"It takes a period of time (a cycle) for you to recognize what you have learned before you are ready to initiate your new cycle …" - Gregge Tiffen
Lest you think that I’m getting a jump on Earth Day later this month, I’m recycling (with updates) my post from this time last year.
Cycles are in my thoughts this week as spring has arrived and as I launch a new annual cycle in my life – my 65th year. I feel pulled just a bit in this time between the arrival of spring’s warmth with its pull of new beginnings and my own annual cycle wrapping up with its invitation to reflect and evaluate the experiences of the year.
I’ve been dancing with each this week. I’ve engaged in conversations about getting our garden started. Construction of the new deck is underway. I’m also reflecting and celebrating the accomplishments of my 64th year:
· Becoming a grandmother
· Purchasing a home, making improvements, and welcoming my first B&B guests last summer
· Creating a new culture in a local agency where I serve as president of the board
· Walking the maze of Medicare and supplemental plans and enrolling in what seems right for me
· Deepening gratitude for and satisfaction with my life, while welcoming the learning I have yet to experience.
That last accomplishment is likely the process that made the others possible. And, like last year, I have the legacy that Gregge Tiffen left behind and which is growing as Patrece continues to publish more of his works.
In this new cycle I’m excited to dive in even more deeply to understand and experiment with how the Universe works, how energy flows, and how to walk through the world as the truly unique individual that I am. Those are the areas where my curiosity is drawn, and from which perhaps, my next work in the world will emerge.
In this sacred week of beginning another annual cycle, I look forward time for review and reflection here amongst the trees and in the shadow of the Sangres. I hold these questions in my heart and mind as take that look back:
- Where am I?
- What have I accomplished?
- What is my progress?
- What do I choose next on my journey of progression?
While these are especially powerful questions to reflect on as one cycle ends and another begins, it occurs to me as I observe the chaos in our world that they are worthy questions at any time and in most any situation. They create a container within which we can reach the clarity of thought needed to take life’s next step.
As I look ahead to my new year, that is the clarity that I want to bring and to apply in new ways.
Does life get any better than the joy of learning and experimenting and feeling the deep gratitude for whatever we experience moment to moment, cycle to cycle?
Question for the Week: What cycles do you observe and honor in your life? What richness do they add?