Tucson Sunset, photo by Licia Berry 2007
As I’ve said in the previous entry, every new cycle is an opportunity to look back and celebrate how far we’ve come. I don’t like the idea of beating ourselves up because we didn’t accomplish certain things (although I am guilty of doing that with some frequency). What I DO like is taking an inventory of the life lessons I’ve learned, because that tells me I am alive.
2009 is one of those years I am hearing plenty of folks ready to say goodbye to. As one reader put it, “2009, don’t let the door hit you where the good lord split you.” I understand, it has been a banner year for hard lessons, an intense alchemical cauldron, a trial by fire. What is left after the purifying flames? What will emerge from the ashes?
I am still discerning the answers to those questions…and so far, I am very excited with what I am discovering. The “me” that is emerging is the one I have been wanting to get to know. May she continue to come forward in grace.
In the mean time, I have compiled the short list of lessons I have been taught (and am incorporating) by the great teacher of the year of 2009. I offer them here to inspire you to acknowledge your own lessons of this last year, and to thank the year for the reminder that you are alive, too.
~Licia’s 2009 Life Lessons~
2009 Lesson #1-When I align with what is right for me, change goes very smoothly because I am so supported by the larger energies of the universe.
2009 Lesson #2-Even when something happens that looks absolutely awful, I am still being supported. I will know this if I am open to this possibility. If I approach the “awful” thing with an open heart and ask to know the lessons, they will be given to me.
2009 Lesson #3- Love is all that matters. Love illuminates the path, makes life a joyful adventure, full of meaning. Absence of love breeds uncertainty and fear, makes the journey a scary, unpleasant question.
2009 Lesson #4- Receivership. I was forcibly disabled, kind of a “Sit down and be quiet!” My usual running around, trying to be in control of various aspects of my life, was taken out in a hurry. My inability to do for myself + for others created an opening for me to receive assistance, to practice being taken care of.
2009 Lesson #5- Things don’t always happen in my time frame….in fact, they often don’t. There is a larger reality at work than the one I think up with my own mind and desires….and that reality will be the one that has the last say. In the end, it will be for my highest good.
2009 Lesson #6- Go where invited. If you are not wanted, seen or appreciated, leave. Go to where the love is.
2009 Lesson #7- Some decisions need to be made that defy logic. It may not “make sense” to follow a course of action, but truly supportive, growthful and loving decisions frequently don’t fit into a rational model for life.
2009 Lesson #8- Community has become very important to me. Whereas I have been fine to be a loner and independent before, now I feel a strong pull to give and receive in community, seeking and finding and relishing my soul tribe. Allowing myself to be “part of” is related to how willing I am to open up and be human with other humans.
2009 Lesson #9- Deep rearranging, sloughing off, gathering and healing is happening for me this year. So much subconscious process, the evidence of which is in my dreams and in the sensation of being underwater or in deep caves…a reminder for me that there is a whole lot more going on than meets the eye or than I am aware of consciously.
2009 Lesson #10- In the past I have been hung up on “evidence”. This has been a way for me to deny my inner wisdom. Evidence does not have to look like something I can see, feel, touch or remember consciously. It can include what emerges in dreams, the feelings and the body…these are also evidence.
2009 Lesson #11- There is a collapsing of worlds occurring within me, and it is happening faster and faster. This brings me great bliss when I align with it, and anxiety when I resist it. I feel I am getting closer to cohesion within, Sacred Union Within. The lesson for me? All is in order….Let it be.
Thank you for the lessons, 2009, and a blessed 2010 everyone!
