Let’s Toast
June 24th, 2008 | Uncategorized | No Comments »
On June 7, my son graduated from high school. Less than a month prior, his grandfather passed away on his 80th birthday.
I was struck with two poignant lessons. First, life is full of transitions, such as graduations, marriages/divorces, and births as well as deaths. Second, there’s never a convenient time for death. These lessons are accompanied by enormous feelings that can overwhelm and engulf.
As a yoga teacher, I chose the path of consciousness; therefore, ideally, I meet everything in my life’s path head on without denial, distraction or ignorance. Even with this approach, the reality of my child growing up and leaving home is hard. It’s not so much the letting go of my baby as it is the realization that he’s growing into an adult and I’m growing older, and … I particularly find more empowerment in the “growing” part than in the “older” part. As I saw clearly in the way of things, old people die.
So … what is this business of growing older? Studies show that people view themselves 15 years younger than their true age. This suggests to me that while our physical bodies may be showing signs of aging, our awareness within ourselves is not determined by our physical age. I think this awareness speaks to the opportunity inherent in the word growing in the term “growing older.”
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