Hello beautiful human,
Today I go to a local gallery to pick up a painting I had properly framed. It’s a painting of me, done by a friend and former partner. It will hang in my bedroom and remind me not only of a lovely past relationship but also that there was a time I was an artist’s model and a poet, who hung out with musicians and artists and other lovely folk.
There was a time in my life when I was a dancer. When I helped others understand the connection between creativity and embodiment. When I helped women reconnect to their bodies with love and curiosity, to begin to heal the relationships they had with themselves.
These are just a couple of the lives I’ve lived, among many. Some I talk about some I don’t. They all reside within me, and in the corners of the house, whispering and rustling in the closets.
All of these versions of me are still present, and they assure me there are more chapters to come as well. I’m in no hurry. The self I’m currently exploring is a good one, with a lot of interesting possibilities. A writer coming back to the words. A mom with kids nearly grown and flown…but not quite. A divorcee (what an old-fashioned word) trying to pick up the pieces of a broken marriage and understand how they fit together. A partner in a still-new relationship, discovering day by day what’s possible between two people. A woman, coming back to her original creative outlets: gardening, cooking, writing. Life has a slow spiralling shape, around and around and we arrive where we were before, but with new tools, techniques, experiences. The view a little different each time round.
Sometimes it’s nice to take a morning to remember, honor, and bring forward the various past versions of ourselves, to see what they have to say about where we are now. What do they want to remind us of? What stories do they want to share, to help us remember that who we are now is due to who we have been, and that wherever we might go next, they might have something valuable to share for the journey?
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