“Throughout our lives, transitions require that we ask for help and allow ourselves to yield to forces stronger than our wills or our egos’ desires. As transitions take place during our later years, a fundamental and primal shift from ambition to meaning occurs.”
Angeles Arrien, The Second Half of Life
 That simple phase, those four words, “from ambition to meaning,” would sum up the four days’ interior journey of those who travelled with me at Soul Spark in mid February. As the starting point for our first circle conversation, where each of us, having crossed paths before, now sat comfortably together on sofas and rocking chairs, with the fieldstone hearth and fire taking its place of honour, offering warmth and solace, this excerpt from Angeles Arrien’s The Second Half of Life became our touchstone. Regardless of age or stage of life, occupation or endeavor, each of us, host and participant alike, found ourselves delivered to this threshold, whether by ready intention or “no-choice” choice.
I’ve been writing about this threshold for the past few months, initially catalyzed by my experiences at the Self as Source writers’ retreat in early December. From the dark depths of winter solstice, I recognized the need to listen and tend to what David Whyte calls “the great inside shout of joy,” that new life that we must call our own, helped into being by our preparation, practice, discipline and allies. Then, almost a month later, inspired by that master of naming and blessing thresholds, John O’Donohue, I gave deeper consideration to my allies, those beings – human and non-human, animate and inanimate, living or passed – whose shoulders we stand on, whose backs shore up ours, whose energy, image and guidance we call upon, who walk beside us to remind and help us call forth our resiliency, talents, and wisdom. In between: a straight forward dental procedure reactivated some Bells Palsy symptoms that emerged almost three years ago, and still has me in irritating distress with a “not yet quite right” bite. An irregular EKG for which cardiac consultation and testing has occurred. Hearing that several younger colleagues have suffered strokes, heart attacks and brain injuries. The passing in January of those iconic musician-artists, each in what is now my decade. What had been ready intention, has now become my no-choice choice of letting go, paring back, or as I said quite spontaneously yesterday to a friend, a necessary “winnowing to essence.” Angeles Arrien instructs us that when we stand upon a threshold, we must do the inner work of transformation and integration – the treading, turning, twisting and flailing of noticing, releasing and discarding what is no longer necessary or aligned with our essential nature. Noticing its signposts:
On the eve of our inaugural Soul Spark (now to be an annual mid-winter gathering) during meditation, I suddenly asked myself, “Who is this person I am becoming?” this person who:
“Who is this person?” for she does not yet seem to be me.
Yet what I can say is there is a bittersweet sister found in the threshold, and her name is grief-relief. The grief-relief of noticing, releasing and discarding that which had served but does no longer. To give myself permission to notice, name, and feel this most peculiar grief heals, makes space for, and helps me recognize the edges of to eventually claim this person I am becoming. It helps me make choices better aligned with and in support of who is emerging. It helps me become my own ally in service of living out loud that inside shout of joy. |
This is threshing. This is the process of becoming, wherein I am unable to answer, “Who am I now?” because I’m releasing myself from the story and illusion of who I think I am, who I have been.
I’ve never been a big “tweeter” or “instagrammer,” and seldom go to LinkedIn except to occasionally update my profile or announce an upcoming event I’m hosting, but I really like Facebook, for lots of good reasons. 
So it caught my attention, when at our family’s Ukrainian Christmas celebration a few weeks back, I heard my thirty something nephew-in-law refer to Facebook as “Facecrack.” It didn’t matter that I knew I used Facebook as a contemporary form of social activism, to 
I love collage, particularly when I’m not fixed in my ideas of what I want to create, what images and words I need to find to make the “right” representation. So that evening, as the heavy grey day gave way unnoticeably to night, with no particular ally in mind, I skimmed through a few magazines, borrowed scissors and glue, tore and cut to create a circle of images and words that I would then fold and keep in my writing journal. Here is what I wrote, inspired by the words I found:
Soul Spark … An annual intimate winter retreat for ten people to step into the fire of doing the work and living the life they long for. Whether you are in your early, mid, or encore career, here you will have the time and companionship to discern what and how to move forward.
In late September I had the privilege of co-hosting with local friend and colleague, 
It was the second time such a circle had been called. In 2011, the day before I departed for three months abroad, I emailed Ann and Christina wondering if they’d come to Edmonton to teach circle. Then, too, seventeen of us gathered at Strawberry Creek Lodge in the glorious splendor of fall of 2012. Then, intent to bring circle more fully into my personal and professional work, hardly would I have imagined this manifesting as co-teaching with Ann and Christina during their final off-site training.
Together, we four held well the circle’s directions, energies, and teachings. Together, we were both present to and in a grief that came in with this circle – supporting, shepherding and stewarding, with clarity, focus and compassion, several momentous transitions. Together, we practiced and modeled a cornerstone Circle Way agreement: “ask for what you need, offer what you can.” 
Katharine Weinmann, MSW 