Conversations with a Soul Read Online Free PDF Page B

of enchantment is not just for children.
    There is a meeting place in the land of enchantment, where sooner or later a Wisdomkeeper will introduce us to one of the most difficult questions ever asked of anyone. At the same time it is a question crafted in the shape of a key that could unlock the portal that leads into tomorrow:
    What are you doing with this one short life?
    Take a seat on one of the wisdom stones for a lesson on life is about to be delivered!
    Suddenly the carefully delivered insistence that in middle age we ought to settle down and find contentment in whatever choices and career paths we might have chosen (or had chosen for us); or the assumption that faithfully discharging our obligations is the supreme goal and the high road to contentment, is about to be exploded.
    The phrasing of the question, the moment of awakening, has been well chronicled in legends, myths and biography yet to each of us the call comes in a unique and unpredictable manner.
    An illness frequently initiates questions about the quality of life we are leading and the huge investment of time we are required to make for ends that bring little satisfaction, while those we love and who love us receive the scraps that are left over.
    A change in family configuration or fortune sometimes serves as the catalyst. For others the re-evaluation of their life’s goals happens because they awake one morning to the realization that life has become an empty shell, the goals have lost the lure they once held and those who share our lives and were once a part of a grand adventure have been reduced to mere functionaries.
    Joseph Campbell described the process like this:
Whether small or great, and no matter what the stage or grade of life, the call rings up the curtain, always, on a mystery of transfiguration - a rite or moment, of spiritual passage, which, when complete, amounts to a dying and a birth. The familiar life horizon has been outgrown; the old concepts, ideals, and emotional patterns no longer fit; the time for a passing of a threshold is at hand. 12
    The Gospel of Matthew records just such an event in the life of Jesus when he ended thirty years of obscurity and went into the wilderness to struggle with options for his life’s work. After sifting and discarding different temptations Matthew wrote:
Then the devil left him, and angels appeared and looked after him . 13
    Angels!
    Messengers!
    Jesus’ Wisdomkeepers?
    Robert Browning’s; Ah, but a man’s reach should exceed his grasp, or what’s a heaven for, is probably the most , common characteristic lived by my Wisdomkeepers. I have no doubt that it was this attitude that drew me to them in the first place. In a world where so many are more than willing to settle for mediocrity, where, as one former colleague put it; I am just waiting out the years to my retirement . My Wisdomkeepers exploded and scattered and shattered such sentiments. To a person they believed and lived that life is far too precious to be squandered in boredom and mediocrity, both of which come as the inevitable consequence of living a life designed by and for someone else.
    Each time I have come to redefine my life’s purpose I sensed them moving into my heart and mind. Without compromise they demand from me that I become a truth I need to live, whose time is now!
    Life without the protection of a cage can sometimes be tumultuous, but always liberating!
    Sometimes it’s tough to quit the seductive promises of security for a wild, insecure dream, that has waited too long to see the light of day.
    Sometimes it’s tough to face up to the possibility of failure knowing that the whole world is watching my dangerous, perilous, teetering entry into a new adventure.
    Sometimes it’s tough to forsake old, comfortable patterns of behaviour for new, potentially richer ones that demand I become vulnerable to others and, therefore face the possibility of rejection.
    Re-enchantment is always challenging because it demands that