Synchronicity and Midlife: Traveling the Winding Road 10 comments

4 Apr 2003 @ 09:26, by Craig Lang How many of us baby-boomers have said to ourselves: There must be more to life than this. But what is it? How do I find it? Where to from here - where does the path lead? How many have found the answer? And how many of us know how to ask the question? Some interesting experiences over the last few weeks have helped me come to terms with the question, even if I haven't come any closer yet to the answer... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ At the present time, many of us baby-boomer forty-somethings find ourselves at the point in life: Half way through one's career; Having been successful at some endeavor; Perhaps having a professional reputation, etc... Materially, many have "arrived" in some manner. Married - perhaps for the second or third time - and in many cases, this one has worked. From the outside, life looks good. But from the inside, the new question arises: Where am I? Where does the road lead to from here? There must be more to life than this. "Cubeworld", the world of the corporation, that endless sea of Dilbert cubes, no longer holds the attraction it did five years ago. There is the sense that this world was once meaningful, but is no-longer. It is a sense of loss, yet a sense that the old is passing, and the new is arriving. So, what is the "New"? Over the last four-plus years, I have asked this question endless times. It has been the defining force in my life - and I am not alone. In the last two years, I have attended endless series' of workshops on topics like career-transition and self-analysis. And there I find many others, all asking the exact same questions: "Where to from here?" Since the answer is probably something unconventional, the path to it is probably so as well. So like many others, I have sought a metaphysical path to try and find this answer. Taking up spiritual interests, studying and practicing meditation, etc. have led to a shift in the path - the red road, the golden path, or just "following the breadcrumbs". And while I still do not (and maybe never will) know where the trail is leading, I have noticed one very interesting thing. At times, synchronicities abound. It is said that the occurrence of synchronicities is a sign that in some way, one is on the right track. In many cases, for weeks at a time there seems to be an unbroken chain of these amazing "coincidences". Then, just as suddenly they stop. life becomes bleak and one feels lost. There are no breadcrumbs in sight. Which leads me to the next discovery: Prayer works. Prayer leads to miracles. God listens, but the response can be subtle - under the radar of life. But each has an important role in life - they provide us with hope. The path is still there, even if today one might not see it very well. The next breadcrumb is probably just within your reach. A couple of weeks ago, it was a rather gray and clouded time. It was a week in which our nation was teetering on the brink of war. It was a time in which the day job was giving me a rough time. And in many other ways, life seemed pretty bleak. But it was also a time of prayer - and in a moment of pleasant suprise, a phone call came from a friend - someone I hadn't talked with in months. We talked for hours, twisting eachothers ears into square knots. My friend reminded me of a book I had just been planning to order from Amazon - "The Power of Now", by Eckhart Tolle. I had been reading alot about mindfulness in recent times (for me this is a skill that needs alot of fine tuning). And suddenly, out of the blue, comes what is probably one of the best books I have read on the subject. My friend had two copies, one she regularly loans to friends. And as luck would have it, the last person had just returned it. So she loaned it to me, and I read it cover to cover. It didn't make any external changes in life - yet. But internally, it was life changing. And in the last two weeks, the synchronicities have resumed. Where do they lead, I still don't know. But Eckhart Tolle's advice is to focus on the present moment (with some excellent ways of helping you do just that). And when one does, the path becomes clearer - both up close, and further into the distance. So the end result: The road still winds. The next breadcrumb is often still hidden. Most of us are still seekers - and few if any ever find their Holy Grail. Yet there is joy in the seeking - and the synchronicities continue - Signposts along the golden path.

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