“You will never find the wisdom you seek as long as you insist on changing only what you know. True wisdom comes only to those willing to change what they are.”
Unknown
Psychologist James Hillman explores in “The Force Of Character” what is lost when artificial means are used to alter the age of one’s face. If you imagine your face as a phenomenon…with its own destiny, then all that goes on there, after sixty especially, is a work in progress, building the image, preparing a face that has little to do with the faces that you meet. A face is being made, often against your will, as witness to your character.
I found these words from Hillman this week and once again, down the rabbit hole I went, feeling my way along the tunnel intent on finding where it would lead me. I want to have the courage to be loyal to the face I’ve made. To this end, I continue to peer into the mirror and check how I am doing accepting this face I am creating.
I had an unplanned moment this week when by accident I was smiling at something my granddaughter was saying and saw my reflection in the car window and saw a stack of little wrinkles leading up my cheek to my eyes. I was shocked but not in a way I would have expected. I was shocked with delight at new evidence of my continued transformation! Each day it seems I wake up to a new body with new demands and limitations. These changes require me to adapt – to find resilience, “the body instructs the mind in patience and forbearance while the mind tutors the body in creativity and flexibility.” At the moment of glimpsing these new wrinkles, I’m aware for an instant of how allowing the aging process to transform me is indeed at work and I feel connected to the mystical realms that surround all of life.
Dr. Thomas in “What Are Old People For,” uses the word senescence to describe the period prior to old age when a new relationship with the self emerges. Botanists use the word senescence to describe the most fruitful events in a plant’s life cycle. The senescent phase of plant growth follows the exuberance of early growth. As the end of the growing season approaches, the metabolism of fruiting plants changes. There is a loss of water weight in the stems and leaves. The metabolism shifts away from growth and toward ripening. Botanical senescence is what prepares grapes for the harvest.
Humans can be seen to ripen as well. Here are some definitions of ripe; fully developed, mature, fully prepared to do or undergo something; ready.
Instead of being marginalized (or marginalizing ourselves), those of us who sense we are in the throes of senescence can be aware of the sacred nature of the inner work we do. We can be aware of the legacy this inner work will leave behind when life is over.
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