I called it my “midlife crisis,” a succinct synopsis of a year that saw my entire way of being shattered and slowly rebuilt. In conversation, I needed use only those words for receipt of understanding nods from most. A good thing, as explanation would require the reassembly of emotional dreck into some illuminating narrative.
Once upon a time, it began with a moment that shook the ground at Richter Scale magnitudes…
…facades imploded, one then the next and the next, until I barely recognized the world in which I was living.
Slowly, and with little alternative, I tossed the familiar onto a pile curbside: the relevance of work, the attachment to agendas, the solitude of illusions, the complacent ennui…
…until time came, with Ecclesiastical allusion, to build up a new life. A new way of being that honored truth and authenticity, passion and connection, joy and creativity.
At a business luncheon, many months later, I sat in bold, new life regalia — the monotone conformity gathering seagulls in some past-life wasteland.
“Are you an artist?” the Senator asked as we shook hands across the table, and I smiled at the cursory classification.
“No, sir,” I wanted to say, “I am a butterfly.” But I held my tongue and nodded politely.
From the archives, while I work on finishing my book. Words and mixed-media collage, ©2008, Jen Payne.
Love how you compared the implosions of the facades to the cosmic shift, as after all that is how we street-scape our lives.
So true! : )
“reassembly of emotional dreck into some illuminating narrative”
wow, an inspired phrase! And a really important goal for us bloggers too!!!!!!
It’s what we do – right? Not always dreck, but certainly a transformation of the day-to-day!