Here we are!

My precious friend, Erin Hamilton, is one of the most courageous women I know, and I know a lot of really courageous women!

Erin opened her December blog post this week with the words, “Here we are.” Erin is writing about the birth of her twins, Lennox and Ella. Lennox will be celebrating his one-year birthday on Friday, December 16. Ella will join our celebration for both of them in spirit. Ella’s spirit came through with a message a few days ago. She wanted her mom to know that just as Lennox has grown and changed and learned this past twelve months, she, too, has grown and changed and learned.

How did it get to be December 2? My previous post was on Saturday, November 19, 2016. Of course, we got to spend almost a week in Tennessee with our daughter (Stacey Dodge) and her family.

We all have our personal, “Here we are.”

Stacey and her husband, Doug, have just bought a sail boat. Miss Magic has been delivered to Tennessee where she will get a good face-lift in preparation for their three-month cruise next year. “Here we are.”

Grandson, Brad, and his new bride are anticipating a move to Charlotte, North Carolina, shortly after the first of the year. “Here we are.”

No one I know is on hold right now. We are moving forward, moving back, getting better or worse. There is pleasure and pain, loss and gain.

A line from Erin’s blog says it all, “One does not cancel the other out.”

Erin is speaking of the rich emotions that accompany our everyday lives. She writes, “I can’t believe we’ve survived a year. It’s so hard to explain holding such grief and loss for our Ella and such love and happiness for our Lennox all at once. One does not cancel the other out. I’ve had to learn to let them coexist. To love with all of these feelings- through them, in spite of them, because of them- has been such a journey already.”

I will close with a favorite concept from anthropologist Angeles Arrien, author of The Four-Fold Way: Walking the Paths of the Warrior, Teacher, Healer, and Visionary, where she links the four directions with sage advice for us all, where ever we are:

We begin in the North, “The Way of the Warrior,” the place of the Leader, where we SHOW UP and take a stand and choose to be present. We then move to the East, The Way of the Visionary, the place of the Seer, where we TELL THE TRUTH about what works and doesn’t work for us. Then, we move to the South, the Way of the Healer, the place of the Lover, and PAY ATTENTION to what has Heart and Meaning for us. And then we move to the West, The Way of the Teacher, the place of Wisdom, where we LET GO OF EXPECTATIONS, and yet are open to what we do receive.

Then we begin the cycle again, refining as we go. Each direction has an energy of its own, and if we leave any part out, the cycle falls apart.

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