Where are our Elders?

There has been a lot of talk around me this week about leading. People wanting to lead something. To step into their Power. To share their Power. To own it. As we step into what people are terming the New, there feels an increased desire to educate, to gather momentum and show others a way.

This is exciting. People want to share. And why learn if not to share and empower others. I wonder about the desire to accept a way not thought of before. That as we step into a Heart Centred Truth- we shall need to shed the longings of the Ego- which tells us our way is the only way. To know that there is a Common Way, a combined way, that shall resonate with us at a very deep level. This needs guidance and patience to come together. There has been a long time of separated ways of doing, creating and now it is about a unity of learnings.

And then I asked: where are our Elders? I remember feeling the most content, the most safe and learning the most about life and myself when with my Gran. She had lived through a War, The Partition, come to this country alone with 2 small children and built a business, bought a home, learnt a new language, set them up in their lives. She had incredible stories and life experience. So if she had something to share with me, a way of doing something chances are it came from decades of experience, of trying and falling down and success and failure, of joy and heartache. I want to sit with the Elders of our Age and learn. To sit in circle with those who have lived through World Wars, Occupation, Government Changes, Society Changes, who have seen the Planet shift for decades. I want to know what they think about 2012. I want them to lead me in ceremonies that  have been passed down through the generations to them, that have empowered and healed. And how do we know this. We know because they lived these rituals, these ideas and are the long standing proof that it works! For a lifetime.

I am still touched by the elder Chinese woman who came to the second circle at The Bank. She sat with us and even as an Elder, did not try to lead any of us. She held that space by her very life experience. I felt that as soon as she walked in the room. She sat with us youngsters- for we were- and took part in everything with humour and an open heart- and with the honesty to say what she struggled with. Relaxing she said. And at the end, when she hugged me and held me, her words of advice still stay with me. They stayed with me because they came from a lifetime's of experiences and I instantly felt safe and held. Like I wanted to learn. Did she have all the answers? Of course not. None of us do. We are human beings. But she had more life experience than me or the others there. Just by being around longer.

There is something to be said for the fact that in many societies it is the Elders who take care of the raising of the Young. The acorns tended to by the wide branches of the wise Oak. What would happen to Movements like Occupy if there was a Circle of Elders? I am asking in all honesty. What would happen? Youth says we need to do this now, we need to heal now, we need to change now, time is running out. Age says, all that is worth seeding, takes nurturing, patience and Love. Provides the shade under which that fire can rest.

This week's feeling for me is simple. I want to learn at the side of the Elders of this Age. From all communities, from all societies, from all cultures and faiths. For I know, they can teach me so much more than any book, or self learning can. And in a way that wont feel like being taught, being led. In a way that will feel like a natural state of things.....passing on the Wisdom of the Ages. We all have our roles in our ages, from the passion and energy of youth, to the discernment and learning of middle age to the weight and wealth of old age.

From tiny acorns grow great trees.Seeds need nurturing, time to grow, love, feeding, singing to and watching over. The desire to plant, then force growth can sometimes be tempered by those who have planted many seeds in their lifetime, who have watched many such seeds grow. There is a time for Movement a time for Stillness a time for Watching and a time for Growth. All have their place, all have their beauty and all are part of any cycle of change.

Till the Next Time