We walk across a stage and know our degree will make us important to the world. We leave the first job for another one where we will use more of our skills. We move into a new house and call it our forever home until we move again. We divorce and think we’ll never love again. We seek permanence in a world that is constantly changing.
My favorite symbol is a spiral. The one point that starts at the center and moves in a circular fashion. It’s a doodle that I’d always played with during long boring meetings. Moving the first dot from the center outward. Spirals really have no end you can just keep going. Spirals are fun because you can rotate back into the center from the outside.
Spirals can describe the path of a tornado, the water draining in the bathtub or watching a falling leaf. You can spiral out of control, be in a downward spiral or even spiral upward. Motion is the key. Starting from one point in your life you create your spiral.
Which bring me back to my life. I remember after I moved to Madison and my 20 years as an administrative librarian couldn’t land me a new position. I grieved the life I thought I had built. It was to be forever and then poof, it was gone. So, I put my dot on the page and I started drawing again. I made connections, I went back to school, I took care of myself. And the spiral grew larger.
And now it’s decades later and I felt I was done. I thought that the changes and the events couldn’t force me to look in the mirror again. And then through the miraculous world of connections I realized that I’m not done yet.
I met four women (names created here) who have been brought into my life to help me to revisit my spiral. They’re in my life to tell me to go back in my spiral a little and remember what I learned.
Amelia has health issues that would have killed most people. She says to me; how do I really take your message of life’s a daring adventure and create another chapter. I’m shaken, with all her challenges she still wants more. What about me? What do I want and how do I look at my health in getting there.
Charlotte is grieving. The tsunami of loss rolls over her every day and she can’t get her life together. Her home, her desk, her life is a mess. We talk about starting small. We talk about authors who help with bibliotherapy, Louisa Hay, Melodee Beatty and Julia Cameron. We talk of affirmations to change the mindset of pain. I remember writing my affirmations, “I’m a good person worthy of love” and “I am in the world to remind people they are not alone.” I think I need to write again.
Georgia is facing the unknown of retirement someday. She’s a walker. She reminds me of all the times I’d head out off the stoop with my ear phones listening to Amy Grant as she’d encourage another step and then another step. I need to step out again and start walking.
Denise is starting her own business. She’s torn between scheduling every moment and letting the business unfold. I feel her angst as I try to do the same. How much is too much? Which silver ball in the air should I try? How can I wisely share my message before the hour glass empties?
I’m reminded by these four women that the key to living is based on the self-care of beginning the spiral again. To remember the keystones of health, mindset, exercise and building. That when we put the pencil on the page and remember that each day we can choose to work on our spiral and our life will change. We never create a brand new one, we go back a bit and learn the lessons of an earlier curve and bring it forward. It’s a choice to put the spiral in motion, whichever direction we choose.
So, I thought I was done. I thought I had created my one perfect spiral, filled it with so many amazing stopping points. Ah, but as I’ve always said, “Life is a Daring Adventure, and I’m not done yet!” It’s time to Re-Imagine.
What about you? Is the spiral a symbol you can connect with? Are there folks in your life that can teach you something right now? Are you done? How do you “Re-Imagine Yourself”?
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