Growing up is required to enter into adulthood, so they say. It’s needed to be a fully functional, well versed, useful, educated and purposeful member of society. One who fulfills your civic and communal services.

The training was clear: rules, protocols, parameters, lists of do’s and don’ts offering the promise of happiness and success.

Our culture gives value to the upward direction of growing, to the heights. Our Western spiritual compass tends to put all better things up and worse things down.

What if to find fullfillment, you have to grow down?

I’ve spent greater part of this year in France, supporting my parents to prepare for and move into a medicalized nursing home. I struggled with this relationship the majority of my life and felt forced into growing down to grow up.

Oak saplings, growing from acorns in the wild, develop a single hair-thin tap root to seek water. Extending down 3 feet, the sapling may be only 11 inches tall. This tap root allows for the tree to mature into a majestic 50-70 feet.

Unfortunately, we struggle blindly with the darkness our Soul required to deepen into our relationships and life.

It’s important to recognize the legitimacy of growing down, even in its mystery.

Reflecting on growing down at this x-marks-the-spot time, I see:

• how it means going with the sag of gravity that accompanies aging.
• admitting to one’s self to be one among one’s people and a member of a family tree, including its twisted and rotten branches.
• giving back what circumstances gave by means of gestures that declare your love for the world and the people in it, yourself included.

How are growing down in your relationship journey?

If you would like clarity on next steps. Let’s talk. 

Click here to apply for your complimentary 1-1 Discovery call. Let’s see if the relationship work I do is a match for you.

Let Love be your decision today and always,

Joëlle