My birthday is coming up next month and when I realized that, I thought, didn’t I just have a birthday? It was my 70th birthday on July 3rd last year and I’ve been contemplating this new age and new era ever since.
One week in the Writing Life women’s writing circle, we had a look at the Celtic Medicine Wheel to inspire our writing. Each direction is related to a season, a moon phase, a life stage. In an email exchange recently with MJ Burrows, one of the circle members, she recalled looking at the description for the South and said (sharing from her circle notes): “Two things clicked: the notion of manifesting, full bloom and the trickster. With my birthday coming, I connected the South as a metaphor for this age and stage. We are full of wisdom and ready to manifest what we once lacked confidence to do; and yet the trickster nature betrays us in our body, and sinew and muscle.”
Most of us could relate to the poem MJ wrote, approaching her 65th birthday. Although I’m five years older, I can definitely relate to being “at peace more than ever / and restless more than I have ever been.” Have a look at MJ Burrows’ poem:
At 65 what I know
I am at peace more than ever
and restless more than I have ever been
I know more
and understand less
I long to run
and groan as I leave the chair
I crave colour
and wear shades of black
I have unlimited time
and 4 o’clock comes too quickly
I desire to paint
and have found I don’t know how
I am blooming
and dropping petals
I wake up energetic
and fizzle like a spent match by mid day
I like to travel
and anxious when I leave home
I am 65
more years in the bank
and less time to cash them in
MJ says: “I’ve been writing all my life. My friends rarely see me without a pen and a piece of paper nearby. I’ve written in journals, on stickies, and napkins. As a child I imagined myself writing plays like Shakespeare or songs like Dylan. I directed my sister in many one act plays and seemingly endless musical and dramatic extravaganzas! Like many of us as we grew our plans and priorities shifted. A recent move to Vancouver Island and the discovery of the writing circle has inspired my shift to claim myself, writer. With the support and encouragement of a community of creative and inspiring writers, I have found my voice as a writer.”
Perhaps we can thank the trickster energy for the synchronicity that brought “the community of creative and inspiring writers” together so that MJ can declare: “to claim myself, writer.”
Really love this piece Mary Ann. MJ’s poem is delightfully honest and real. You both offer a fresh look at life through the lens of a Sage.
A lovely story, and I can certainly relate… ‘more years in the bank and less time to cash in’. The value of women’s writing circles is they provide sacred space to draw out such gentle epiphanies!
Oh, Mary Ann, what a delightful entry! And MJ’s poem says it all for me too, as these same currents continue to run onward, carrying us further into our eighth decade and, I hope, beyond. … Looking forward to your Muse-ings come this July’s birthday …