The Path of a Re-invent-urer

Blog author: Karen Kendig

“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:

a time to be born, and a time to die;

a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;

a time to kill, and a time to heal;

a time to break down, and a time to build up;

a time to weep, and a time to laugh;

a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

a time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together;

a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

a time to seek, and a time to lose;

a time to keep, and a time to throw away;

a time to tear, and a time to sew;

a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

a time to love, and a time to hate;

a time for war, and a time for peace.”

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

Re-invent-uring is a journey we take over and over again throughout a lifetime. Sometimes we never have to leave our chair to take the journey, but it always takes us to a different destination. Each time you follow the re-in-vent-urer's path you move through four distinct seasons of transformation, which means you will need to painstakingly pick and choose what kind of internal baggage you need to bring with you. Carl Jung put it this way, “We cannot live the afternoon of life according to the program of life’s morning for what was great in the morning will be little at evening, and what in the morning was true will at evening have become a lie.” In other words, when your re-invent-uring is about finding a new location to live, the skills and tools you need to rely on will be quite different from the skills you need to move through a long-term illness, or into a new career.

Each season of the Re-invent-uring process is a “program” unto itself. The second season builds off the first, the third off the second and the fourth off the third. At the same time, each step prior to the present step is no longer relevant to the “program” you are currently experiencing. Let’s take a look at the four seasonal mile-markers of the Re-invent-urer’s path. .

Fall portends the most in-your-face signals of disruption. Fruits and vegetables ripen and fall off the vine. Evergreen needles turn brown, while deciduous leaves change to a kaleidoscope of warm colors. The temperature is in a state of flux and the sun begins to concede its time to the dark.

As women we often sense a season of disruption and change in our own lives. One night your sleep might be disrupted as you lie awake from the realization that your parents are at an age where death can be seen on the horizon. Your parenting persona might be about to change as your child leaves home. You or a loved one could find your health in a state of disruption from a recently diagnosed malady. Maybe your marriage has been rocky, and you are seriously considering a separation or divorce. Have you ever been sitting at your desk and decided you don’t want this job anymore? Or received the confirmation that you’re pregnant?

Inherent to all disruption and change is a sense of loss—a kind of death that must be grieved and accepted. Of course, you are happy your child has successfully graduated from high school and been accepted to college or has secured a job. But the nest is empty now and life will be forever different. The loss of the old, sometimes overshadows the gains from the new. You might find yourself feeling confused, depressed, anxious, and begin to pull away from the external to focus on the internal.

At this point, you have entered the winter season of the Re-invent-urer’s path which we call confusion. There is a sense of emptiness, barrenness, and inactivity. It’s as if you want to curl up in front of the fire and shelter yourself from the cold and callous winter where everything that was above is now buried below. Ambiguity, restlessness, lack of motivation, and detachment fill your days. Growth and abundance are glaringly absent as renewal takes place in a kind of formless gestation.

And out of that formlessness comes a call to action. The slap on the face that tells you, "Yes, this sucks and now, what are you going to do about it?". Inactivity is replaced with the cultivation that occurs in Spring. Seeds that fell to the ground in the fall and were dormant during winter are now sprouting and growing. During the spring of our lives, we plan for and nurture the new life that change has brought us. In winter's confusion we were intentionally introspective. In the season of creation, we are outwardly and actively cultivating the direction we want our lives to take.

Creation comes in the light of summer. The Re-invent-urer has reached her destination. The change is now in full bloom. This season is one of attainment, fulfillment, realization, and gratification. The new creation will always need maintenance and call for new iterations and updates as an ongoing life adventure. The metamorphosis is complete until the next change comes knocking at your door.

Join us as we offer support and guidance to Re-invent-urers in their unique and yet universal journeys throughout life.

Daily Meditation

Use this meditation this week to help you open yourself to the changes around and within you.

Holy Spirit, grant me serenity and grace as I walk through the ever-changing seasons of my life.