Seven Year Itch

Tuesday 21st May 2024, proof-reading my WIP plus 800 new words on my MG WIP, 0 new rejections, 0 new agent queries, 0 competition entries, listening to The Source by Dr Tara Swart and reading Light Perpetual by Francis Spufford, 2 new book purchases, 3 coffees, 1 decaf tea, and two dark chocolate digestives

Every day the online world offers myriad opportunities to damage and delight us. While finishing off my morning pilates routine, You Tube usually offers me some podcast or another, often related to longevity or healthy eating, which I watch a little of while I brew my morning coffee. This week Dr Tara Swart appeared on my screen and sucked me into her world of ‘reinvention’ (hence the Audible selection this week). Intrigued, I downloaded her book along with her podcast, and listened to her discussion about near death experiences with Dr Bruce Greyson that neatly supplemented the last chapter of Atwood’s writing memoir: Descent: Negotiating with the Dead that I had finished the week before.

In another episode, she interviews Dr Nida Chenagtsang (a traditional Tibetan doctor). When discussing reincarnation, he offered a more Western interpretation of the phenomenon: the reinvention of our own lives. He suggested we experience seven year cycles in life. This evening I did my own Google search and found an interesting blog that describes the importance of the number seven in our world. The seven seas, the seven deadly sins, the seven year itch!

Doing a little mental math, I realised I am approaching the end of my seventh cycle – could this explain my sudden determination to find my way to publication? Am I approaching a new phase of my life and career? I worked through my life backwards and found my ‘reinventions’ could be neatly plotted onto the seven times table. I married age 21, gave up a career in insurance to study for an English degree age 28, started work as a full-time FE teacher age 35, started an MA in creative writing age 42…So what will age 49 bring?

Now aware of my impending ‘reinvention’, I believe my subconscious knew change was coming. I wanted it. This blog was a way of facilitating that change. Visualising and manifesting are not ways I approach my goals – my rational brain dismisses these ideas as mumbo jumbo . I find it hard to believe everyone can achieve exactly what they want, when they want it, by pure will power. Yet with a 20 month window in which to anticipate my eighth cycle on this planet, I feel a little bit excited at the prospect of the changes to come!

Kate

P.S. If this blog had a soundtrack it would have to be 7 Years by Lukas Graham.

P.P.S. The image above is a ‘plate’ inherited from my grandmother who inspired my novel With Everything I Know and represents the seventh month of the year.