This is an amazing piece of writing; it speaks to exactly where I am in my life right now. For the past two or three years I have been looking for what I need to let go of in my person and my life to make way for the new...whatever that will be. In the last week of December I labeled 2024 my year of letting go and made a list of what I had done. It is hard to adequately express the intersection of your article here and where I am, but thank you very much for your thoughts.
Gorgeous article and one that I plan to save. It makes me wonder, though, about what one might call "anticipatory void"—not the void you precipitously fall into as Ram Dass did, but the void you fear you may fall into. We read about climate disasters and the fires of LA and think, "When is it going to happen to me?" or I look at my aging husband and wonder, "How will I survive?" Truth is, I likely would survive a disaster or tremendous loss, but the pit of my stomach doesn't know that. I know that there is something called "anticipatory grief." Now I wonder if there is "anticipatory void."
Great questions give me pause for thought. Thank you for your honesty and depth.
I think we all have fear of the uncontrollable aspects of the future. I have two responses, however. One is the acronym for fear: false evidence, appearing real. In other words, we fear things at least some of which will never happen. Sometimes we don’t know what to fear first. So we live in an going state of fear instead of responding appropriately when something fearsome actually does happen. The second thought is what I comfort myself with, and what I’ve discovered from my past encounters with life. The person you will be in the future when those things that you do fear happen is not the same person you are today. As an example, I had breast cancer at the young age of 49. 27 years ago. When I was in my 30s and 40s, breast cancer loomed in the back of my mind, and I thought that if I ever was diagnosed with breast cancer My life would be over. The truth is when I was diagnosed after going through a void of fear and grieving, I rose to the occasion with an inner strength I did not know I had. It changed my life for the better, and laid the foundation for my spiritual life that I am harvesting in older age. That’s not the final word but it’s a start…
Been there, done that, kind of doing it again now, in my life. Thank you Carol, for perspective, and a link to community.
Thanks so much Beverly. It’s a whole lot better not doing this alone!
This is an amazing piece of writing; it speaks to exactly where I am in my life right now. For the past two or three years I have been looking for what I need to let go of in my person and my life to make way for the new...whatever that will be. In the last week of December I labeled 2024 my year of letting go and made a list of what I had done. It is hard to adequately express the intersection of your article here and where I am, but thank you very much for your thoughts.
Thank you. Your note means a lot. This is a wonderful community of like-hearted Old souls. It’s great not to do this alone!
Gorgeous article and one that I plan to save. It makes me wonder, though, about what one might call "anticipatory void"—not the void you precipitously fall into as Ram Dass did, but the void you fear you may fall into. We read about climate disasters and the fires of LA and think, "When is it going to happen to me?" or I look at my aging husband and wonder, "How will I survive?" Truth is, I likely would survive a disaster or tremendous loss, but the pit of my stomach doesn't know that. I know that there is something called "anticipatory grief." Now I wonder if there is "anticipatory void."
Great questions give me pause for thought. Thank you for your honesty and depth.
I think we all have fear of the uncontrollable aspects of the future. I have two responses, however. One is the acronym for fear: false evidence, appearing real. In other words, we fear things at least some of which will never happen. Sometimes we don’t know what to fear first. So we live in an going state of fear instead of responding appropriately when something fearsome actually does happen. The second thought is what I comfort myself with, and what I’ve discovered from my past encounters with life. The person you will be in the future when those things that you do fear happen is not the same person you are today. As an example, I had breast cancer at the young age of 49. 27 years ago. When I was in my 30s and 40s, breast cancer loomed in the back of my mind, and I thought that if I ever was diagnosed with breast cancer My life would be over. The truth is when I was diagnosed after going through a void of fear and grieving, I rose to the occasion with an inner strength I did not know I had. It changed my life for the better, and laid the foundation for my spiritual life that I am harvesting in older age. That’s not the final word but it’s a start…