I am getting ready to head down to Beaufort South Carolina to pick up my son Devin at Parris Island. Just yesterday he finished his training as a recruit and earned the title US Marine. And I am the very proud Mother of a Marine. Oorah!
I couldn’t be more proud of him for choosing this path and actually accomplishing it. In the Life Mastery Training Program, Rhys Thomas and I teach people that one of the highest and greatest things that we can do for ourselves and the world is to live our life’s purpose. I know that being a Marine is my son’s life purpose. I am proud that he chose to serve his country in the most badass way possible, but I am even more proud that he stepped up to the plate, got off the couch, put the video games down and at 18 years old made the decision to do it for realz.
His life and energy would have gone all sideways if he hadn’t.
But even though I am proud, it’s a strange, transitional moment for me. I am sort of midway through my empty nesting, with my two sons out living their own lives (Yay! And wah…!) and my daughter stepping into her late high school years. We are talking about colleges and she is just about to get her license and a car, which brings them such independence.
The Universe is unfolding as it should. And it is good.
Personally I feel like I should get a parenting award. Maybe a medal or a gold watch for parenting my two completely high maintenance sons into successful adults and finding inner peace along the way. Maybe a medal of honor for “parenting above and beyond the call of duty.” Or a few karmic brownie points or something. Sheesh.
My energy is very pulled back into myself these days. I am content at home, working on some house renovations and writing projects. I am happy to drink coffee, write and watch my two new kittens play. (OMG! Cuteness overload…) Meet Loki and Pikachu!
And I am happy with both of these things and have gained an inner peace and contentment that comes from the inside. I fully understand the INNER part of “inner peace.” It’s pretty wonderful actually. This happiness is generated from inside me and therefore feels impervious to whatever is going on in the outside world. Life is still life, with all its roller coaster ups and downs but I am still just me on the inside and content.
I am in an in between place right now, like the tide at a halfway mark. My old life as hands-on-mother is the tide going out and my new life still forming, a big question mark, an unknown.
It’s a funny place to be and if I weren’t feeling so Zen about it all, it would be pretty uncomfortable. In the past, the unknown would have bothered me. I would have wanted to fill that space with something, anything just to have some solid ground under my feet. And this time around, I don’t feel that. The unknown is ok. The half known is ok too.
In fact that empty space has a kind of magic in it. Anything could happen!
I am certain that my soul has something in store for me, if I can just be patient and mindful of the synchronicities. If I can keep the empty space open long enough for something truly great to emerge, I know it will.
I find myself breathing into the empty spaces, enjoying the feeling of stripping it down to even more emptiness. (Cleaning closets, basement and attic- literally making space.) When the tide has fully washed out, there will just be the stripped down, bare bones of me to build the next phase of my life onto.
If you are in a transition and you feel like you need some help and support, then try my Concierge program. If I could sign up for my own program myself, I surely would!
