Cambio # 15 ABRAZANDO ANCIANOS, ABUELAS y ABUELOS /Change #15 EMBRACING ELDERS, GRANDMOTHERS & GRANDFATHERS
English version at the endTexto de Pam England
publicado originalmente en : http://birthpeeps.blogspot.com/2010/12/change-15-embracing-elders-grandmothers.html
Traducido por Dulce Lopez
publicado originalmente en : http://birthpeeps.blogspot.com/2010/12/change-15-embracing-elders-grandmothers.html
Traducido por Dulce Lopez
Buenos Días
En el cambio # 14, hemos considerado la importancia y la ausencia de rituales y ceremonias para conmemorar los inicios de los profesionales del nacimiento y los padres. Lo que nos lleva a la siguiente cambio: evocar a nuestros adultos mayores, "Abuelas" y "abuelos" para hacer lo que sólo ellos que pueden hacer: instruir pacientemente a través de la narración de historias míticas y culturales y así preservar la profunda esencia de los rituales que guían a los jóvenes a través de los umbrales que podrían dudar en cruzar por su cuenta.
Bill Plotkin es uno de los grandes visionarios y autores de nuestro tiempo, y es fundador del Instituto Animus Valley. Plotkin pasó al menos tres décadas desarrollando su modelo de ocho etapas del alma humana. En su libro, la "Naturaleza y el Alma Humana", hace referencia al "proceso indígena mediante el cual el niño humano se transforma en el alma inciada de un adulto."
En las culturas donde se valora la sabiduría de los ancianos, se les da el tiempo y la paciencia, para iniciar a la juventud, hay un puente por el cual los jóvenes pueden cruzar hasta la edad adulta. No cualquier persona mayor puede construir ese puente, señala Michael Meade, mitólogo narrador, y autor de un libro nuevo, "Sino y Destino". Meade hace una distinción descarada y divertida entre los ancianos y "personas mayores." Él dice que la mayoría de la gente envejece y se convierten en "personas mayores." Todos lo hacen sin mayor esfuerzo. Pero sólo pocos llegan a ser Ancianos.
Entonces, ¿qué pasa con una cultura (de nacimiento) con tan pocos ancianos? Sólo observa a tu alrededor! Se convierte en una cultura pobladas por los adultos que están atrapados en la eterna víctima, en la rebeldía, o en la princesa adolescente, seguida de los caprichos egocéntricos, o en busca de seguridad, en la edad de riesgo, o evitando la muerte, deprimidos, y adormecidos (ya sea naturalmente o por la medicación ). Una cultura sin ancianos se convierte en una cultura de la adolescencia eterna, porque cuando llega el momento de "salir de casa" y dejar la identidad de los adolescentes, no hay ancianos o rituales de aceptación/desafío de la muerte para que el niño-adolescente a "muera" y "renazca" como un adulto.
"Cada paso de abandono se convierte en un paso de llegada", señala Plotkin, "A medida que te separas de tu antigua identidad centrada en la sociedad, exiges más de tu identidad centrada en la naturaleza y el alma."
¿Cómo luce un anciano? Plotkin captura la esencia de La "abuela" y "El abuelo":
"Un verdadero anciano posee una buena dosis de locura, quizás más que cualquier adulto, adolescente o niño. Nuestro "humano salvaje es nuestra espontaneidad, nuestra vivacidad salvaje, nuestra presencia inocente, nuestra resistencia a la opresión, nuestra regla que trasciende la vivacidad y la autosuficiencia que la convención social no puede contener. Estamos diseñados para desarrollar más profundamente este estado salvaje a medida que maduramos, y hacemos lo contrario, nos vamos alejando de ese estado. Cuando vivimos centrados en el alma, inmersos en la danza de la vida con los misterios de la naturaleza y la mente, nuestro estado salvaje florece."
Si eres joven o no anciano aún, haz un compromiso contigo a conocerte a ti mismo, para completar las tareas de cada etapa de la vida. Prepárate para ser un anciano, no sólo mayores de edad. Ellos te están esperando!
Si usted conoce a un auténtico anciano-mentor, que esté dispuesto, por favor, comparte su experiencia aquí. Es útil para nosotros apreciar y recordar cómo los ancianos nos puede tocar y marcarnos para toda la vida.
En el amor,
Pam
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Change #15 EMBRACING ELDERS, GRANDMOTHERS & GRANDFATHERS
Good Monday Morning Birth Peeps,
In Change #14, we considered the importance of, and the absence of, rituals and ceremonies to mark thresholds for birth peeps and parents. Which brings us to the next logical call for Change: to call forth our elders, "Grandmothers" and "Grandfathers" to do what only they can do: patiently instruct through the telling of cultural and mythical stories, and to preserve and perform the deep essence of rituals that guide the youth across thresholds they might hesitate to cross on their own.
