Perspective of Age

Perspective of Age

"I could have told much by the way
But having reached this quiet place can say
Only that old joy and pain mean less
Than these green garden buds
The wind stirs gently."
    ___ Kathleen Raine, "The Oracle of the Heart"

   It is said that youth loves autumn best because it promises the fruits of maturity, but that age loves spring best because it recalls the freshness of beginnings. When we have come into that quiet place that age open us to, into the secret, walled grden of remembrance, the deeds of our lives seem of less moment than the miraculous spiral of life. The old pains and joys, the treacheries and rejections as well as the sweets
and pleasures, find their resting place. It is at such moments that we find windows to accept or bestow forgiveness, to for get injuries, to fully appreciate the riches that have come to us, and to accept and cease to regret the things we have not done.

    From the perspective of youth or middle life, none of these resolutions may seem currently possible or ultimately achievable, but our time will come. The returning cycles of the year bring us ever nearer to the heart of things, to the core of ourselves, wherein all things cease to spiral. At the perfect heart of the still center which is the soul's home, there is a different vision - not the view of the traveler along the way, but the intimate persective of age, which at last understands the motions of life from the heart's stillness.

"Recall moments of stillness that have given you a brief glimpse into or perspective of your soul's circuit in this lifetime - moments of convalescence, times of crisis, periods of mystical introspection. What eternal truths have you learned from such moments?"
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]