Stories of people who strive to put the happily back in their ever after.
Betty Arrigotti’s writing features Jubilee Women who crest a rise and square their shoulders as they contemplate both the road behind them as well as a choice of paths ahead. These mid-life women recognize the child and the Spirit within, but also learn to honor their emerging elder.
What is a Jubilee Woman?
She is a jubilant woman, 49+, who recognizes and credits Spirituality, celebrates children and the child within, honors elders and the elder within. She has struggled with life, but won an attitude of forgiveness, gratitude, and joy.
However, to understand her better, we need to ask, "What is a Jubilee?"
In the Old Testament, God proclaimed to Moses that every seven years a Sabbath year should be proclaimed when the land and by extension, its workers, should be given a rest. After seven Sabbath years, a fiftieth year would be proclaimed as a Year of Jubilee.
8 " Count off seven sabbaths of years—seven times seven years—so that the seven sabbaths of years amount to a period of forty-nine years. 9 Then have the trumpet sounded everywhere on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement sound the trumpet throughout your land. 10 Consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you; each one of you is to return to his family property and each to his own clan. 11 The fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you; do not sow and do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the untended vines. 12 For it is a jubilee and is to be holy for you; eat only what is taken directly from the fields. 13 In this Year of Jubilee everyone is to return to his own property." (Leviticus 25:8-13 NIV)
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Jubilee Women
I found myself reading this excerpt of Leviticus from the Bible during my 49th year and wondering if a Jubilee Year could apply to women my age. As I began to talk to friends about the idea, many of my contemporaries spoke of their 49th and 50th year being times of transition for them. Some changed careers; others pursued a new passion. The renewal they felt at that time reminded me of the renewal of the Hebrew land as it lay fallow to rejuvenate.
I believe women near their 50th birthday begin to claim their own wisdom. Many are at a transition stage between caring for their children and their parents. With their nests often newly emptied, they take time to re-evaluate their role in life. Their Jubilee Year can provide an opportunity to sit at the crown of the rise and regroup, to reenergize as they contemplate their past and future choices.
Leviticus has advice for the Jubilee Woman
Possible seven-year phases of a Jubilee Woman’s life