What is within you...

Bring It Forth

“If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.”

Gospel of Thomas

          Yesterday, I had a delightful, physically-distanced, birthday lunch with my friends, Ladonna, DeJuana, and Melanie. It was DeJuana’s birthday. She normally works as a radiation therapist but is not working now because of being in the most vulnerable category for the coronavirus. Since she is one year away from retirement, we spent some time discussing what she might do after her next birthday. Melanie and Ladonna are musicians—viola and violin, respectively. During the conversation, Melanie mentioned that her life coach had asked her the question: “What is the music within you that is yet to be discovered?” That is the most cogent question one could ask oneself about the part of life we call “retirement.”

          It’s a good question to ask at any life stage, really. We humans tend to get stuck in a rut of doing the same thing from birth to death, simply because we think it’s what we must do to “succeed.” If you love what you do, I guess that’s fine, though it seems like it would limit your psycho-spiritual growth and development. It would be a shame not to expand your experience here in the “earth-school.” Just an opinion, of course.

I had a conversation with my friend, Andy, last evening about this. He’s a retired Nuclear Engineer, who helped build nuclear power plants for several utilities. He told the story of his own climb up the corporate ladder. When he was offered a position of supervisor, simply because it was the next rung, and he was next in line, he accepted the position at first, but after a short time doing the job, he asked to return to his old position. The powers that be questioned his judgement—after all, this is how you advance in the corporate world. But he told them, “I don’t like it, and that’s reason enough for me.” I wonder how many of us languish in jobs long after the juice has run out—and I wonder what that does to our health.

I realize it is not possible for everyone to change jobs. There have been times in my life when being choosy was not an option for me either. I took whatever work I could find and tried to do it with gusto so as not to lose the job. But the third of our lives we spend “in retirement,” if we are lucky enough to have that option, doesn’t mean what is once did. It’s not being “put out to pasture to die.” Instead, it’s a period of relative freedom when one can explore the interests that got no oxygen when that person was working. For me, by the grace of God, this is play time! And my play is art.

So, I ask you Melanie’s question: “What is the music within you that is yet to be discovered?” What is the deepest desire of your heart that is yet to be satisfied? What is the dream you hold in reserve? Bring it forth, and it will save you.

                                        In the Spirit,

                                        Jane