gifts Archives - Cara Lumen | Sing a Deeper Song

The Aging Process is about Expanding Your Light!!!

Adventures in the Unseen World

On my Shamanic journey, I asked what the purpose of mankind was. I got assorted answers, but this one sentence needed to be explored and embraced: “The aging process is about expanding your light!!!!!!!”

Wow. That is sure not how most people see it. We live our lives, work our jobs and then plan to retire – to what????? Is the reward for a lifetime of work only play? Or is it a time to use our wisdom and curiosity and deeper insights to explore new ways to expand and communicate?

I like that version of aging a lot. How are you doing with your plans for expanding your light?

I must say that being older (87) is one of the richest, most productive times of my life. I don’t have to go to work a job or build a business. I get to study what calls to me, write what I want in order to learn and share with others. And each day is incredibly exciting to me.

I’m not sure I could have said that in my younger years. There were a lot of “have-to’s” in order to survive.

Recognize and honor your own value

We are not taught that being old has value. It used to be that the ancient ones were revered for their wisdom. Now we are just considered out of touch. And, well, we are. Technology is moving very rapidly and it’s tricky to keep up. But everyone has value. We just have to figure out how to shape it and share it.

Find a new form of expression

As a young woman, I was at the beginning of the end of the period in which women stayed home, raised children and kept house. Period. And men were considered the most valued. I got my first job when I was divorced in my 40’s. No one thought that raising four children and managing a big house and serving on several community organizational boards counted for anything. Oh yes, and I was educated – I had gone back in my 40’s to get my Master’s degree.

But none of that counted. I had to start at the bottom. I could type. I was fast because I was a writer. And I was an outstanding organizer. I became an Administrative Assistant.

Your past work life may not be the source of how you are to serve today.

What could you learn now that would expand your life experience today?

I think learning and growing go hand in hand. What would you like to learn to do? You don’t have to be good at it, you just want to explore it. If you happen to do it well, so be it. Perhaps you explore more.

I remember taking an oil painting class and painting a tree that looked like a really bad Gauguin – it was dark and dramatic and odd. But I had painted it. I had taken a blank canvas and created something. I was proud of that painting for a long time. Simply because I had made something out of nothing.

Who would you like to interact with?

I started to write “who would you like to help” but I realized that for me, the people I help the most are those who are walking a similar path and we shed light on each other’s journey.

When you are doing something that fulfills you, your light is brighter and stronger and reaches further afield.

Look at your passion (mine is exploring the Unseen World). Look at how you want to express that passion (mine is through writing). And then figure out how to reach those whose lives you can change as you share your own passion.

Follow your gifts and create an offering you can share

Identify a general group that you want to work with. When I became a Reiki Master Teacher we shared how we would use our work and one person said she was going to teach all the poor people. And that’s when I knew – I was going to help those who were already flying high and reaching far afield and I would help them fly higher and change more lives.

Know who you want to serve.

My current path is to explore the Unseen World, translate what I discover and share it in ways that allow those who are called to read my work to apply the concepts that call to them.

I get to learn and expand and grow and I bring others with me on my journey.

When you are older, you can look back and see how your gifts have been received. You also are free to choose to do what will deepen your own life, expand your current place of service and raise your vibration.

Do that. Create that. Share that.

Remember the internet

I no longer have a car. I have dry macular degeneration and driving is not a safe thing for me to do anymore. But I have the internet!!!!!!!!. I take online classes. I listen to podcasts. I read books on Kindle. I have regular Skype and Zoom calls with a few like-minded friends who are on similar paths. And I happen to share with others on the internet through my posts and newsletters, books and podcasts. I don’t need a car – I can bring the interaction I need to me.

How are you going to expand your light as you age?

The purpose of aging is to expand our light – to raise your vibration and help others raise theirs as they respond to your light. What form will that take for you? What form does it take now?

Don’t kill time. Don’t waste time. Savor time. Embrace time and let it take you on powerful new adventures.

The big turn around

Understanding that my job as I age is to raise my own light created a major new awareness in me and a strong sense of purpose.

I am in a senior center where mostly what people do is sit around and wait to die. They may have pot lucks and play bingo, but there is no sense of fulfilling a larger purpose.

