Be a Life-long Learner

 

This part of the journey started when my husband, Jim, began to text our adult children. It was awkward at first but I wanted to be in on it. Our children welcomed texts. Their response might be one word but often more immediate than to a voice mail. We had finally moved to smart phones and now were beginning to play with new features such as apps. (Applications)

I found a collage app for my android phone when we took a trip to national parks out west. (I use “Collage Photo Maker Pic Grid made by Lyrebird Studio) I wanted a creative way to share photos with a bit of whimsy remembering long evenings in the 70’s with friends seeing hundreds of slides of castles…ok, it seemed like hundreds.  You have to be willing to just experiment to learn to use the phone and apps. I found a young friend of 50 who was willing to teach me. We laugh and say we need a 12 year old consultant like I had in the 80’s when I was first using a computer.

It was soon clear that this trip was a spiritual journey.  We were humbled by the natural wonders and rich history we had only visited in books and movies. We were stunned at the beauty of such places as Zion National Park and Bryce Canyon National Park which literally left us “breathless” at high altitudes. My husband has long been drawn to the West and the Cowboy Code of Ethics. This trip which included Deadwood and Jackson Hole and Little Bighorn brought this era to life. I looked up the exquisite written proposal of the artist selected to create the Indian memorial at Little Bighorn, entitled “Peace through Unity.”

So how could we savor this trip and contemplate what we had seen? How could we honor the photographs to bear witness to this pilgrimage to a part of the country full of important history?   I found an online course, Photography as a Spiritual Path, by Jan Phillips at www.spiritualityandpractice.com  She wrote God is at eye level: photography as a healing art.

Currently I am using the assignments and questions posed to process photos we took seeing photography as an expressive art. I had introduced my nursing students to a book, My morning view: an IPhone photography project about gratitude, grief, and good coffee by Tammy Stroeble, which inspired several of them to use photography in their final class project in expressive arts in healing.

I don’t look at all the photos in the practice circle of the e-course nor do I submit photos for each class but save the assignments to ponder at my own pace. I don’t have a lot of apps on my phone but I am enjoying a few. This time of life is about giving myself permission to try new things and only continuing with those that intrigue me. It is about honoring the discomfort of the learning curve, asking questions, and asking “what questions should I be asking?”

As we ask ourselves, “What’s next?” and “Trust our intuition,” is there something you are curious to know more about?

Something to think about:

“Life isn’t measured by the number of breaths we take, but by those that take our breath away.”

Trust Your Intuition

Have you ever felt a nudge to do something or go somewhere? This week it was to the yarn shop.

I hadn’t been there in 6 months and when I arrived one of the owners threw up her hands and said, “Julie,” came over, and gave me a big hug. The yarn shop is sacred space and safe harbor. Some places just make you feel good and we should give ourselves the gift of listening to that voice that draws us to them.  She fixed me a cup of coffee and we talked and listened.

Sharing my desire to find a cost-effective way to have a more engaging web presence, asking her if she knew someone who could help…her reply was. “That’s easy. Write a blog. I had one for several years when I had breast cancer.” And so she proceeded to show me hers, tell me a place to go “BlogSpot.” By that evening I had overcome my need to get it just right, plunged in anyway…remembering a favorite quote, “The enemy of the good is the better.”

Rather than being paralyzed by which site to use, the choice of the “perfect” template, I decided to trust my intuition and begin.  In my web search I noted that some bloggers worked to remove the “Simple” template page designation from the bottom of the blog page. That would have been me years ago in my get-it-just-right professional self. Now I am delighted that the word “Simple” might invite other elders to blog to find a place to share their life lessons with others.

So how can we come to trust our intuition?

Reb Zalman’s work of Sage-ing invites us to use contemplative tools to help us: make peace with our past, harvesting our life’s wisdom; and make peace with our future, acknowledging our mortality. This work frees us to be more fully present, to release the energy tied up in regrets and fear, to live more consciously, fully, in the now. Meditation, life review, harvesting our wisdom, journaling, poetry, creativity, expressive art-making, yoga, and prayer are examples of these spiritual tools. Reb Zalman Schachter-Shalomi in From Age-ing to Sage-ing, says extended longevity calls for extended consciousness. He believed we could learn to use more of our brain, to develop our intuition and learn to trust it.

After I came home from the yarn shop, I decided to call a woman who it turns out also has breast cancer.  I was able to refer her to the blog my friend had written. I emailed her some mandalas to color and information about Zentangle, two expressive arts processes for self-soothing and anxiety relief. Visit www.zentangle.com to learn more and Amazon for an adult coloring book, best sellers now. Or just search, “mandalas to color” for free ones to print and color.

Two more thoughts:

“Trust is the toggle switch for synchronicity.” (More about that another day)

“Knitting is the new yoga.”

Sample of a simple mandala to color

What's next????

This is such an in-between time in my 68th year of life experience. Not feeling the entrepreneurial push to network and self-promote that was part of the dance of that role for 35 years...I am reading, processing, making art for self-discovery and enjoying it...staying open for opportunities to share.

This is the time of Sage-ing...and what is that? Sage-ing is a conscious aging journey which to me is two fold: life review, life repair, and forgiveness, making peace with my past; and proactive aging, facing my mortality and making practical preparation for end-of-life; so I can live more fully in the present, savoring the moment. Just re-reading Reb Zalman's book, From Age-ing to Sage-ing: A revolutioning approach to growing older, I am called to re-contextualize my life, harvest the wisdom from my life, and share it...and now I ponder...how?

Where do I share what I think is important if I am not "on the road?"  Today a friend shared a delightful quote from Anne Lamott:

“The road to enlightenment is long and difficult and you should try not to forget snacks and magazines.”

 

 

Here's the art that is bubbling up just now. Letting images from my stash of collage material

choose me, creating simple collages on folded 81/2 x 11 cardstock, because it was handy.  I give each a one word title and process by listing the letters of the word vertically down the page, writing a phrase beginning with each letter. This work is flowing from my recent deeper reading in Sage-ing and in the book: Jesus: A pilgrimage by Father James Maring, and The Soul of a Pilgrim: Eight practices for the journey within, by Christine Valtners Painter. Check out her amazing work at www.abbeyofthearts.com

 

                                      



 

And so it begins....Welcome!