AGEISM

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I love the theme for this New Year, Roaring into the '20s. It speaks for itself as we began the New Year here on the Lower Mainland, B.C., with our first snowfall. I was impressed by how quickly the city sent snow plows out to clear the streets. I began this year mostly alone, sorting out a lot of those sticky emotions that are just there and get ignored as I go through my day. I realize how comfortable it is just to let the feeling pass, as I get busy doing something or nothing in particular, especially as I age.

But I then I had an epiphany, and realized that aging means that I no longer should be dealing with any emotions of insecurity, regret, disappointment, or guilt; none of those negating feelings were acceptable anymore. I have decades of experience to tap into, and that should be enough to absolve myself of any wrong feelings that I may have learned to hold on to. No matter what occurred in my life, I must stand up and be who I am today. My past taught me to be more than I was back then, and that is who I must be in the world today, the me that survived all of my past.

I recently watched this great show on ageism, Frankie and Grace, starring Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda, and it brought so many issues up in my face. I realized how easy it is to use age as a cop-out for so many things. Aging is not about giving up; it's about standing up. Being blessed with age, and with your full capacities, makes you a blessing to be shared with everyone in your environment. Some of the younger generations may tend to become condescending in their ways of thinking they know more than we do because we are old. Some of us may get pushed aside because we allow the attitude of the young to break us down and put us in our place. Being old does not mean climbing into a box and hiding. Many indigenous cultures honor the Elders blessed with the wisdom that comes with age. They hold a special place in their society, and their knowledge is highly valued.

I am fortunate to be able to volunteer at Kennedy Seniors Recreation Centre in Delta B.C... I have come to realize just how much I appreciate aging as I witness seniors in different stages of aging being out in the community, maintaining their health and lifestyle with such vigor and joy. There is a dinner and dance celebration at least once a month, and the turnout is incredible. I realize that places like this are worth their weight in gold with all the knowledge accumulated here. The elderly may be pushed aside in society, but some of us are uniting to live a better quality of life in this stage of our lives.

Being active as we age allows our minds to stay sharp. Now is not the time to give up on our dreams because we now have the wisdom and patience to move ahead in our lives if we so choose. We will always have a place in society as long as we do not give it up. We are still able to change the world if only with one person at a time. We all have at least one superpower to share, one gold coin that means something special to us and that someone needs us to share. We are valuable with decades of wisdom.

Knowledge is power, and we are powerhouses no matter what anyone else says or thinks of us. If we have made it this far in life, then we are heroes. If we have made it this far and have a legacy of children and grandchildren, then we are superheroes. The world will appreciate us as much as we honor, respect, and enjoy ourselves. I always see myself as a bottle of fine wine, slowly aging in time to become more vibrant and fuller. I am akin to the image of the pregnant Goddess in history, which relates to Womyn in her fullness, filled with knowledge and wisdom: pregnant with life experiences.

Majik - Letting Go of Labels

On numerous occasions, I have had people approach me and ask me to teach them how to do Majik. This appears to be such a simple request but so much is involved in it. I suggest books they can read and sometimes they are satisfied with this but recently someone explained to me that they just wanted to understand Majik and that left me stumped. He said that he was reading books on witchcraft and the basics of doing spells but he needed to understand what Majik is. For me, this was a challenge as I tried to think of someone to pass him on to while my “crew” (spirit guides and helpers) kept pushing on me to deal with it myself so here we are making an attempt to work together to explain. First and foremost I believe that in order to understand Majik you have to first expand your consciousness by letting go of your attachment to this three-dimensional reality.

The most Majikal experience in life is witnessing the first breath of a newborn babe. That first breath is that one second of innocence born into this existence. As we mature and gather knowledge we lose that innocence. Everything we know and believe to be true, we have been taught by our parents, caretakers, and/or mentors in this lifetime. From our very first breath we were labeled, “baby boy or girl” and then we were given our name(s), another label and these are labels that define who we are and what our potential roles will be in life. We came to know that when we were hungry we needed to eat food and all of that we learned from those around us. Everything thing we see, hear or touch we were told by someone else the label that applied to it, I mean everything. Science has its own approach as well as Religion and Metaphysics, but still, these are all based on opinions passed down from generation to generation. Sometimes theories are proven wrong and then we believe in the new story but we still make the choice what we will believe. Unfortunately, some of us tend to hold on tightly to what we believe and try to force our beliefs onto others. Majik is about letting go of what we think we know and learn how to be more intimate with the Universe and its natural laws.

The labels affecting us most are the ones we first acquired which are what sex we are, who we are and where we come from, sexism, racism, classism. When people see me one of the first questions I will be asked is where do I come from? Sometimes I just want to walk away but I can see in their eyes that it has some meaning to them so I engage in that conversation. What I really want to say is that it is not important, that we are all here now and we have made this our home because I am so far removed from where my grandparents originated from and they were torn from their original country because of slavery so this conversation is really mute. But I don’t want to be a drama queen so I engage in the conversation they expect from me but I know one day that well is going to open and someone is going to experience me ranting on about this (but in a gentle way).

