Where Are You Left In A Changing World?

Posted on April 23rd, 2008 by Ruben

What Is Your Role In A Changing World?

This is the second part of a series of articles about my perception and experience of witnessing the cycle of life and dealing with the changes of life around me. My first article that focuses on the cycle of life and witnessing the loss of some of my closest relatives… is here

Where I grew up was slowly being erased as new buildings were put up and the people were being changed for new people.

As life continues, children grow up, new people move into the area and with it, the culture was changing. Every face to me was a stranger.

I wondered where the people who I once knew were now. My parents told me of a few that stilled lived around the area, and I could make contact with some via Internet sites such as FriendsReunited .

"All that I knew was slowly being erased from existence and turned into a memory."

I felt in a muddle about my feelings. I was feeling the effects of change from a number of sources and it took me until I returned home to work it out. It was as if my own life was being erased.

All that I knew was slowly being erased from existence and turned into a memory.

My Aunt was gone, my Uncle was now in a home and perhaps soon to follow. My father had gone through a lot of surgery and I wondered what was next for him. They had watched their friends start to die too.

I wondered if when I finally died, would anyone notice in this busy suburb of a city?

Therein lies my life. A speck in the time of great change. Have I accomplished nothing that would make a difference to anyone, except perhaps raising my children to be successful.

That’s what I had for my forty plus years on this planet. I had left London and moved to the countryside. After thirteen years there I had moved on again with no impact on my surrounding society.

Now, living by the sea I wondered what was next, what could I do to make a difference and make my life have some reason, some benefit for my world.

These are the feelings of a person in midlife crisis. Someone who is feeling the need to create self actualization for themselves.

The level of crisis element to this situation depends on how stable your foundations are as a person. How much trauma and suffering did you experience when you were a child? How did your parents treat you? Were they abusive, violent? Narcissistic?

These conditions, common across the globe make a considerable difference to the stability of a person when they develop into an adult.

After many years of adjusting to cope with the effects of a hard upbringing that structure you have built up that you now sit on top ofnow can look very shaky once someone removes some pieces from underneath you.

"I have a vision that keeps me going.."

So, with my aunt, lost, my uncle loosing grip, my roots disappearing I have some of my structure being removed from me. What does that leave me with?

How will I cope with these things now removed? For me I am willing to set out to look at life with optimism and as an opportunity to build myself into the person I want to be.

I have a vision that keeps me going whilst I cannot fully achieve the person who travels and explores the world as I nurture my children to an age of independence.

Having said this I am interested in the opportunity to involve my children in an exiting life of adventure that inspires them and opens their eyes to the wonders the world has outside the cosy office career that will be the destiny of many an average person in the western world of the future.

How do you deal with the cycle of life ?

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The third and final part of this series on the cycle of life and dealing with mortality is here