Thrive to 105

I hope you all have had enough “pondering” time at the Silver Gate; after all, I’ve given you eight weeks!  If I do that regularly, the second half of our lives may be over before we get all the wisdom we should gain before we move on!  So please forgive me…and let’s see what the next gate holds.

The second gate of the Eight Gates to Wisdom is the White Picket Gate.  It’s appropriately named, because at this gate we’re urged to see who we really are and stop believing we’re the trappings of all that we’ve built around us…the white picket fence, so to speak.  At this gate, we want to peel away all the things we say we are and that others assign to us in order to see our “true face”.  At this gate, we will hopefully discover the face that has been transformed over the years by all we’ve done and experienced and is now new, yet wiser, in appearance.

It’s time, at the White Picket Gate, to take off our masks that many of us put on each day after we get out of bed and prepare to venture out as we did yesterday and the day before.  This is a time to let a little fresh air and sunshine on your face while observing with a renewed and different point of view who it is you’ve been covering up.  As Angeles Arrien shares in this chapter:

“Often what we have long searched for in the external world has in fact always been within us, patiently awaiting our recognition, while we took detours or busied ourselves creating identities that were unrelated to our true self.”

So, in a nutshell, here is the Task for this gate:  “Uncover or awaken to the essence of who we truly are…”.  Well, we know this isn’t always easy and not always comfortable.  It’s easier to stay in the roles we’re playing that we’ve now become comfortable in.  It’s much more peaceful there…no rocking of the boat and all that “status quo” to keep it balanced.  At the White Picket Gate, you make the choice…

“…to be someone who is fully alive, a courageous explorer and adventurer who is willing to disturb the comfort of familiar roles in order to discover the true face that lies beneath…”

Part of discovering our true face involves what Arrien calls “The Integration of the Five Faces”.  These five faces consist of:

1. The Child – “…experiencing wonder, awe, and curiosity”
2. The Youth – “…sense of adventure; comfort in our own bodies…”
3. The Adult – “…experienced, trustworthy, and responsible…”
4. The Elder – “…magnificence of strength, softness, and sublety that merge to reveal a mysterious and textured wisdom”
5. The Essence – “…the timeless, radiant face of our being’s presence and essential spiritual nature.”

I don’t know about you, but I like the idea of the five faces as a part of my true self.  We certainly can’t be accused of being shallow then, unless, of course, we choose not to remove the mask and just settle for what’s on the surface.

Here are the obstacles that are going to make this gate a challenge:  (1) Continuing to seek acceptance and approval…all you approval whores out there, you know who you are [I can say that, because I’ve been one]; and (2) Sustaining a false face by “performing, pretending, and hiding”.  We know these obstacles are a part of the ego-driven side of our personalities and faces.  Unearthing all five of your faces and discovering which you’ve ignored, which don’t get along well with the others, which one(s) most often feeds your ego…this is the task at the White Picket Gate.  Next time we’ll talk about the Challenge at this gate.

How about you…are you looking in the mirror at your “true face” right now or will this gate be a hard one for you?

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.