This winter I heard of many new babies coming into the world to very loving, secure and supportive parents and to spiritually conscious grandparents. The sheer number of such beings making their appearances at this time under such conditions, made me wonder what this could possibility mean. Are these little ones heralding in a new age of higher consciousness? Are they here to help uplift and heal the planet? Or is there no particular significance to this observed phenomena?

My own experience heightened this line of questioning. I had a grandson born on the Chinese New Year (January 29). On the morning of his birth before his mother went into labor, I had a profound experience that something awesome was about to happen. I was to be reunited with a great being whom I had lost but didn`t`t know I had lost until then.

It would be wonderful to imagine that great beings are coming to this planet during these discouraging times and that “Help is on the way!” Whether this is true or not, we welcome these new seeds of life, who are being born into supportive homes, and send them many blessings for their journeys.

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Although people often complain about the process of getting older, it does offer a benefit that keeps getting more and more valuable with the passing of time – perspective. Perspective , the taking in of the longer view, the bigger picture, the ability to make sense of a certain set of elements, gains clarity and occurs more frequently as we mature.

Whether we think of it in terms of discerning the unconscious patterns of our lives or the political /historical patterns with which we are surrounded, perspective offers us a sense of balance and detachment. We are able, as the dictionary says, to view things in their true relation with each other.

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Recently, within the span of a few days, several individuals mentioned their struggle with lack of money and wondered if I had any insights into how to deal with this problem. Quite a bit has been written on this subject and I draw my remarks somewhat from these sources but most particularly from my own personal experiences. Three basic principles have helped me to grapple with this problem.

(1) Watch your thoughts about money. Do they go along the lines: “I can`t afford to buy that; I can`t do that workshop because it is too expensive; I have to be careful about the groceries I buy so I can keep to my budget.” All of these thoughts send messages of scarcity to the Universe. Often these messages become a self fulfilling prophecy. Our thoughts have power and do effect our life. (An explanation of why this is true must be reserved for another time.) A better way to proceed would be to ask for guidance on whether to buy something or not, or to go to a workshop or not. An element of trust is needed with this practice that the guidance (if it is coming from your highest self vs your ego self) will not leave you on the lurch. This trust can be developed by practicing asking for guidance and see what happens. You might notice that in light of divine insight, you don`t really need something or that it is really important for you to have something. Most of us when looking over our lives see that we were always taken care of even when things were tight. In asking the Divine for guidance we are spiritualizing our thoughts, which helps free us from worry, scarcity thinking and ego desires.

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Last February, a fall and the subsequent onset of dementia in Larry’s mother has given us, in addition to sadness and stress, some spiritual lessons to ponder. I noticed that many of Larry’s mom’s core qualities were still present despite the loss of much cognitive awareness. What she valued in her life was still present. Her kindness towards others and enjoyment of people were evident. She was always out of her room watching others and commenting from her limited vocabulary on how they were. She was a dancer on Broadway before marrying and I was startled to hear her say He’s much better than she about a couple who was demonstrating types of dances to the dementia patients–and she was right! That love and knowledge of dance was still there. Much of her life was spent traveling with Larry’s father and after his death, with Larry’s stepfather. For a while after being admitted to the facility, she thought she was in a hotel and the nurses’ station was a bar! It’s as if the deep grooves made in the psyche from repeated use remain.

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This year has been a time for me to reflect on what it means to be an elder. I like the term better than crone which gives me images of the Wicked Witch of the West, wart-nosed and all. I know crone means crown and wise woman, but my childhood programming is too strong for me to be happy with the term. I don’t feel like a wise woman, the updated version of crone, but rather see myself as a seeker aspiring to the title wise. The death of my mother a year ago, the birth of my first grandchild in April, and my turning sixty this July has edged me, willing or not, into the elder category.

In many ways I don’t feel like an elder. I’m the me that has always been, who contains the spirited child, the devastated 11 year old whose father died, the figured-it-all-out twenty year old, the joyful new mother, the shaky divorcee, the beginning meditator, the happy second wife and so on. Yet, there are some thoughts coming in that have not been there before. How many decades are left? Perhaps only one– or three, if I’m lucky. Does this change how I live my life? I feel I want to be more focused on what is important and to achieve a better balance between work, prayer, study, family and fun, but I’m not sure what that balance is and know it will require tinkering.

The joy of being a grandmother is delightful and I’ve reflected on what it means to be one, particularly since my granddaughter lives so far away. I’ve come to the conclusion that I am the field for the activity of my busy family just as a football field is for the intensity of that game. No one pays much attention to the field as they intently watch a game but the field is crucial to there being any game at all. I take seriously this role as field, holding the space for my family through love, prayer and being present to them. This is what elders do.

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Greetings to all from the deeps of January. One year has finished and another begun anew. One more chapter has closed and a new one lies before us waiting to be written. For a change, most of us are having hardly any trouble letting go of the year just past. We make our way a bit more swiftly and surely across this year’s threshold. We collectively take a deep breath before plunging in, hoping that that which is to come will somehow be better than that which has gone before.

What can be the key to our continuing progression, materially, psychologically and spiritually; a way of making some sense of recent experiences, both internally and externally? Comparing the reading of a text to the experiencing of life, let’s consider how one works through a worthwhile book. Some chapters may be more enjoyable than others, some may be downright scary. How to persevere and progress to the end? Simply put, by turning the page. No matter what we encountered in our reading, we would know the story was worthwhile and sentence by sentence, page by page, we would keep on with our task until we had made the wholeness of the book our very own. We would not judge the book’s worth by the content of a single sentence or chapter. In fact, our personal preferences would be suspended for the duration because we know that the book, taken as a whole, would be much more valuable than any partial impressions we might form about it before reaching its end. We would no sooner judge the book from the impression given from a single sentence or chapter than we would consider judging a movie by a single frame or scene. Wholeness or completeness is crucial for a correct evaluation.

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