Mid-Life Formation

Letter-15

 

Dear Friends, 

Greetings. 

Another week is behind us. Each of us has many memories of the experiences of the last week.

Let me share with you an experience of the last week. I watched the first blossom last week in the Barberton Daisy in our courtyard garden. 

By the time I noticed the bud, the petals were already partly visible beyond the calyces. I felt sorry to have missed the bud in its earliest stage. I kept watching the bud in the morning and evening every day from last Monday. Today the flower is in full bloom. I share some photographs of the different stages of the flower blooming.

Between the first and second photos, there was a gap of just one day. Between the second and third photos there was a gap of two days.  The next stage took almost five days, which was when the flower was partly open (4^thphotograph). Subsequently in one day it was almost in full bloom. It might open even more and would stay for about three to four days before it droops and sheds its petals.  

The longest time it took for one stage was five days, when it moved from being a globe of petals to the partially open flower stage (photos three and four). This is the longest season in the total life span between the bud stage and the full bloom of the flower. 

The four days were a season of formation from a cluster of petals to an integrated arrangement to form a flower, with its colour, aroma and nectar.  

This sight did engage my thoughts to explore if it is a metaphor of some significance!

 

 

 

  

We humans too have different stages in our lives. The seasons of infancy, toddler, early childhood, mid child childhood, late childhood, preadolescent years, adolescent years, youth and adulthood are successive seasons in our lives. From being an adult, we enter into mid-life in our lives, which falls between 45 and 55 years. Some anthropologists extend this to 60 years, as life span has extended to at least 80 years in many countries.

The ten to fifteen years, which we refer to as mid-life is often a defining season in the lives of all of us. The five critical ingredients of mid-life formations are, Awareness of our self, Belief practices, Calling in life, Development of integrative living and Enlargement of consciousness. This ABCDE of mid-life formation is spread over ten to fifteen years, which then would lead us, according to the stages of psychosocial development theory of Ericsson, to a level of identity, intimacy and generativity, by the time we cross the sixth decade of life. I wish mid-life formation would receive greater attention to protect us from the mid-life crisis! 

It is the assembly of the flower petals in an orderly fashion and design which creates a flower. Each petal opens up and embraces each adjoining petal to become confluent so as to be a Flower. Together they give colour and aroma to a flower. 

It is when humans live in such a relationship of nearness, self-giving, trustful mutuality and interdependence, we become a community of people known for our virtues, values and altruism.

This season of stress on account of COVID 19, economic recession, polarised positions of nations, bargaining for power, trade war, etc. have fragmented the humanity! We are now less than humane and neighbour friendly! 

Most of you who receive this letter are in your mid-life. Although you might be caught in the travails of life and hospital work, take time to pay attention to your mid-life formation, which alone would make it possible for you to celebrate the joys of life in the latter years!

Let me present below the metaphor of two Daisy flowers sharing the space of one earthen pot, its nutrients, shelter while springing from the same plant. 

 

This metaphor suggests to me that all mission hospitals have a common origin, common journey and common destiny. We might be different from each other externally and existentially! But all the hospitals are the expressions of the healing ministry of Jesus of Nazareth!

Together we coalesce to be a witness unto Him, ‘who will draw all people to Himself’ !

With warm regards from Anna and myself.  

 

M.C.Mathew, 26.7.2020