Gazing through the unbelievably huge arch in her facing sister, I was awed by the beauty created as this stone adapted to the elements and, over the millennium, grew a window through which the pristine sky gleams.

In the face of her patient transformation from one kind of beauty to another, I found myself asking how I was being called to mature as I age. What sandy sediment within me needs to erode away? What window into my very soul is yearning to be revealed in my walled-in personal world? What must be transformed in me in order for my transparency to reveal a vast and changing sky? I have no answers, only the knowledge that they will come if I remain open to the questions.

I am thankful for the wisdom, experience, and acceptance gleaned through aging.

I am an outrageous and untamed champion of love and learning.