Redefining Relationships

The Archetype of the Strong Single Woman

Often I have wondered why I am still single as I approach my half century. I’ll admit that the older I get the less I worry about the why and the more I observe my single state with fascination. Am I a living metaphor for redefining relationships? I do not have any peculiar habits (other than running long distances quite regularly), I am smart, independent, successful, happy, reasonably attractive.

This morning, driving in the dark to one of those long runs, it hit me. My life has been about learning to trust the masculine principle of God. To surrender myself to this. Ok, for those of you about to hit the delete button, let me try to explain this.

I do believe in the Synergy model. That 1 plus 1 in the right conditions equals at least 5, or 10 or 100... Take two people in synergy and they create a result by their being together that far outweighs how much they could achieve or be as individuals. Synergy is the mystery of alchemy. We never know what we are going to get, and when we get much more than the single identities when taken on their own, we have great Synergy.

A partnership without Synergy working would be quite pointless, business or personal. We have to be greater with the addition of the other, or lets not play. Because this is not a conscious model of relationship currently, part of redefining relationships is understanding Synergy intrinsically.

I also understand the male female polarities. Inherent in our intrinsic design is this singularity that comes from the duality of a man and woman together. The Yin and Yang. (In same sex partnership, one partner usually carries the masculine and the other the feminine.)

I experience the creative force of the Universe, the all present intelligence, as a more masculine force. I see the expression of this creativity in nature as the feminine. Father God, Mother Earth. Not separate, not one before the other, but both and.

As a female, and a Positive Deviant finding her way in the Brave New World, I, and many women like me, have a job to do. And that is to forge the pathways for a new way to be in relationship in the world. We are working consciously and unconsciously to redefine relationships. Indeed, we have to forge a pathway about how to be a woman in the Brave New World as well. Our old models, such as marriage, are no longer viable. Neither is this transformation about being the divine feminine. We are all divine on some stage in the greater scheme of things, and all of us need to embrace that divinity, male and female. On some level, this new pathway transcends the masculine and feminine and finds a place for redefining relationships that is about people first and gender second.

Implied in marriage even today when the statistics are so obviously pointing in the other direction, is a belief in forever. Partners for life! In my recent article, Forever Beta, I raise the possibility of us needing to embrace the model of forever beta in all aspects of our life. That we are constantly unfolding, and the more aware we are, the more open to learning we are, the faster we unfold. Redefining relationships is one of these unfoldings.

To imagine two people unfolding at the same speed, and in the same direction, for 20-30-40 years is quite the jackpot.

Anyone who thinks we can come together as two people and stay together for a lifetime is struggling with some serious illusions. I am not saying it is impossible, I am saying it is a rare exception. A bit like winning the lottery. Certainly put it on your list of things to do if it means that much to you, and recognise that you may also be wise to surrender your attachment or need to have this kind of relationship, otherwise you may end up spending a lifetime being disappointed. Far better to stay present with daily relationship and give up any forever. Concentrate on navigating today. Enjoy the day, love the moment, be happy with now. It takes serious work to do just this, yet alone create a relationship that lasts forever. This process of staying present is also a part of redefining relationships.

Also implied in marriage is the role dynamic of wife and husband. Again these are old archetypes. The current and future world is challenging the heck out of them. We simply must find new ways to support each other in partnership that has a dynamic element to it. Again, this dynamic element is a piece of redefining relationships.

In regards to raising children, maybe if we considered at the outset, prior to the birth of any children, there is a high possibility that we will not be together for the full time of their childhood, we would have different levels of dialogue before we choose children. We may look at our financial models, our housing and domestic arrangements with a different light. The subject of children makes these new models more tricky, and I am not sure what the solution will look like. I do know that how we raise children is a major consideration when we engage in the redefining relationships conversation.

So here am I and other mature single women around the world coming to terms with singularity. During my time as a solo parent I have had to learn to trust divine intelligence. To let go. To breath when fear had stopped me from remembering how to breath. This has not been easy. I still work at it. Building this kind of trust relationship with the divine is a life's work.

It occurred to me that this conscious act of surrender and trust has been me learning to relax my feminine into the masculine of God. That my path was not to find a man to do this with as is the norm. My path has been to surrender to the divine. On the very biggest plane, who knows why? I suspect at some point I will look back and say to myself...oh...I get it...and the mystery will be revealed.

I also know that I seek union and connection with ultimate Love. I am clear now that I am not only after the love that comes between a man and a woman, for I have learned through experience of the transience nature of this love. I have hungered, like I believe at a soul level we all hunger, for the union with the divine. The eternal union, the one that the great poets and mystics write about in ecstasy.

As Rumi writes..

There is some kiss

we want

with the whole

of our lives...

I have longed for this union. So of course I stay single because nothing else measures so far. I seek something that no mortal can provide. Yet I also suspect that one pathway to the divine is through human love. I glimpse this in the love I have for my daughter, and for my dog.

Again as Rumi says

The minute I heard my first love story

I started looking for you,

not knowing how blind that was.

Lovers don’t finally meet somewhere

they’re in each other all along...

I wonder if the archetypal pattern of this union between the human and the immortal/divine is why books such as Twilight have so entranced our society..

So I walk the difficult path, and we cut new ground, redefining relationships as we go. One of my archetypes is the pioneer, and as Meg Wheatley said, its lonely getting to the future first. That is not to say others have not broken the rules and gone before. Many women over the centuries have indeed gone before. Some of them saints and mystics, others regular women like me.

Our job, while still largely to be revealed, is to lay down tracks for new pathways of relationships. We hold the space that allows the old model to crack. There is nothing wrong with us. We simply cannot fit the old model of marriage and wife. Our pathway is to write the first draft of the redefining of relationships.

Most men find us somewhat intimidating because we do not need them to fulfill the old roles. So in our process we are supporting the creation of a new way for men to be in the world and in partnership. We all get to explore the multiple options and possibilities that are available the moment we take the old sacred cows like marriage off the table.

Would I like my life to be different? Sometimes. It can get lonely, and it is certainly not easy. Neither is being married!

Would I like a male partner? Yes. And I do not discount the possibility of this happening. I would suspect that if it does, it will be a wise and mature relationship, where there is a comfort with most of our old stereotypes being abolished or simply not present. And where neither of us doubts that we are together to find greater depth and connection to the divine through the expression of our love. Or even more simply, to share great experiences, laugh a lot, be 'besties' together...without the rigid expectations of our collective relationship history.

I’ll keep you posted..in the mean time...let me know your thoughts on how you see your contribution to redefining relationships, and what the future of relationships look like from your view?

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