I don’t know where you are in your life but I have some work to do to turn around some of my ideas about the process and purpose of aging. I’m working steadily and successfully on the “raising my light” part. My posts and podcasts are all about raising your vibration, expanding your light, deepening your place of service. They are my lessons I teach myself and pass on to you.

But I allowed my body suit to buy into the aging expectation of lessening in strength and power and now I have to actively turn that around.

It’s all doable – but we do have to “do.” Understanding that my job at this point in my life is to raise my light is a major turning point for me.

What do you want your life to look like in ten years? In twenty years? In thirty years?

I’ve done a bit of shamanic journeying to my future self – in ten years. She is doing jumping jacks and yoga. I have to make some major changes in the here and now to make that possible.

What do you want to be doing in ten years or twenty years or whenever your “retirement” period is. It’s not about retiring, it’s about reinventing yourself, repurposing yourself. What do you want to create? How will you begin now to do that?

What does raising your light mean to you?

I would really be stuck if it were not for the internet. I take classes in helloing techniques and shamanism and drumming and bring those ideas into my life as part of my active spiritual practice.

But then I’m an explorer.

I have no close friends in my physical plane environment, my interests are too specialized. But I do have five internet friends and we speak on the internet regularly. So don’t sit in your home and feel you are alone – go participate in activities that are aligned with your gifts and goals. And do make use of the vast and enriching world of learning and interaction that is available on the internet.

Keep learning

Remember when you had to take particular core courses in order to graduate or learn a specific skill? That’s not the case when you are older. You can learn whatever you choose to learn. In the past couple of years, I have begun to play an Indian flute, I have eight drums I vigorously play, and I’m learning to work with tuning forks for vibrational healing. I also learned Shamanism in the past five years. And all my life I have written. I write to figure things out. I write in my excitement to share what I find. My current expression is in posts and newsletters and books and podcasts for the Deeper Song Community. I keep working on raising and sharing my light.

That’s while I’m in my 80’s. Who knows what I will think up to do in my 90’s!

Know what is calling to you

You may have to go back to your early years to find the gift or passion that you may have put by the wayside in order to develop a career and raise a family. But do look. I was an editor of my High School paper. I was Managing Editor which spoke to my leadership and organizational skills, not Literary Editor, but I was also a writer on the paper so I was beginning to explore those major gifts already in my teens.

What have you even forgotten that you love to do? Look back at your early life and see what gifts you put aside. Is it time to revive it?

Throughout my life I have been called to write, to organize and to teach. Look for the pattern in your life. There is one. Either you were asked to do certain things because others saw your gift, or you were drawn to doing something even as a hobby or by taking some classes.

What form do you want your gift to take at this point in time? For the moment don’t look to see if it is a form of income, look to see if it is your passion….

Cultivate your passion

I was always drawn to write newsletters for every organization I joined. I still am drawn to write and share what I discover. Sure, I studied how to write a good article I have a web site. I have podcasts and blog posts and books. All were created one step at a time as I followed my passion to explore what called to me and to communicate what I learned.

What kind of learning-sharing pattern has been drawing you?

How can you use that today to raise your own light and bring it to others?

Define your place of service

You may have a specific group you want to work with – environmental, children, wildlife, or a specific topic you want to investigate. Identify that focus and prepare to go exploring. Find how you can become involved and then find ways to turn and share your passion.

What do you want to learn?

I am constantly driven by a need to learn – all sorts of things- whatever calls to me. There is a learning pattern in my life that involves energy healing. It includes Metaphysics, Reiki, New Thought, Taoism, Shamanism and Vibrational Healing. It is simply a journey I am taking and I follow my inner voice and allow it to lead me where I am to go next.

Listen to the inner nudges. Respond to the outer openings.

Remember your job as you age is to raise our light!!!!!

How do you choose to do that?

Deeper Song Affirmation

I continue to expand my light as I age!

A Deeper Song Process

Look closely at how you view our life and its purpose at this time. Do you see yourself as proactive, sharing your gifts with the world? Do you see yourself as a necessary and vital participant on the planet? Or do you see yourself sitting around waiting to die? There is a huge gap there. Perhaps you’d like to select a different viewpoint.
How are you expanding your light?
How are you sharing your light?
Do more of that.