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Being a man of plus sixty-five years, I have been stepping into my positioning as a male elder. This is my birthday month and I am closer to seventy than I am sixty-five. When I look back, there so much I have experienced and learned. It has taken me these many years to find my real and true voice as a human being and a modern man. I have walked the journey from boy child to an elder and I have a fruitful story to tell.
Being raised with the prominence of an elderly man, my grandfather, in the early years of my life, causes me to respect my elders and their wisdom. As I started becoming an elderly man myself, I have learned a deeper meaning of having the balance of love, family, and purpose. I have learned to be a living portal of awareness and mindful rituals of living. I have embraced my gathered wisdom and embraced my value to my community. I have embraced the journey of my calling, my purpose to myself and my community. I feel my daily task is to be focused and to be in alignment with my body, mind and spirit. I learned to live a mindful life and a life of compassion.
For too long being loving, as a way of life, has been thought of as being more of a weakness while pounding out the wreckage of war was thought of as gaining the brass ring of the divine masculine.
We men of this society, we must get a grip on feeling and using our emotions. For instance, shedding tears is a releasing of our acknowledgment of the compassion that lives within all of us. It takes courage to release your sorrows and fears. Bottled up tears turn into a rage that creates havoc that ends up injuring the society instead of enhancing it. The story of a “real” man does not cry is an incorrect assessment of managing our human emotions. We, as human beings, were given emotions as working indicators of the body and spirit to know and identify happiness, sadness or fear. The emotions were not meant to evolve into a lifestyle but were meant to be used as a tool of operations.
The man who denies his emotions denies the society the act of receiving love. It is like isolating the thumb from the hand. The rhythm or the energy of being present for others becomes scrambled and begins to misfire. It is like forgetting to water the lawn, doing it only once a month, and then wondering why the grass is beginning to brown.
The act of loving requires a check-in time, not like a job, but it is in a sense, a labor of love. You receive personal fulfillment by check in daily to give and receive love. It is like working a garden, when the garden is at full bloom, rich and green, you can then see the fruits of your labor. It is then you see the method to the madness, the reason for check-in, becomes an added plus. It becomes the gift that keeps giving. It is the art of nurturing, in an art of living love in action.
I have learned, as a brother, a father and a facilitator of healing and change, you have to learn to listen with open ears and compassion. You must learn to willing to hear the language of love with an open heart.
As an elder, I have found that my greatest gift is to show up as a willing man to be the supportive human being who wants to create a balanced and aligned society. I will use my wisdom gain from my life’s experience and living life on life’s terms. I will honor my human story and the larger universal human story by being a committed man of support for my world around me.
I will maintain personal balance by supporting the divine masculine, as well as the divine feminine within me. I will honor my whole self and be a living example of an evolved man. I attempt to honor other men in our society. I attempt to show them the pathway to honor life. I have found the pathway that allows me to be present for the gifting of life. I will pass on which what has been given to me, in turn, I am completing the circle of loving.
I am speaking to my calling as a male elder in a modern society.
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Photo by Trevor Cole on Unsplash