This blog post is for you if you are in transition. Perhaps you are retiring from a long career, leaving a job you loved, a job that defined you. Perhaps you have left a long term relationship due to separation, divorce or death of a spouse.

My situation is this – a few years ago I left my health care practice to reinvent myself. I had to figure out who I was if I was not a practising homeopath. Recently I’ve been working on how to be a mother to my adult sons, who either don’t need my help (thanks mom) or whose problems are beyond my ability to fix.

Here is an excerpt from my journal:

“I know part of the loneliness I feel is within. I don’t know who I am becoming, who I am if I’m not focussed on how the men in my family are doing. I don’t know this woman yet.

This woman who is letting go and releasing – releasing the worry and responsibility for others. She knows it is their journey and they have the strength and courage they need. She doesn’t need to be strong for them anymore.

Their journey will be richer and fuller if they know she trusts enough in their strength to let go.

But where does that leave her? This woman that is letting go. That is untethering. She fears she will float away or be an empty shell without these external roles and concerns.

What if she could view that emptiness as a place to bloom from? To open and grow and flourish – as an artist, as a healer, as her own spiritual being.”

I hope if you are in transition you will take some time to sketch or write about the opportunities for personal growth and self care in your current situation. You might try putting it in my What If? format and visualizing the body feeling if your What If? came true.

Here is my illustration of my “What If I could view that emptiness as a place to bloom from?”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A place to bloom, open, grow & flourish.

***

Guest Author:  Meryl Cook is an author, an artist, a journal writer and a member of the IAJW Journal Council.  She publishes an inspiring newsletter called Heart Notes and this blog post originally appeared on her website.