Midlife Makeover: Giving Birth

Tomorrow, April 26, is a big day on the calendar for me. On that date in 1984, our son Jonathan arrived in the world. On the same date in 2009, the first issue of Reflections was published. Both experiences represent a birth. In giving birth, we bring from deep within the fruits of who we are and how we connect with the world.

A newborn is the culmination of two lifetimes by people who connect with one another. On the way to physical birth, we draw from our core genetic identities and nurture a child growing within. During pregnancy, we share the caring and feeding normally intended for ourselves alone. The sharing by parents with their new child is an outgrowth of their combined health and well-being, love and generosity, patience, and faith in the future.

I find that writing has much in common with childbirth on those many levels. Each week in sitting down with the laptop, I draw on the experience of a lifetime. I reflect on deep and rich connections with other people, daily experience, reading, and listening to the inner Spirit. In offering these words, I expand the scope of personal reflections and make them available to others. I hope to share from the store of health and well-being, love, generosity, patience, and faith in the future with which I have been entrusted.

Kahlil Gibran writes in The Prophet:

"Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.”

My writing is not my writing. My thoughts are not my thoughts. They come through me but not from me.

Each of us is continuously giving birth. We bring forth the depth, experience, and connections of a lifetime, and offer them to others in our words and deeds.

How do you see this process at work in your own life? Who are the children of midlife for you? What is Life asking that you pass along for the benefit of all?

Until the next time, go well.

Pam
www.wellbuddies.com