Showing posts with label Hero's Journey. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hero's Journey. Show all posts

Monday, August 15, 2011

The Call

The Call – you feel that your current life is not enough. You feel restless, dissatisfied. A crisis or series of crises may crop up, forcing you to reexamine your priorities and life path.

~ from "The Hero's Journey



The call came when I was in my late thirties. I was a stay-at-home mom for a number of years following a ten year career as a teacher. I had loved my job-both the students and the teachers. The plan was to take one year off to stay home with my new baby and four year old. One year stretched into six as my then husband was transferred to a new location every two years.

I loved raising my children, and my days were full. I had cleaned and painted every room, created a scrapbook for each child. My linen closet was color coded, and the garden flourished.

But it wasn't enough. My brain spun around in circles. I had so much mental energy that needed an outlet. I was lonely in each new city. My husband was married to his work, and my best friends were the cashiers and bag boys at the local supermarket.

So I began to write. Writing was a way to record the soul scream that welled up within me. I bought a journal and poured out all of the feelings and musings; the frustrations and loneliness.

For the next few years my journals were my only refuge from the pain of loneliness and isolation I had begun to feel within in marriage. That soul scream grew louder until it leapt off the page and forced me to act.


Sunday, August 14, 2011

A Heroes Journey

We go through many, many adolescences in our lives. But if you continue to mature as you age, you will go through minor “adolescences of the spirit” at least every decade. ~Laurie Halse Anderson

No truer words have been written. I've survived two adolescent phases since my teens and I'm in the throes of another.

Author Laurie Anderson inspires the participants in her write everyday challenge to look at Joseph Campbell's "Monomyth," or as she calls it, "The Hero's Journey."

Using it's framework as a reference, the writing prompt asks us to write our own Hero's Journey.

The great 5-0 looms less than six months away, and I have been working through another adolescent phase. This one is not a big, or as painful as the one I suffered through ten years ago. My late thirties was a time of reckoning, and major changes came as a result of that period. I made the decision to change jobs, get a divorce, and fall in love with someone new.

Now, I am facing a similar call that my life is not enough. I've got that restless feeling again. This time it has more to do with finding my passion, nurturing my creativity and finding new ways to better nourish my spirit.

So I'm going to take this challenge and follow the exercise. I'm going to write my own "Hero's Journey." Stay tuned!

If you are interested in the WFMAD link: Mad Woman in the Forest |Laurie Halse Anderson