The Goddess Path  Issue #19

The Last Task of Psyche

July, 2004

This Issue: Table of Contents

Overwhelmed: A Personal Note
A Lesson from Psyche
Equal Opportunity Screensaver (Macs Rejoice!)
On The Horizon
 

One of life's important lessons is learning how to handle life when you fall behind schedule, become overwhelmed, have more on your plate than you can possibly "say grace over".

It helps to remember that it's not the actual amount that we have to do that kills us, it's the thinking about how much we have to do. That's why it helps to let go of what is not truly important and to remind yourself: "Breathe".

Since my life took an unexpected turn down a different path recently and left me momentarily overwhelmed and "behind schedule", I decided to share some of my experience and musings about it in this issue. Next month we'll return to normal (the newsletter, and hopefully me as well).

Ten days ago my husband had a heart attack at work.

In addition to being my beloved and best friend, he has developed quite a "following" of friends, colleagues, patients, students, and co-workers over the years -- all of whom depend upon him for guidance and support, all distressed when word spread rapidly through the ranks that their "king" had fallen and lay near death.

By the time I reached the emergency room, a small crowd was already forming, waiting for word, expressing concern and support. In the next hours, the growing number of visitors and calls became a source of distress.

And therein lay the challenge for me and the opportunity to learn a valuable lesson.

Stuck in the cardiac unit waiting room where I had been told to wait till he emerged from surgery, surrounded by a coterie of his co-workers, I felt frantic and trapped. I "needed" to focus, to meditate, pray, pace, cry, tear my hair, and to rock and keen -- none of which I felt free to do in front of an audience.

They insisted on staying, but a few hours later it seemed completely natural and easy for me to protect him, banishing countless visitor-wannabe's so that he could get the rest he needed. Fight as I would for him, I had been unable to conserve my energy by protecting myself from the "neediness" of others.

Not surprisingly, I had a brief descent into depression a few days after we returned home from the hospital. Short of sleep, behind schedule, full of pent-up emotions, and momentarily overwhelmed, I spent a whole day having my very own "Pity Party". 

Thinking about the waiting room experience , I grew even more depressed, telling myself that I had been treated as if I did not matter. I was also feeling a bit guilty about not having been very sympathetic to the needs of others. This kind of thinking, of course, only made me feel worse.

(A gloomy day that was, but I soon found my reset button and returned to what passes for normal.)

Clearly I had been poised precariously between two worlds, that of my soul and an avalanche of social convention and practicality.

What would a goddess do?

Perhaps I didn't pass the test that time, but I will. The important lessons that I need to learn become much much clearer as I reviewed the story of . . . 

Psyche's Final Task

Psyche, a mortal princess so gentle and lovely, achieved immortality and an eternal marriage to Eros, the god she loved, by successfully completing four impossible tasks that had been set for her by the jealous Aphrodite, goddess of love and beauty.

It was the fourth, the final task that was the most difficult of all. Aphrodite ordered Psyche to bring her a container of Persephone's beauty cream. To do this Psyche would have to persuade Persephone, Queen of the Underworld, to give her some of the magical potion. A horrifying prospect since no mortal (and only a select few of the gods) had ever been allowed to return from the underworld, the land of the dead and the sleeping.