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NEVER TOO LATE

29/11/2016

 
Picture

​Amazingly I have found that it is never too late to turn life around. I say this not sentimentally nor idealistically, but from the absolute reality of the true vitality and beauty that is now reflected and seen in my body as I approach seventy. ​I do not look thirty years old, nor do I want to.
​

I am utterly enjoying being an elder woman who feels divine and can look elegant . . . and at the same time can enjoy ‘funky.’

​​​​A dashing sixty-eight year old male friend recently expressed to me that he loves the way I am and the way I dress to express it, and it felt every bit as joyful as if I were a thirty-year-old woman being appreciated. Even more than this, I treasure the sense of connectedness, solidity and love that I live with these days.

Though, in my earlier life, I may have appeared to the on-looker to be a successful University Lecturer, wife of a moderately famous man and mother of a beautiful daughter, I actually lived in a pretty wild and damaging way – living the high life, always racy and speedy, living off nervous energy, not paying attention to the reckless manner in which I lived my day, and not realising that the way we are in every day, in every moment counts, because this is it.

The quality in which we live and move every day is the true gold of life – nothing else really matters. 

In the past I was always hurtling towards some chimera of a destination, I knew not what. Stillness was not a word or state of being I wanted to know about or have anything to do with. I felt indestructible and flaunted the universal laws of life and energy that I knew deep in my heart.
Around eight years ago when I was almost sixty, I met an extraordinary and wise man, Serge Benhayon, who presented to me a whole new way of living  – I say ‘new’, but actually there was something very familiar about this wisdom which I had forgotten.

 It all started with learning to truly take care of myself, to love myself so much that I would do this.
Did I love myself enough to start going for a walk every second day? Did I love myself enough to arrange life in such a way that I would go to bed at nine o’clock and wake up early? Did I love myself enough to stop hiding from life, to engage with the wider community, to upgrade my Internet, learn new skills on the computer, communicate with people at large? Did I love myself enough to come out of retirement and start going back to work to offer all that I can bring to the world? Did I love myself enough to be really gentle with all my movements – opening doors, writing on the computer, unloading the dishwasher, carrying in the shopping? 

And what about being aware enough to feel how I was operating and communicating with people so that if my energy dipped and I no longer felt loving and caring, I could choose to bring myself back? Did I even love myself enough to begin to truly observe life and to express what I really feel about things to people in a graceful way without critique? And the 100 million dollar question: ‘Did I love myself and others enough to connect to the stillness of my essence and rediscover what being a true woman is?’

 What an expedition it has been to discover that at last I would surrender and love myself that much! And when I discovered that, I found how much I love and care for everyone I meet . . . because at last I love and care for me. 

This has been a life-changing, alchemical transmutation that has made my elder years the best yet.
But this was just the start. I began to become aware that the ‘good and comfortable life’ which I had settled for was actually a mere imitation of life as it could be actually lived in its fullness – choosing the good and comfortable life had been part of my hiding away from what I felt was a rough world. As a result I became a serial indulger and seeker of comfort. But now I see the insidious danger in living this self-involved way. 

When I talk of the peril of ‘comfort’ I am not meaning aspiring to sleep on a bed of nails, refusing to have heating in winter, or diving into icy seas to prove something, which is a false and re-interpreted version of true austerity. I am not talking about this false version – I actually value nurturing myself and settling down at night in my warm creamy-coloured dressing gown and massaging my feet by the log fire, and I love good quality in cars, clothes and couches!

What I am referring to with the peril of comfort is that we have adopted a myriad ways of behaving and living in order to quell our pain and console ourselves from the anguish we feel from having chosen to separate from the natural love that we are.  

Such an indulgence flies in the face of the beauty of true Austerity  – which in truth means integrity, precision, simplicity and awesome-ness! This is a quality that emanates and moves in divine rhythmic order, a quality that knows true proportion and an economy that is naturally there when Love is the foundation from which we live. Practically speaking this is a way of relating to others that uses the natural energy of love and harmony directly as it is given, without subsequently twisting it by identifying with ideals, beliefs or conditions constructed by men and women and imposed upon life. If we actually lived lovingly and rhythmically there would be no need to resort to ‘austerity measures’ as the world currently re-interprets and uses this term . . . because we would not have gotten things so out of proportion in the first place!

