Cycles, Aspects and Life Changes

Important decisions to be made

I have had many, many epiphanies over the last couple of months. There was that huge epiphany mega-quake back in November, for instance, but right now I want to talk about the big epiphany I had over the last week. You see, I discovered a new cycle of mine.

All humans go through cycles, in fact we are usually going through several cycles simultaneously at any given time. There are life cycles, which I wrote about years ago, but there are also countless mini-cycles that we go through on a regular basis throughout our lives. There are health cycles, relationship cycles, education cycles, spirituality cycles, abundance cycles, geographic cycles, friendship cycles, attitude cycles, luck cycles, career cycles, passion cycles, and countless other cycles. So many of these cycles are not evident to us until after we have gone through enough of them.

Such is the case with a particular cycle that I have been going through all my life but did not even see it until just recently. I don’t know what to call it except an ‘occupation cycle.’ It is different than a career cycle. Most Western humans are told to pick a career at an early age and stick with it and then go through the various mini cycles within that career cycle.

I did that. I picked a career while still in high school and I have stuck to that choice to varying degrees throughout my life and I have gone through all the mini-cycles within that career cycle. To me, that career choice turned into a disease, an addiction. (Did I just give it away?)

But I discovered that while going through the many mini-cycles of that career choice I was also going through the many mini-cycles that I now call ‘occupation cycles.’ For the most part, the string of occupation cycles I’ve been going through over the course of my life is separate from yet concurrent with the career cycles I’ve been going through. There are times when the mini-cycles within larger cycles just happen to coincide and align. Such is the case RIGHT NOW.

Many people will ask you what you ‘do.’ Some will ask you what your occupation is. Few will ask you what your career is.

So what the hell is an ‘occupation?’ My handy dandy Webster’s paperback dictionary defines it as “what you occupy your time with.” (Don’t you love it when a dictionary defines a word with that word or some derivation of that word?)

Well, for me, this clearly shows the huge difference between my career and my many occupations. While I’ve only had one true career, I’ve had numerous occupations — too many to count on my fingers and toes. And only in rare circumstances have my occupations had anything to do with my career.

This dichotomy between career and occupations has never been more clear and evident until just recently. You see, I had been working the same job (occupation) for the last four and a half years. I really, really wanted to quit the job but I just didn’t have the balls to do so. Luckily, the Universe conspired on my behalf and the company I worked for went out of business, thus laying me off. (Thank you Universe!)

Anyway, because of this I was forced to create something truly heinous known as a resume. Oh, what a horrible, horrible thing that is! But it wasn’t all bad because through this heinous act I was suddenly able to not only clearly see my occupation cycles but I was able to determine exactly how long each of them lasted.

I learned that my occupation cycles last pretty much exactly four and a half years. And that conclusion did not come just from the fact that I had just been liberated from a job that I had been working at for the last four and a half years. Looking back over my life I realized that all my occupation cycles lasted exactly the same length.

If you were the personnel manager of some corporation looking to hire someone and you read a resume of someone who seemed utterly incapable of doing anything for more than four and a half years would you hire them? Of course not! (Am I lucky, or what?)

With only one exception, I learned that I am incapable of ‘occupying my time’ with any one thing for more than four and a half years. It may be seen as a flaw but it has saved my sanity. But let’s start near the beginning…

Going way back to my ‘advanced’ education, I went to high school for three and a half years (I graduated early, in fact I couldn’t graduate early enough) then I went to college for one year (until the money ran out). Math is not my strong suit but if I’m correct three and a half plus one equals four and a half.

I then spent a four and a half year ‘occupation cycle’ in food service management at the end of which I was ready to hang myself. So I quit occupying my time in such a way and entered a four and a half year occupation cycle in retail management at the end of which I was ready to deep-throat a shotgun. Then I spent four and a half years as a rock artist. No, I was not a rock and roll guy but rather a stone mason artist. But that ended when my body started to complain and I realized that I was neglecting my career. I just can’t do anything for more than four and a half years.

