Turning 33

Turning 33 and shedding skin, peeling back the layers to reveal new creation, illuminating my path before me. Turning 33 and the Catholic lessons inside me cannot help but recognize this age as the same as Christ upon his crucifixion, where his skin was shed to his base humanity: his blood, his sweat, his pain and thirst. Turning 33 with Christ as my Buddhist metaphor, my temple stands nearly complete after 2 years of physical determination and I have returned to daily meditation, reaching beyond my base humanity to harmonize with an invisible frequency that I can sense all around me, but cannot yet touch. Turning 33 I have probed the ritual of honoring sacrifice, have felt the whisper of a soul departing a body under my fingers in the evening mists that came to claim our roosters, respecting death as universal. Turning 33 and embracing my imagination, my creations as artistic, as necessary expressions of my love for life. Turning 33 humbled by my body’s limitations and learning patience in the realms of healing and health. Turning 33 and remembering the importance of graciously receiving love as equally as the giving of love. Turning 33 and preparing for travel to childhood addresses, to separate the past from the present, to remain true to myself with love and respect, shedding skins and old patterns. Turning 33 and the Moon will pass between us and the Sun, whether we see it or not, marking a moment in a grand cycle we are too young to remember, though we are learning. Turning 33, like Christ, like Buddha, and all the world’s prophets, reaching for personal transformation by shedding my Snake skin in this year of walking the edge of the Tiger’s stripes, through the physical, the emotional, the imaginative realms, while sleeping, while awake, and to learn to carry these lessons always.