Revival

A message from Brigid ....

I have been a blogger since 2005. At the height of my blogging busy-ness, I had "a small stable" of blogs on different topics: social and political commentary; desert spirituality; food; waste and ....

A few years ago I called time and ceased blogging altogether - although there was an occasional post. I had called it quits. I am an aged woman these days with a couple of serious illnesses. I am not allowed to drive. I am no longer active in organisations. I think it fair to say that I am housebound. I am active on Facebook, although I am not there as often as once I was. I have decided to embark on a re-entry into the blogging world ... beginning with The Trad Pad and, possibly, a return to my food blog, Oz Tucker. I have always used a lot of photographs on my blogs ... and I miss not being out and about with my camera.

The Trad Pad has been my blog for the lovely things of life. The controversial or political has seldom intruded. Occasionally, the spiritual has found its way in, but I kept spirituality for the blog, Desert. I don't yet know if I will revive that. I will stick pretty much to food and the lovely things of life. If I have some regularity with those two categories, I feel that I will be doing well. I hope that, with this blog new friendships can be formed and old friendships renewed; new lovelies discovered; new reflections can enter into the meaning of modern life. I would love to hear from you - particularly if you have suggestions for new topics to enter into the conversation. So, it is a new year. Let's see what it has in store, what it can bring to us. And I hope that those who share the spirit of The Trad Pad can spread the message of a world of beauty, the creativity of humanity, and the joys of simplicity and tradition. ~~~ February, 2017

Monday, February 20, 2006

Life and growth


Calidore is thinking of life and its changes and passages. The best books I have read on this topic are Passages and New Passages by Gail Sheehy. Sheehy is a psychologist but does not speak psychobabble. She wrote Passages quite a while ago - back in the lat 70s or early 80s. Then a few years back she did a revised version called New Passages because she believed things had progressed so much that various changes were being extended or occurring later - on average by a decade. This is because people are living longer and healthier, they are better educated, etc.

A metaphor she uses and which I use frequently because it is so applicable is the story of the lobster. To grow the lobster must shed its hard carapace. If the lobster did not do this, the growing lobster would be choked to death by the hard, too small shell. So the shell is shed. However, while the lobster is waiting for the new protective carapace to form and grow, it is quite vulnerable and its soft flesh is exposed. We are like this too. In our growth periods, we shed what has been protective for us. As we move into the new stage or stages of our lives we are vulnerable. We are not there yet. Our new form of protection has not arrived, is not functional.

I find this so helpful. It helps to discern what is going on in me and my life: the restlessness, the crankiness with what is around me, the mistakes I make as I move in a new way. These, I now recognise, are my own personal growing pains. Old things are falling away as I grow into new areas. But I am human. I am fallible and I am vulnerable.

1 comment:

Sharon said...

That is a wonderful story... It does describe very accurately how I do feel from time to time... I will keep it in mind...

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