Then I entered a new four and a half year occupation cycle that turned out to be the most wonderful, the most glorious, the most enlightening, the happiest four and a half year occupation cycle of my life. I became a full-time stay-at-home mommy-dude. Sadly, that cycle of occupying my time ended when my little girl started going to school. I would have been happy if it continued forever.

As that fantabulous occupation cycle ended a new one started and I had to decide what the hell I was going to do. This is the occupation cycle that broke the rules of all other cycles. I decided to become a Capitalist entrepreneur! And I did. I started my own business. And it lasted for nine years. If my math is correct those nine years lasted exactly as long as two back to back four and a half year occupation cycles.

But that double occupation cycle ended after Jeff Bezos crushed me like a bug under the heel of his jackboot. (Bastard!)

The next four and a half year occupation cycle consisted of numerous jobs that only had one purpose; to keep a roof over my noggin. This cycle ended in sheer heartache and collapse and my next occupation cycle was one of utter chaos and near-death.

And that occupation cycle was followed by one of unprecedented luck and prosperity. That was a four and a half year occupation cycle in which my career almost completely subsumed any notions of occupation. I ‘occupied my time’ almost exclusively by my career. During those four and a half years I wrote and published three novels as well as a couple of non-fiction books in addition to numerous short stuff. I was a writing maniac.

But then the money ran out and I entered my most previous occupation cycle. I ended up taking a job that was ridiculously easy and paid like shit. But it not only kept a roof over my noggin but it allowed me to continue writing like a half-assed maniac and thus further notions of career. I look at this most recent occupation cycle as a bit of a failure because not once during those four and a half years did I write a single novel nor did I publish a single book.

But looking back at it as it has come to an end I have to acknowledge that it has been productive somewhat as far as ‘career’ goes. Just in the last almost three years since writing on Medium I’ve realized that I’ve written over 1500 articles and stories! FIFTEEN HUNDRED FUCKING PIECES! My math may not be very good but I haphazardly calculate the time spent writing those fifteen hundred pieces to be approximately equivalent to writing and publishing 4 or 5 novels! I could have been like James Patterson without having to pay anyone to do my writing for me!

But that career mini-cycle is coming to a close just as my recent four and a half year occupation cycle has come to a close. The interesting thing is that both mini-cycles have ended at the same time! The more important thing is that two new mini-cycles are starting at the same time!

It is time for decisions and for life changes.

For the last few months I have been thinking that the time has come for me to start writing novels again. I miss it. One of the things I love about novel writing is the fact that absolutely no one gets to read a word until the novel is completed and released to the world. You never have to deal with feedback until you’re finished!

The thing I don’t like about novel writing is that there is no feedback.

How fucked up is that?

The great thing is that two of my cycles are ending and beginning at the same time. They have come into alignment. Whenever there is alignment there is mojo. And right now I can use all the mojo I can get.

But while major life decisions need to be made, the fact that it is New Year’s Eve as I write this has no bearing on things. I never make decisions until the end of the Rejuvenation Cycle — never on New Year’s Eve. But the decisions I need to make are gargantuan.

Like the Fool of the Tarot Deck I am stepping off a precipice into the unknown of a new cycle. Like a homeless guy standing on a rain-drenched street corner in some metropolis holding up a sign that reads, The End of the World is Here, I am hereby ushering in a whole new cycle; a whole new world, a whole new reality. I may be totally ignored but the change in cycles is happening.

For me, at least.

Of course, dealing with the change in cycles involves dealing with my own inner aspects. They are the ones always screwing everything up. But this article is already WAY too long. Perhaps I will deal with those inscrutable inner demons in my next installment of this story, tentatively entitled…

THE DUNGEON

Copyright by White Feather. All Rights Reserved.

Here is a fictional story that has undertones of the cycle changes I speak of…