Belated birthday wishes here in Substack. I’m in my 63rd trip around the sun now and the biggest thing I’ve come to know, is to be yourself, honour your inner child and don’t live a life others expect that does not resonate with your own internal compass, and it’s taken me a long time to get to this point.
Happy belated 48th birthday Beth, my advise is to believe in the power of positivity, live life to the full, do what you love (your own advise) and buy clothes that don't need ironing :-) x
Dear Beth, Happy belated birthday!!! I love that you celebrated your birth by watching shooting stars - it's something I would do, too! What wisdom can I give you? I've learned so much from you. As I look back from where I am now, I do believe that life is not linear with a far off past and a distant future. It is more like a spiral. We travel around the sun every year, we ride through the seasons again and again re-experiencing the same situations, the same holidays, the same birthdays, yet each time one comes around we see it with a new perspective, a new light, a new learning. That is the point, to grow each time around, like the rings of a tree, expanding, collecting knowledge and understanding as we travel this beautifully cyclical life.
My hard-won wisdom is this: teenagers are a muddy building site with a breathtaking structure under construction.
Sometimes parents are unwanted trespassers; individuation is painful but necessary. Make no mistake though - you are still very much needed. The construction halts unless someone keeps an eye on the regulations and the supplies. And don’t forget: you laid solid foundations. You get to be there.
Sometimes, the bricklayers go on strike; be patient. Sometimes, the unwieldy steel beam goes in the wrong part despite all the preparation; be patient. Sometimes it feels like it rains for weeks on end and all progress is undone and everyone gets angry and sad; be patient.
Be a supportive site manager. Model forgiveness. Celebrate milestones. And don’t pause to wonder, every now and then, at the marvellous spire reaching for the skies.
The most important lesson I have learned and, unfortunately, need to relearn repeatedly is that there are no exceptions to the Iron Law of Impermanence. Nothing and no one lasts forever, not matter what.
Happy Birthday Beth and thank you for writing your essay.
Time is a fascinating concept and how each species on earth experiences it does vary. This was made really clear when I watched a video of humans singing birdsong. To make the video, they'd transcribed the bird song then slowed it down so that a human could sing it. They'd then filmed the participants humming and whistling their way through the songs before speeding the videos back up to "bird-speed". The poses, head tilts and expressions of the humans then became remarkably bird-like!
I think that you're onto something here about the preciousness of time and that a life is a succession of moments. But I'd also counter that by noticing that we're also material creatures who like stroking soft fur, rubbing rough bark, hugging each other so a true human life is one lived with both mental joy and material/sensorial joy within a supportive community of family and friends.
The days are long and the years are short, a wise lady told me and my friend, when we were trying to keep up with our pre schoolers at a farm estate and maybe looked more frazzled and apologetic than we needed to. And it's so true, those days felt long, a parade of chores and laundry and buttered toast and skinned knees and apple slices and giggles and tantrums and snot and tears and sticky hands and a lot of clean up at the end of each day, but the years...
Went so fast.
Have you read 'a tale for the time being'? And 'the trick to time'?
Something I forget more often than I remember - our worth is not tied to our productivity, cleverness or even our kindness. We are all inherently worthy.
I seem to have pushed the send button too soon. So here's my wisdom offering that has travelled with me now for several years, expressed in the words of Thich Nhat Than:
I learned something just recently. I had been doing some embodiment work, for the very first time, aged 67, and I have begun to feel my body - it’s energetic hum, it’s aliveness, things which must have always been there, but which I had been too busy/ distracted to notice. And then I thought, this sense of aliveness - it is presence, it is the here and now, all there ever is. I don’t know how it took me so long! Happy Birthday.
Wishing you the happiest of happy birthdays, Beth 💕and what beautiful posts of wisdom from the wonderful community! I had to have a little think about what to share, and I think it’s that I need to take action, no matter how small, towards whatever brings me joy. No action is wasted, it is never a regret.
When asked about the people that matter most for me, I would never mention my hair dresser, colleague or carpenter. However, I do believe that the person in front of me is at that particular moment the most important person in my life. He or she or… can make my day, …or not. This works both ways, so be careful.
Happy birthday!! What piece of wisdom can I share? Live with GRACE - gratitude for what is and what is to come, resiliency, authenticity, creativity and elevation. ✨💫✨
Gorgeous words, gorgeous you! I am absolutely enraptured by the idea of time-being. My share which I hope lands as a soft gift: you are worthy of everything beautiful in this world, simply because you exist.
Hope you had the loveliest birthday imaginable, Beth!
