Building the Bridge Step One

My first glimpse at becoming aware and present was in the mid 60s.   It shocked me into recognizing that there was a landscape out there that I was completely unaware of, and I was a part of it!    I returned to school.   Changed my relationships, my work, and twenty years later, I became a licensed therapist.

So I’ve been at this for 55 years.  YIKES! Now, for the first time in my professional life, I am taking a significant time away to rest, to reflect on what I’ve learned and what I desire—it is to study some new approaches to my work as a guidance counselor.

I feel my heart pounding as I write this blog—my first—and it does signal that I am going through a transition.    Another crossroads.  What’s behind me:   I’ve provided counseling and guidance to individuals, couples, families, children and teens.   I’ve taught at every level.   I’ve spoken to large and small groups, and I co-authored a book in the 80s.    I’ve always stopped short of developing an idea to its fullest, and now is my chance to gather what I’ve learned and offer it to a larger audience.  I want to write what I believe and let it go out there….

This is such a change from the familiar way I have conducted my practice.  Last month, I gave up my office and this month, my places of comfort and familiarity.  I’m sitting at someone else’s kitchen table writing this.   I arrived here last night.

What I know about myself is that any change from the familiar is accompanied by a feeling of stress, even if the change is for the good. My own belief is that change from the familiar is also accompanied by a loss of of some sort. We often define ourselves by what we’ve done, by what we have, by who we are with, by where we live. When any of that changes, we are required to let go of something familiar.

So, with pounding heart, I invite you to read and comment.  I will do my part which is to write about transitions in mid-life and the journey through them.

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