Thoughts on aging and sourcing your life

Ana and I had an inspiring conversation this morning about what it means to source your life and how important this is as we get older.  Not that it was never important, but when you're younger it's perhaps easier to go on "auto pilot" - raising kids, going to work everyday, etc.  We have roles to fill and we fill them as best we can.

Along comes mid-life, though, and life changes...  Often one is left with a feeling of no longer having choice, of having to conform to and accept one's limitations.  "That's just how it is", we say, referring to the changes that we see imposed upon us by others and by our own bodies as we get older.  Suddenly we're aware of physical limitations that we didn't have before, the aches and pains or loss of eyesight or hearing, and sometimes illness or other debilitation.  And especially as we get older still, we find others wanting to choose for us - to tell us when we can no longer work, where we should live, and how we should behave.  "Remember, you're getting older and you can no longer do what you used to..."

Hmmph.  That certainly isn't very satisfying, but many of us accept it as true, and we begin the long slide downhill...  The slide into illness, unhappiness, loneliness, and eventually death.  (Are we really that surprised by the skyrocketing rate of suicide today for aging adults?)

So this is where the conversation about choice comes in.  About sourcing your life, about being the author, about making your life your own.  Yes, of course we get to deal with changes as we grow older; it would be foolish to pretend otherwise.  But we don't have to live life at the effect of those changes!  With honesty and self-love, we can realize the deeper truth that as we grow older we in fact have new choices available that we never had before, and new opportunities to deepen our commitment to loving life and growing consciously.

It always comes back to... you.  You're the common denominator, the part that's always there in any of your life stories.  But what role do you choose to play in that drama?  Are you powerful, able to choose your destiny and reap the love and joy that your life offers?  Or are you less so, somehow unable to find where you left your power and relegated to a life that someone else has seemingly chosen for you?

At every moment we have a choice.  We can choose to be powerful, to take our power back if we have given it away, and to be in charge - to source our lives.  The same limitations that caused us pain and sorrow before no longer have to be obstacles in our path to happiness and fulfillment.

What do you want in your life?  Now, at your current age?  What changes do you really want to manifest?  It's a time to be honest with yourself about who you really are and about what you really want, and it's a time to let go of the false dreams that may have haunted you by your inability to obtain them.

And as always, be willing to ask for help, and be willing to receive it when it is offered!  There is always a way, always a luminous choice available to you if you can only see it.

Be happy today!  There is always a way.

With love,
Tom