You're working under a slight handicap.  You happen to be human.

At the upcoming Woodlanders Gathering,

A discussion/workshop seems to be forming on ways to encounter and respond to inevitable transitions

Andi provoked it:

I'm in the transitional wasteland period of my mid-life reinvention. It's an interesting journey and my quest has been fraught with many challenges and opportunities for spiritual and emotional growth. It's very exciting and boring, happy and sad, light and dark and totally magical. I'm having a love/hate relationship with myself and while I sometimes feel totally lost I know that I'm really on the right path, my own.
To those of you who have already passed the threshold beyond this wasteland, I'm hoping you will share your stories with me. To those who have not crossed the bridge yet...what do you think your stories will look like? How do you examine and explore your own soul? What do you find most helpful in accessing or creating your stories?

 

Victoria elaborated:

I have re-read a wonderful book lately: “Letting go of the Person you Used to Be”.  by Lama Surya Das.  There is quite a bit in it about the hero ..... I now feel more like I am not a “survivor”(of lots of stuff not just cancer)  but a “hero


Currently, I am my own creative work in progress.  Sometimes when I look in a gallery and see all of the beautiful creations I just want to sit quietly on a pedestal amidst all of the other works of art and present myself as such.  Maybe at the Gathering we could have a pedestal and we  could switch off and on just being there for others to gaze upon the wonder and beauty of the sitter.  Could even be a traveling show!  

We are all in some form of transition and we have all tearned something about getting through.

My default position is to make Cards to ask for signs and guides in this process.  I'll have some textural watercolor paper and various natural materials I feel refletct transtions: red red japanese maple seed pods, sketelized leaves, paper wasps nests; I'll suggest pounding flowers and leaves of the day onto the Cards and choosing small rusted objects to imprint onto the Cards in vinegar bath.

One challange is to open our own stories to help and inspiration from lingering archetypes... the ones there but not yet on stage, and certainly not center stage.  Victoria alludes to allowing "hero" to step in for "survivor".   There are many, many more...

Emptyness is associated with the goddess/mother Hestia.  Her temple was empty: waiting to hold; Saturn is a brooding angry jealous character with a foothold in us all.  Give him a voice/a Card

If you have time, take a look at Jean Shinoda Bolens Gods in Everyman and Goddesses in EveryWoman.