That brings up another barrier to Majik; the need to be who and what we are expected to be. We have so conformed to the roles given us and try so hard to live up to them. Some of us are in fear of exploring other areas or speaking our minds about the simplest things in our lives. Religion is one area where people may become stuck and have a great fear of moving away from even though they really don’t approve of the beliefs of the institute that they have been raised to be a part of. This can also apply to relationships and the need to stay in a situation that may be volatile because of what you have chosen to believe. Remember these are always your choice, even though someone else may have impressed these beliefs upon you, you are choosing to hold on to them. Sometimes it’s a fear of moving out of our comfort zone or it may be the child mind that learned too well to believe that certain groups or individuals had the right to force their beliefs upon us. Also, we may believe that it is our responsibility to suffer over the choices we have made. Remember choices give you the opportunity to explore different experiences in life so you can learn. To grow we have to be willing to move on once we have learned our lesson or we may end up on the wrong end of a situation that does not serve us well. When you feel you have sorted yourself out on some level always think of what’s ahead of you of what the next step is because what is behind you was put there to position you to continue to move forward, like the step of a staircase and you have to keep moving upwards. Sometimes it may be just a thought that we have been ignoring but is connected to our deepest desire. Just taking the one step may open the way for more opportunities more aide, to open that door fully. This is when Majik happens when we surrender our fears and take that step.

For me, Majik occurs by letting go, and if you can read the aforementioned and begin to let go of any rigid belief that you are holding on to then you are taking the first step to understanding Majik. This is just the first in a series of articles I will be writing on Majik as I wish to give anyone interested time to process and maybe do the work on taking the first step. If you need help, ask for it, the Universe is there to serve you.

Hold On!: - Life is good

We are all powerful beings although we often do not see or recognize our-self as such.

We all have our strengths, things that we are good at but we also have weaknesses. I believe that we have accomplished something in our lives that we felt we could not achieve. No matter how small it may seem to be right now just for this moment accept it as a success in your life. There has to be a moment in your existence when you told yourself “ Gee I never really thought I could get here, or do this” or some similar response.

Now if only we could hold on to those moments; trap them within our-self and pull them out when we need a good kick n the butt. But who says we can't? Just follow along as I ponder on this based on my own life experiences. Now can you recall the first time ever that you felt depressed? Unhappy? Sad? I bet you that this is an easy place to remember (more than likely easier to feel than your last moment of success) and for many of us familiar. I think depression is a chronic illness that drags sad and unhappy along with it and disappointment, and frustration are close behind. You may have your own personal stragglers that follow along this path also as I do. It is so much easier to move into this mood because sometimes we are so unaware that we go there. Depression is like comfort food, we know it may not be good for us for so many reasons but what the heck, we indulge anyway.

Depression is a state of being that I have great respect for because if you let it grab you by the nose and pull you through you will find yourself swimming in some rather murky, gooey waters. The one good thing about it is that it is one of those things that we choose to attach our-self to, kind of like our other addictions so trust me there is always a choice with any addiction no matter how hard it may seem.. It's funny I see people who say they are depressed and after speaking with them I may find out that they have some type of addiction, let's say alcohol, or marijuana or maybe both which may be either a cause of their state of being or a byproduct. An addict may be in great denial and refer to them self as a social drinker/ smoker and may be eager to point out others that are alcoholics and never seeing there own addictive behaviour. This could be anyone from any walk of life, from a social drop out to anything in between or a hard working person making good money and never really getting anywhere because they have directed their passion to their addiction and that which they have not accomplished in their lives.

Now I am going to run amok and paint a scenario of an addictive personality which many of us have.
So let's say we are dealing with a drinker and a marijuana smoker combo being a person who drinks every day and has to smoke a few joints per day. This could also be someone addicted to emotional drama, material possessions, food, sex, you name your game as you see fit. Now we all have our levels of functioning and we have different lives to live. So this person has a regular routine and functions well within it. Usually, they are in lack emotionally maybe focusing a lot of attention to the past and how hard their life was and maybe trying to reach out for what they think they have missed in their lives. So as they say you get what you put out and struggling becomes the theme of their existence and they attract more of what they are lacking(bringing back visions of my past now). Usually, they find someone or something to blame their neediness on and may convince them self this is a valid reason for being depressed, addicted, unhappy frustrated, etc.

Well yeah, been there done that for some time. Then one day, maybe 3 decades ago I actually heard and got a message from several sources, “don't allow yourself to be depressed for more than that fifteen minutes; after that focus your attention on something else.” I tried it and I had to redirect my attention several times but after awhile I began to forget to be depressed because I was too busy doing something else. Funny how that works! I dare you to try it out and let me know or maybe I am just that weird that it worked for me, Anyway it is a technique that I still use to climb out of the dumps. If you are really struggling, I suggest you get help from some type of professional because honestly, I work every day on my stuff just to stay afloat. I think that as long as I live I will be a participant in this school of life. I have been in the Wellness business for many decades and have a trunk full of gifts that I work with (very compressed one at that) and although I don't preach to everyone but I do enjoy writing my thoughts down and sharing. This is also a great way to move those ever-flowing stream of thoughts, write or preach if you may, just get things moving away from you. Stop holding on to heavy thoughts and ideas, learn to move yourself up and away from them (in your mind's eye literally) rise above them and learn to breathe in deep into your soul. Try walking in nature at least three days a week, find a park or plot of grass, garden or tree to connect with if you have to as nature is truly the Universes healing force. These are things that really work for me the best is walking in a forest for at least an hour. This brings me to a place of peace within that stays with me for days (a few hours in greenery or by water).


I am proud to be a student in the University of Life and I know that every day is a lesson in living. I work towards leaving struggles behind me and making the way for more light and love. I am once again focusing on a drama free life to leave room for more joy and passion. It is a challenge with so much family and friends around but the best things we can do for each is other is to not bite into each other stress and worry. Share good times with each other and respect each other's space. Remember who you are in that place of quiet and hold on to that. Life is good