With the passing of my father last month I realized that I am no longer anyone’s child and that I have entered full adulthood – at 67 and counting. That is remarkable in and of itself but even more startling is the realization that I am starting over with the perspective of both my parents’ lives, beginning to end. The earth shifts. I had not read about this and am taken entirely by surprise.
What does it mean? I think it brings my own life more sharply in focus. Here’s what they inherited and what they did with it in the world they helped create. Now what am I doing, creating? Quite sobering as I approach my seventh decade on Earth.
While I have grieved my father’s passing, I have also experienced an unexpected sense of joy and peace, the deep understanding that I need not worry about anything. This has to be coming from a realm other than this planet because there IS certainly much to worry about. I choose to follow the guidance but to not stop working for a better future for my children and all the children to come. Is the message that we are to do what we can to help but to also find joy and to celebrate the gift of life on Earth? I think so. Perhaps even it is a direct message from Dad and Mom (the original worry-wart).
Dad’s common refrains were “this too shall pass” and “in all probability things are unfolding just as they should be”. I remember being frustrated by both when I wanted him to engage in cerebral hand wringing about climate change or poverty or some other massive, intractable problem. He just refused to go there. I thought then it was a flaw but now I am rethinking that.
Susan Feathers 
“This too shall pass,” doesn’t help me because I know the good will also pass.
Oh, if I could only put down the burden of worrying about the environment and climate change.
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Yes, how can we? When we see that life around us waning with our neglect. This has been my dilemma, too, Carole. I think it is about finding that balance of doing all we can about the huge changes humankind is causing while still celebrating the fact that – in spite of what is presented to us daily in news and media – there is way more good in this world than bad, and at anytime that we decide we want to, we can change dramatically. There are precedents for this down through history.
I find Terry Tempest Williams’ works very helpful in dealing with Finding Beauty in a Broken World .
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