Beauty as a guiding force for freedom and transcendence in midlife….

By Jennifer Morse, MS. PhD

 

                                      http://goo.gl/sC9yBf

 

I’ve recently completed my book, Letters from the Land of Midlife Dating. It forced me to answer the question: When we are torn away from years, sometimes decades, of ‘coupledom’ and thrown into empty-nest-solitary life; too often losing financial security, friendships and lifestyle, how do we find our way back to wholeness?

In part, the answer to our search for wholeness lies in the radical transformation, within the primordial rigors, underlying beauty. Whew. The journey is not for the faint of heart. Creating beauty is the guiding force in middle age.

Beauty reflected in the whispered prayer of a yoga practice. It is perhaps a beauty barely discernable but deeply felt. There is the beauty reflected in your willingness to understand another’s opinions, feelings and choices. These empathetic underpinnings of a conversation contain beauty. A kindness freely given creates beauty. Cleaning the house with intention and care until it shines with love is both ordinary and extraordinary beauty.

Let me clarify. I’m not talking about fairytale beauty, although fairytales and their beauty are close to my heart. I’m talking about authentic beauty grounded in the tasks of daily life. I’m talking about beauty filled with the raw and mystical, the kind of beauty that could uplift or crush us. It could be bold or infinitesimal; instantaneous or drudgery, I’m talking about the crucible of creativity. Does beauty live in creativity or does creativity live in beauty?

In midlife we shoulder the awareness of creating tangible beauty and carry it forward with intentionality or we fall more deeply into the slumber of the material world disconnected from the beauty and creativity that brings meaning and wonder to our efforts.

Did you catch that? Intentional beauty born of the crucible of creativity will transform our lives bringing meaning and wonder to our efforts.

Let the younger generation seek only superficial beauty. As mid-lifers we take up our responsibilities to carry the deep and mysterious beauties, in conjunction with superficial beauty, forward discovering our alchemical nature in the process. Yes, this shouldering of deep beauty ushers us into the unknown, the Great Mystery, the origin of alchemy, returning us to wholeness.

Beauty as a motivating force has infinite expressions. Life is transformed from the ordinary to the sublime within the vehicle of beauty’s creativity. As midlifer’s thrown from the container of the nuclear family into singledom, lost and confused, beauty is our saving grace.

Letters From The Land of Midlife Dating is an insightful peak into the world of dating laced with humor. It is one woman’s journey, a return to wholeness, and the vehicle is deep beauty. Explore the myriad expressions of beauty, funny, poignant and occasionally awful. (Yes, it’s a fact beauty can be both awful and awe full.) Read Letters from the Land of Midlife Dating @amazonkindle.

For more….find The Way of the Fairy Godmother, Letters from the Land of Midlife Dating, and Awaiting the Fairy Godmother all here......

           www.redemptionswarrior.com