Lughnasa Moon of the First Harvests
Some rough ideas, thrown out as thought provokers for now, on the third phase. In September I’m going to do a presentation to Groveland UU on the third phase and want to start thinking out loud here, maybe draw in some comments from those of you who read Ancientrails.
1st phase: learning [self, relationships, general skills and particular skills]
2nd phase: praxis [learning put into practice with career, family, personal growth]
3rd phase: soul work [work that only you can do. inner work. life review, summing up]
terminal phase: dying [good-byes, cleaning up, finishing up, endings]
The terminal phase is a new addition to my third phase thinking and it’s based on being with Kona as she died and on the experiences some of you have had, notably Bill Schmidt and Scott Simpson, as loved ones died, but slowly.
NB: the word associated with the phase is that phase’s primary and guiding emphasis, where the inflection of life in our culture comes down. Certainly we learn in each phase, put our learning into practice in each phase and do soul work in each phase. It’s the dominant motif that concerns me as I think about phases.
3rd phase as life’s sabbath. This idea just came to me today. It segues somewhat with the traditional view of retirement as life’s last vacation, a sort of permanent weekend, but goes well beyond it. If you agree with me that we might consider the third phase primary emphasis as soul work, then the third phase can be seen as a point when we move more and more often from ordinary time (a favorite Catholic liturgical idea) into extraordinary time, what I would call sacred time.
That means we may want to pay attention to rest, reflection, contemplation, retreats, doing work that more often integrates than fulfills needs. In my case time in the garden helps. Time not spent writing or reading, unless it’s poetry or some other reflective material. Time sitting in the chair, eyes closed, thoughts wandering. Meditating. Being with friends.
These are just the nubs of ideas. Interested in what you think.