Bill Plotkin is one of the great visionaries and authors of our time, and founder of the Animus Valley Institute. Plotkin spent at least three decades developing his eight-stage soulcentric model of being human. In his book, Nature and the Human Soul, he addresses the “indigenous process by which a human child grows into soul-initiated adult.”
In cultures that utilize the wisdom, extra time, and patience, of its older members to initiate its youth, there is a Bridge by which youth can cross over into adulthood. Not just any older person can build that bridge, as Michael Meade, storyteller, mythologist, and author of a new book, Fate and Destiny, points out. Meade makes a blatant and humorous distinction between elders and “olders.” He says most people just get old and become “olders.” All of us become older without effort. Few become elders.
So what happens to a culture—a birth culture—with few elders? Just look! It becomes a culture populated by adults who are trapped in eternal victim, rebel, or princess-adolescence, following ego-centric whims, security-seeking, risk-age- and death-avoiding, depressed, and numb (either naturally or by medication). A culture without elders becomes a culture of eternal adolescence because when it was time to “leave home” and to leave adolescent identity, there was no elder or death-embracing/death-defying tasks or ritual to allow the child-adolescent to “die” --and to be “born” as an adult.
“Every step of leaving becomes a step of arriving,” Plotkin observes, “As you separate from your former society-centered identity, you claim more of your nature-and-soul-centered identity.”
What does an elder look like? Plotkin captures the essence of the elder, the “Grandmother”/”Grandfather”:
If you are young or not yet an elder, commit yourself to knowing thyself, to completing the tasks of each stage of life. Prepare yourself to become an elder, not just older. They are waiting for you!
If you know an authentic elder-mentor, and you are willing, please share your experience here. It is helpful for us to cherish and to remember how elders can touch us and make a life-long impression.
In Love,
Pam
In Change #14, we considered the importance of, and the absence of, rituals and ceremonies to mark thresholds for birth peeps and parents. Which brings us to the next logical call for Change: to call forth our elders, "Grandmothers" and "Grandfathers" to do what only they can do: patiently instruct through the telling of cultural and mythical stories, and to preserve and perform the deep essence of rituals that guide the youth across thresholds they might hesitate to cross on their own.
Bill Plotkin is one of the great visionaries and authors of our time, and founder of the Animus Valley Institute. Plotkin spent at least three decades developing his eight-stage soulcentric model of being human. In his book, Nature and the Human Soul, he addresses the “indigenous process by which a human child grows into soul-initiated adult.”
In cultures that utilize the wisdom, extra time, and patience, of its older members to initiate its youth, there is a Bridge by which youth can cross over into adulthood. Not just any older person can build that bridge, as Michael Meade, storyteller, mythologist, and author of a new book, Fate and Destiny, points out. Meade makes a blatant and humorous distinction between elders and “olders.” He says most people just get old and become “olders.” All of us become older without effort. Few become elders.
So what happens to a culture—a birth culture—with few elders? Just look! It becomes a culture populated by adults who are trapped in eternal victim, rebel, or princess-adolescence, following ego-centric whims, security-seeking, risk-age- and death-avoiding, depressed, and numb (either naturally or by medication). A culture without elders becomes a culture of eternal adolescence because when it was time to “leave home” and to leave adolescent identity, there was no elder or death-embracing/death-defying tasks or ritual to allow the child-adolescent to “die” --and to be “born” as an adult.
“Every step of leaving becomes a step of arriving,” Plotkin observes, “As you separate from your former society-centered identity, you claim more of your nature-and-soul-centered identity.”
What does an elder look like? Plotkin captures the essence of the elder, the “Grandmother”/”Grandfather”:
“A genuine elder possesses a good deal of wildness, perhaps more than any adult, adolescent or child. Our human wildness is our spontaneity, our untamed vivacity, our innocent presence, our resistance to oppression, our rule-transcending vivacity and self-reliance that societal convention can never contain. We are designed to grow deeper into that wildness as we mature, not to recede from it. When we live soul-centrically, immersed in a lifelong dance with the mysteries of nature and psyche, our wildness flourishes.”
If you are young or not yet an elder, commit yourself to knowing thyself, to completing the tasks of each stage of life. Prepare yourself to become an elder, not just older. They are waiting for you!
If you know an authentic elder-mentor, and you are willing, please share your experience here. It is helpful for us to cherish and to remember how elders can touch us and make a life-long impression.
In Love,
Pam
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