By living in a more aware way I found that I had constructed certain conditions that I placed upon life to supposedly protect myself  – this involved having an expectation that people should behave in a certain way and if they didn’t I would react, be indignant, or feel hurt.

Realising the damage that emotional reaction has upon the body, I decided that I didn't need to play that game any more. As I begin to become aware of my hurts and heal them, and let go these shadowy conditions and images that stood between me and others, between me and God, the sunlight of true relationship began to break through the fogs and mists and grow brighter, warmer and more accessible each day.

Today every day is a gloriously sunny day, even though the fogs may sometimes descend, the rain may lash, the winds may rail – simply knowing love and knowing that I am a Son of God has transformed my elder years into the most joyful and productive years yet.
​

By Lyndy S., Australia
BACK
Sandra Newland
1/12/2016 02:10:12 pm

Lyndy I love how you speak about "the beauty of true Austerity – which in truth means integrity, precision, simplicity and awesome-ness! " This is far from the common idea of austerity as stern, coldly disciplined, and rigid which takes the life out of the word and destroys its true meaning.

Lyndy Summerhaze
27/12/2016 07:53:53 am

Thank you Sandra! I am re-inspired by your words. That meaning of true Austerity was shared with me by someone who actually lives that word daily – Serge Benhayon. I will never forget how my whole body lit up as he spoke to me about that word, and how it changed my life to deeply understand the importance of living this principle, not with perfection but to bring it to a world that is so hugely out of kilter.

Sandra Henden
3/12/2016 05:09:26 am

What a pure joy to read your words Lyndy. You are such an inspiration and living proof that life need not be a struggle, aging does not need to be a chore and that health, vitality and a zest for life can be achieved through self-loving choices. Many of us live our lives with a fear of aging, not knowing what to expect, but Serge Benhayon has taught me to live in the present moment, and if the present moment can be lived with an open heart and a willingness to be the love that we are then aging need not be feared, but embraced.

Lyndy Summerhaze
27/12/2016 08:01:31 am

Love what you have said Sandra. There is in general a fear of ageing out there in the world and I have experienced moments of it. I wonder if someone has ever calculated how much is spent on beauty creams (not that I am against them at all – I certainly out nourishing cream on my face every night!). When you are connected to the innermost heart, as you mention, life is not about how many years the body has been on this planet – life is a continuum that always exists throughout what we call the aeons – this is ageless, and can be known and lived by us no matter what bodily old age delivers on our doorstop as a barometer of how we have lived.

Gayle
4/12/2016 08:17:16 am

There are many gems in this article about ageing, or should I say about not ageing! I particularly loved this one: "What I am referring to with the peril of comfort is that we have adopted a myriad ways of behaving and living in order to quell our pain and console ourselves from the anguish we feel from having chosen to separate from the natural love that we are." Yes, I agree. Most of us are trying to figure out how to avoid the pain but in order to do so we go into denial or override what we know to be true which only complicates the problem.. Instead the true way to avoid the anguish is to make a correction and start living the love that we are by our divine right. It's Never Too Late!

Lyndy Summerhaze
27/12/2016 08:03:10 am

Beautifully said Gayle!

Susan Croke
26/12/2016 01:50:56 pm

Loved your article Lyndy and yes you are a joy to behold and truly inspirational to those of us in our elder years.

Lyndy Summerhaze
28/12/2016 07:37:27 pm

Thank you Susan!

Kate Chorley
27/12/2016 09:00:05 am

Lyndy you are such an inspiration. I love your infectious joy and eternally playful nature. You are obviously having so much fun in life just being yourself, in all your glory. What an incredible role model you are for us all.

Viktria
28/12/2016 04:08:45 pm

What you've written here is amazing, Lyndy, and inspiring even for a 21 year old.

Gabriele Conrad
2/1/2017 04:15:57 pm

I love the way you have set the record straight on 'divine austerity', a quality that evokes precision, love and dedication.

Roberta Himing
7/1/2017 09:19:07 pm

Thank you Lindy for this wonderful article. I can feel the joy of your unfolding in every sentence - I find it to be quite inspirational and uplifting.

Jill Steiner link
17/1/2017 02:39:48 pm

I just loved your amazing article Lindy so much there for me to ponder on, I could feel you as I read your words they are so truely lived in your life. I really loved " did I love myself enough" every part of life to consider how I am living each moment, Thank you


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