Masks and Transformation

Life is change.  Growth is optional.  Choose wisely.

-Karen Kaiser Clark

This has been a very busy and stressful week for me.  Last night really tipped the scale when I was met face-to-face with a very substantial raccoon letting himself into my house through the very small cat door.  To say the very least, it was a shocking experience to have him make eye contact with me as if asking me why I was screaming, jumping up and down, and clapping my hands at him.  You would have thought I was the intruder!

After calling to warn my neighbors about our local Houdini, calming my cats down, moving the litter box indoors, and making sure the sliding covers were locked in place over the double cat doors, I was able to calm down and feel secure going to bed.  But, remembering the raccoon’s knowing eyes as he looked at me through his mask got me thinking about the masks I’ve used to help me through different phases and situations in my life.   Masks can be tools for transformation.  A calm and confident mask helps me to keep moving through stressful or fearful situations.  Using a mask of strength has helped me through situations where I felt weak and unqualified for the task at hand.  I think we all use different masks to present a different face to the world so that we can achieve success.  They are a source of protection.

During the past couple of years I’ve made some dramatic changes to the balance of my work and personal life and it’s required me to don some new masks to help me redefine myself and my new purpose.  I semi-retired from the corporate world and set my professional-career-woman mask aside to discover what I could do with my creative aspirations, something I’ve never taken time to develop.  

It’s a challenging transformation to remake a life.  To help with the process I decided to use some new masks.  There’s the mask of creative confidence I use to write and put my “stuff” out into cyber-space, and the mask of social confidence that encourages me to spend more time connecting with my neighbors and using skills I developed in the business world to help my community.

This new phase of life requires being curious in ways that I’ve never been open to before.  The confidence and willingness to explore new and unknown territory shown to me by my furry, masked visitor was an inspiration to me.  I’m going to borrow his mask of fearlessness for a while to see how it helps me grow. 

Susan 

SUSAN:    It’s been a very busy fall for everyone I know.   I’m grateful for the beautiful leaves and sunshine, but also looking forward to the family holiday parties and get togethers with friends and neighbors; and a little time for hibernation, too.  

DOROTHY:  As Susan points out…the critters are moving!  This week we had a family of moose walking down Main Street in town. Last week the geese bid us farewell and turned south.  The birds and squirrels are eating like lions and even the bees, though clearly slowed by the chilled air, seem aBUZZ (oh, so bad!!!) with the change in the air! Fall beckons me to slow down, to draw inward, to tuck in loose ends, to pour a cup of tea and take stock of what I’ve “laid-in” over the past months. My heart and soul are so full of wonderful travel memories, exciting new experiences, and loving gestures by family and friends. I am sated. LET IT SNOW!