"The Spiritual Journey of Men in Mid-Life"
Jim Lovestar
Sunday, January 25th 2004

First poem: From Rainer Maria Rilke's Book of Hours-Love poems to God by Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy

God speaks to each of us as he makes us,
Then walks with us silently out of the night.
These are the words we dimly hear: "You, sent out beyond recall, go to the
limits of your longing. Embody me!"

The world is full of men like Jesus,
not a place for doubt and sorrow.
Why allow salt water to rust your heart
when the world is brimming with pure sweet water?

My fiftieth year had come and gone,
I sat, a solitary man,
In a crowded London shop,
An open book and empty cup
On the marble table-top.
While on the shop and street I gazed
My body of a sudden blazed;
And twenty minutes more or less
It seemed, so great my happiness,
That I was blessed and could bless.

"The initial focus in the Mid-Life Transition is on the past. A man's review of the past goes on in the shadow of the future. His need to reconsider the past arises in part from a heightened awareness of his mortality and a desire to use the remaining time more wisely. Now the life structure itself comes into question and cannot be taken for granted... As he attempts to reappraise his life, a man discovers how much it has been based on illusions and he is faced with the task of de-illusionment...The process of losing or reducing illusions involves diverse feelings-disappointment, joy, relief, bitterness, grief, wonder, freedom-and has diverse outcomes. A man may feel bereft and have the experience of suffering an irreparable loss. He may also feel liberated, free to accept more flexible values and to admire others in a more genuine, less idealizing way."