Belated birthday wishes here in Substack. I’m in my 63rd trip around the sun now and the biggest thing I’ve come to know, is to be yourself, honour your inner child and don’t live a life others expect that does not resonate with your own internal compass, and it’s taken me a long time to get to this point.
Happy belated 48th birthday Beth, my advise is to believe in the power of positivity, live life to the full, do what you love (your own advise) and buy clothes that don't need ironing :-) x
Dear Beth, Happy belated birthday!!! I love that you celebrated your birth by watching shooting stars - it's something I would do, too! What wisdom can I give you? I've learned so much from you. As I look back from where I am now, I do believe that life is not linear with a far off past and a distant future. It is more like a spiral. We travel around the sun every year, we ride through the seasons again and again re-experiencing the same situations, the same holidays, the same birthdays, yet each time one comes around we see it with a new perspective, a new light, a new learning. That is the point, to grow each time around, like the rings of a tree, expanding, collecting knowledge and understanding as we travel this beautifully cyclical life.
My hard-won wisdom is this: teenagers are a muddy building site with a breathtaking structure under construction.
Sometimes parents are unwanted trespassers; individuation is painful but necessary. Make no mistake though - you are still very much needed. The construction halts unless someone keeps an eye on the regulations and the supplies. And don’t forget: you laid solid foundations. You get to be there.
Sometimes, the bricklayers go on strike; be patient. Sometimes, the unwieldy steel beam goes in the wrong part despite all the preparation; be patient. Sometimes it feels like it rains for weeks on end and all progress is undone and everyone gets angry and sad; be patient.
Be a supportive site manager. Model forgiveness. Celebrate milestones. And don’t pause to wonder, every now and then, at the marvellous spire reaching for the skies.
Happy Birthday!
mine is very simple:
slow down.
The most important lesson I have learned and, unfortunately, need to relearn repeatedly is that there are no exceptions to the Iron Law of Impermanence. Nothing and no one lasts forever, not matter what.
Happy Birthday Beth and thank you for writing your essay.
Time is a fascinating concept and how each species on earth experiences it does vary. This was made really clear when I watched a video of humans singing birdsong. To make the video, they'd transcribed the bird song then slowed it down so that a human could sing it. They'd then filmed the participants humming and whistling their way through the songs before speeding the videos back up to "bird-speed". The poses, head tilts and expressions of the humans then became remarkably bird-like!
I think that you're onto something here about the preciousness of time and that a life is a succession of moments. But I'd also counter that by noticing that we're also material creatures who like stroking soft fur, rubbing rough bark, hugging each other so a true human life is one lived with both mental joy and material/sensorial joy within a supportive community of family and friends.
Happy Birthday!
The days are long and the years are short, a wise lady told me and my friend, when we were trying to keep up with our pre schoolers at a farm estate and maybe looked more frazzled and apologetic than we needed to. And it's so true, those days felt long, a parade of chores and laundry and buttered toast and skinned knees and apple slices and giggles and tantrums and snot and tears and sticky hands and a lot of clean up at the end of each day, but the years...
Went so fast.
Have you read 'a tale for the time being'? And 'the trick to time'?
Something I forget more often than I remember - our worth is not tied to our productivity, cleverness or even our kindness. We are all inherently worthy.
I seem to have pushed the send button too soon. So here's my wisdom offering that has travelled with me now for several years, expressed in the words of Thich Nhat Than:
'Be free where you are.'
I learned something just recently. I had been doing some embodiment work, for the very first time, aged 67, and I have begun to feel my body - it’s energetic hum, it’s aliveness, things which must have always been there, but which I had been too busy/ distracted to notice. And then I thought, this sense of aliveness - it is presence, it is the here and now, all there ever is. I don’t know how it took me so long! Happy Birthday.
L learned something
Wishing you the happiest of happy birthdays, Beth 💕and what beautiful posts of wisdom from the wonderful community! I had to have a little think about what to share, and I think it’s that I need to take action, no matter how small, towards whatever brings me joy. No action is wasted, it is never a regret.
When asked about the people that matter most for me, I would never mention my hair dresser, colleague or carpenter. However, I do believe that the person in front of me is at that particular moment the most important person in my life. He or she or… can make my day, …or not. This works both ways, so be careful.
Happy birthday 😘
Happy birthday!! What piece of wisdom can I share? Live with GRACE - gratitude for what is and what is to come, resiliency, authenticity, creativity and elevation. ✨💫✨
Gorgeous words, gorgeous you! I am absolutely enraptured by the idea of time-being. My share which I hope lands as a soft gift: you are worthy of everything beautiful in this world, simply because you exist.
Hope you had the loveliest birthday imaginable, Beth!