A Year Past a Year Promised

This past year has been anything but routine. The promise I claimed for myself on my birthday last year was to actually connect with these people with whom I share a deep bonding, only imagining how that would finally play itself out. .

During the summer, grandson Wilder came for an extended visit. Justin, Caroline's son - also my grandson - was there as well. The two of them really had an opportunity to bond.  I realized while he was there, how important real connections are to me.

In September, I travelled to Oklahoma and spent a week with Randy, Stephanie, and Chris. After a weekend at an international horse show where Chris placed in all categories entered, we drove to their home and I spent the week following Chris and Stephanie as they went through their daily routines. I had only been there to visit once before when Chris was still an infant. I never did get to spend much time with Chris while I was there, but at least I did get a feel for being connected in the real to my family.

A day at Conna wilkinson's with Jan Sanders and Pat Webb as we journeyed through Jan's workshop to find our heart's song was also a very significant event of the year of really connecting as colleagues.

In December, when Caroline, Paige and I rendezvoused in Seattle area with Caroline's natural father, Kurt, and his son Raoul and wife Jenn,  forty-seven years of yearning for this connection came to be real. We spent a glorious weekend getting together over meals and sharing a bit of our lives. All of us are cautious souls and very intuitive, so much of the connection was from our hearts. This connection was so powerful as the genetic bonding that has always been there became real.

In June, travelling to Italy for the international conference in Rome, was a connection with the roots of my love for psychosynthesis, deeper connections with people I actually know and those I only know by cyber connectedness. This conference was a connection with a great vision of supreme synthesis for this planet, and the conference itself was a demonstration of its possibility. A day in Assagioli's archives was a connection with his life and work. The holiday I treated myself to following this, was a connection with the environment which inspired Assagioli's greatness and I was inspired in turn.

I would have to say that a visit to Trevi Fountain in Rome, was more like a symbol of the experience of this past year and the promise claimed within in. The fountain's energy is pure, vibrant, intense gentle refreshment. I experienced the rootedness of continually flowing water from the fountain and its ancient sculptures. As the water flowed in the fountain, I experienced a release of wishing things were different and gratitude for these events of being so deeply connected now.

. I threw in coins over my shoulder with wishes for this next year, promising to return to these wishes during this reflective time of year when I claim the promise for my 68th year.

Now, I am headed for my 50th high school reunion this week. It is one more opportunity to be connected in real time to classmates of yore. But, we are a half century away from high school days, so it is also an opportunity to meet new people who happen to share a common memory of childhood and youth.  I am saying this as a generality, of course, for some have reunited earlier or been connected for the many years since high school. even by marriage.

The reunion is a turning point in many ways.

For this next year, I promise myself to venture off into paradise, both vocationally and personally. This is a year of shedding the cloak of routine relationship and mediocre expectations.

I will to live a healthy lifestyle - a demonstration of being a responsible elder.
I will to see a North American psychosynthesis conference through to its ultimate success - my contribution to responding to what the world needs today.
I will to travel far and wide for the fun of new encounters and celebrate friendships  -expanding my tolerance for bliss all the way to joy itself.
I will to plan a family reunion where my immediate family is all together for the first time ever since grandchildren began to enter the scene - daring to assert the value of such a gathering  as that which we all deserve to experience.
I will to comfortably be who I am and never more what I am expected to be to keep the peace.

If I organize my blog so to publish it in the context of some theme or finish my book about reuniting with Caroline or get trained as a psychosynthesis coach or any of the other myriad of possibilities I have to consider, well, fine and dandy. I feel I have finally ditched the work ethic which kept me going for so many years. I feel I am replacing it by entering the circle of the dance of this life's time. I intend to have the time of my life this year.

Reflections on a year past and claiming promises for a year ahead makes it easy to dance in the moment, even through the highs and lows of daily routine. What has been your greatest moments of the year past? What are you anticipating as worth it all in the coming year?