Our fate does indeed represent the circumstances of our lives that we were handed upon arriving here at birth. We can do nothing about the family that we were assigned to, the time in history and place on the planet that we landed in, or the features of our physicality that we arrived into the world with. Perhaps even nothing can we do about what fate has to say about the length of our life and the date of our death. BUT what we do with that fate – that is how we travel along that length of thread - is another story. And if you see your thread now as a path stretching out before you, you will see the bends and twists, the other threads that run alongside and the many that cross, and the occasional knot that must be (or has already been!) navigated as you journey. You will also see a final destination – your ultimate destiny. That these two words share a common source is no mistake, and in looking up the etymology of both of them I find "purpose for which anything is intended or appointed." [2025 June 19, https://www.etymonline.com/word/destiny] We all either do believe, or would like to believe, that we have come here for a reason. That there is some destiny, some purpose, to which we were appointed and that we are intended to fulfill. To believe that life has meaning is essential. Lack of this belief can lead to states of apathy, hopelessness, and despair. And so, what if each of our tasks is to journey along the thread of our fate as best we can, moving towards the fulfillment of that destiny? In the work of Family Constellations we explore where a person is caught by an aspect of their fate, or of the fates of the people that they come from, rendering them unavailable for their unfolding destiny. Getting caught in a knot or stuck in a twist (don’t we all know “stuck”!?) which is often accompanied by the seemingly inexplicable ability to move forward. Whether that inability comes through the guise of procrastination or real life events that seem to manifest to thwart us at every step, this stuckness is extremely uncomfortable and often quite depressing. In this work we see that our fate – the conditions that came to each of us when we were handed the gift of life – can either bind or resource us. On this threaded path of yours, your fate can either be something you get completely tangled up in or the ground that bounces beneath your feet, buoying you forward at every step. Your destiny is your destination. But you must move towards it. Releasing yourself from entanglements within your own fate (and the cumulative and collective familial fate) makes movement a whole lot easier! I leave you now with an excerpt from a powerful poem recently gifted to me by a wise and well-travelled fellow journeyer: Befriending, even blessing, what befalls us, may we be ready to wholeheartedly accept this life we’ve been given just as it is, gratefully receiving the ancestral torch passed through untold generations entrusted now to us that it may illuminate our path & light the way in turn for those to come, for those to our left, those to our right, & those coalescing multitudes inside us stepping up to the plate, rolling up our sleeves, opening ourselves to Spirit & embracing our destiny. -Michael Hurley CURIOUS about how this work can work for you? Please join me at the CONSTELLATIONS SUMMER WORKSHOP SERIES, begins July 16th, 2025.
1 Comment
Margaret
6/29/2025 08:45:50 am
So true. I know of the belief that this is what has been given to me in life and that's it. But many doors may waiting to be opened. Someone just recently asked me what my overall feeling was and I said I felt stuck! Leave a Reply. |
