Connections
I reflect on a more humorous aspect of my own personal life that I feel compelled to share.
Some say that when a man (male) reaches his middle years he finds his younger man no longer fighting with his child, that his middle aged man facing up to his Elder and listening in on what matters most for the rest of the journey forward.
Effectively...what will count and how to make best use of the life worth living left. During that period the instinctual sense of mortality is profound, deeply disturbing and in many cases incredibly cathartic.
I have also heard it said in western culture that men in their end of younger years who are seemingly happily married with children, in a career with a good job and surrounded with supportive mates who perhaps drink too heavily with him all of a sudden do a u-turn and "suffer" a mental blow-out ....a mid-life crisis if you will.
Such a cataclysmic event is followed with some typical behaviours that may include erratic spending, having sex with a young woman or man (or both) half their age plus seven, changing clothing attire, suddenly running 5 kms a day when in the past they got a jiggle up at ten paces.
Well, I must have hit the no return point today..... except for one saving grace.
Whilst in a conversation with my eldest Daughter this morning I was reminded that I am 46 years old about to turn 47 years of age - not 47 years old turning 48.
Effectively I gained a whole year in one day today, which has had a profound affect in a number of ways :)
I've realised that my greatest joy in my life has been in connecting with others who have profound life experiences of their own to share, a spiritual journey filled with hard times and good times. Incredible stories or resilience, of profound pain, alienation, triumph, achievements and happiness.
The key term to note is - connections.
I've also come to terms with a number of things in that spiritual and cognitive "gap" year that have profoundly shaped and changed my life in many many ways.
Courtesy of that 31 year old blonde fairy and the amazing person I manifested to come into my life when that gap year ended I wrote and spoke my own story and in doing so, as Shane Horsburgh promised I came into myself.
In that spiritual gap year I have found reasons why I had such a seemingly haphazard array of marriages, divorces and relationships. I've discovered why it was that my relationships always faltered and why my dark demons surfaced when I was called upon to step up as middle man by my Elder.
I've found the basis and focus for why I am doing a PhD and the start of a great career as a researcher....the core foundations for which I'll still be trying to bring to others attention right up until I'm a retired emeritus Professor.
I've found some answers as to what connecting with others actually means and most importantly I've found what this life is all about in general.
It is not about me - it is about others.
Powerfully connecting and weaving their stories and letting my story just be one of them.
Now....go ahead and laugh at my amnesia or as above, realise that many men also suffer the above and come out the other end with no awareness whatsoever as to what happened in that year they were gifted with.
Now - I must make haste.
You will see the next half of my life ( and many others) unfold at http://www.connections.life.
