When she looks in the mirror, the image that gazes back at her is one of a 57-year-old woman with short cropped salt and pepper (sometimes colored purple with a vegan dye) hair. Her green eyes have taken in both the magnificent and mundane, shadow and light. The lines around them have been worn into her smooth skin from laughter and tears. Her smile is radiant, especially when beholding the face of a loved one. She has weathered loss and death and her own series of life challenging illnesses. Partners have danced into her arms and some have stepped away. She has celebrated their presence in her life and grieved the leave-taking at times. She has been cracked open by life and has the invisible heart-scars to show for it. All of this has served to have her peel off the layers to reveal the real.
Having been widowed at 40 with an 11-year-old son to raise as a single parent, she learned to take on multiple roles. Primary among them was solo breadwinner who needed to support both of them. She learned to operate from a stereotypically masculine perspective; being proactive and taking on challenges. She came to understand that no one else was going to do for her what she could do herself. She honed her action muscles and took on the world.
One aspect of this seasoned being that has yet to be fully welcomed is the feminine. She has always found it challenging to allow a man to take care of her, as her perception of femininity was sometimes equated with weakness. She has had difficulty trusting that a man is strong enough to hold her in her vulnerability. Can she allow for the desire to be nurtured as she has nurtured others? Is she willing to surrender so that he can step up? She has no need to be carried forever, nor does she want him to lead all of the time in the dance that they will do together. The woman harbors passion that has gone unexpressed out of doubt that it won’t be embraced by another. First, she needs to accept that it is what fuels her creativity and that it is nothing to fear. A man certain of his Divine Masculine essence will not, she reasons, feel intimidated by her Divine Feminine essence. Confusion reigns as she has sought to identify just what it is that would allow the maiden-mother-crone triumvirate of the Goddess to emerge through her and dance out into the world.
The feminine isn’t expressed solely in appearance; with lace and frills, low cut décolletage or swaying hips covered in skin tight skirt. It is an energy she exudes that is irresistible. Nurturingly warm and scorchingly hot. Wisdom and wonder. An ability and willingness to dive deeply into the heart of the matter. An idea as yet to be born. Pure potential. A balance of naughty and nice. Humanly Divine and Divinely Human. Lush and luscious.
She is all of these elements and others as yet to be discovered. She knows that she is willing to uncover them. Her life as she desires for it to be, depends on it.
Edie Weinstein is a colorfully creative journalist, interviewer, dynamic transformational speaker, licensed social worker, interfaith minister, radio host-It’s All About Relationships (www.vividlife.me) and the author of The Bliss Mistress Guide To Transforming The Ordinary Into The Extraordinary and co-author of the bestselling Embraced By The Divine: The Emerging Woman’s Gateway To Passion, Power and Purpose. She considers herself an opti-mystic who sees the world through the eyes of possibility.
