The Second Journey – Sacred Life Sunday

 

Coffee and Joan

I sat in my backyard this morning enjoying my coffee and reading Joan Anderson’s “The Second Journey, The Road Back to Yourself.”  She references her conversations with Joan Erikson (Erik Erikson’s wife),  regarding Erik Erikson’s Stages of Development.  Erikson created the Life Cycle chart indicating each phase of a person’s life when they either learn or don’t learn crucial things that will help them move through life in a productive and happy way.  Joan Erikson added to the chart by indicating a strength to be gained during each phase.  Joan Anderson realized that we don’t just learn and gain a strength and then move on to the next phase.  We can continually improve upon the strengths after we gain them.  Life is not just a straight line forward.  It is a loop-de-loop, back tracking, do-it-again-and-again-to-get-it-better kind of life.  We have the ability, if we choose, to improve and grow and become more of the person we want to be during our lifetime.   And as Joan’s chapter is titled, Miles to Go, I know I have miles and miles to go to become the person I want to be.  Change and growth are what makes life interesting, challenging and rewarding for me though they can be scary and uncomfortable along the way.  I tend to start anew frequently, sometimes with an end in mind, but usually just a direction to move toward.  I love the forks in the road along the way that provide opportunities for new adventures.

What we call the beginning is often the end.
And to make an end is to make a beginning.
       The end is where we start from.
                 –T. S. Eliot

A good traveler has no fixed plans
and is not intent on arriving.
           –Tao Te Ching

 

Gail Brokaw, MA, Life Coach
http://www.embracethepossibility.org