“Don’t worry about blooming late or early, just bloom. There were things you could not do before now, so it’s the perfect time.” – a wise friend

Okay so yes, the “wise friend” is me.  But, so is the one she was comforting, encouraging to take heart.

I’ve been out of step with the illusive ‘perfect time’ my whole life.  I’m sure that I didn’t even arrive in the world when I should have.  I then missed the perfect time to finish school (I finished high school later than my friends, after fits and starts), got married and had children out of step (this time ahead of the game), then began my full career, writing-based no less, which is hard enough even when you follow all the correct formulas.

Along the way I’ve filled in a few of the educational gaps, but mostly I’ve moved opening to opening, miracle to miracle, now arriving again at some start.  No, make that arriving at a few starts, since hey guys I’m single. ; )

Occasionally, I’ll wake with a sense that rather than another beginning, I’ve actually reached an end, that I am out of time for reinvention.  What I know however, is that the displacement I feel in those moments, the grasping to locate my place and measure out my way, is not just personal.  There is my personal situation, but there is also my times in a wider societal sense.

Surveying the vast and quickly changing landscape, reinvention no longer falls on just the unfortunate whose jobs may be phased out, or those unhappy with their lifestyles.  Reinvention IS the new way of life and work in our time.  Which makes our individual paths extraordinary, unique, and calls for us to articulate them well.

We all have to become our own image consultants and marketers, spokespeople and salespersons.  We have to toss away the mindsets we knew before, that allowed for introverts to behave like introverts, for instance, or leadership skills to be formulaic.

And interestingly, we have to blend all the aspects of our lives, and all our selves and roles together, all the time.  This feels at first like a terrible burden, because most of us have accepted that the more natural way to be is to turn off at times, and on at times, to have rest and recreation apart from productivity.

Maybe this paradigm isn’t entirely untrue yet, but it is untrue for many, and instead of trying to manage a feeling of time slipping away, the question may also be the answer.  Better integrated and more finely blended time may be the, or one, new foundation.  Awareness may be the key.

More to come, in time.