Welcome to The Liz Path!
My original plan was that my blog name would have the word "transition" in it, but the one I wanted was taken. So this blog is now called The Liz Path. Today's entry will be about transition, because it sometimes feels like I have been in transition my entire adult life!
That wasn't how it was supposed to be. When I graduated from college in 1977, my 1950's-60's upbringing was still very much in place. I assumed I would work (perhaps teaching at a private school) for a few years, then marry a guy who would be the primary breadwinner. Better still, he would be English, and we would have children, I would work only part-time, and it would be a fairly traditional, quiet existence that was family oriented.
But even then, I was forgetting an earlier imprint on my life. Back when I was six, having been exposed to the Episcopal Church's men and boys' choir tradition and a family story book (published in England) about the saints, I envisioned being a nun, mystic, scholar or saint, consecrating myself to God and church music.
In most respects, I have ended up living my earliest self. I never married. I've both pursued and (for long stretches) run away from the English cathedral choral tradition which was until recently closed to girls and women. My concept of God has evolved and evolved over time, but at just about every step, my focus has been the spiritual search. And after a rather stable stretch from my mid-twenties to mid-thirties, when I worked in the corporate world and lived in the same apartment, I have since been in almost constant transition. Have I been looking for the divine? Myself? A home? All of the above? Probably all of the above.
And as my journey has spiraled, I suppose you might say, "up and up," it has clearly been more spiritually sound than materially! I have lost and gained possessions over the years, mostly owning very little, and living on little. Many of my friends are just now heading into a period of downsizing -- my challenge now is to try to move in the other direction. How do you "transition" from nonstop transition to stability? How do you create a stable home base for your later years, from next to nothing? Can I be both spiritual and more solidly on this planet, successfully? I hope so. I am ready! I hope to start to figure this all out in the coming months, and it will be a real pleasure to have you along with me!
