Something to Think About

"The older one gets, the more one feels that the present must be enjoyed; it is a precious gift, comparable to a state of grace" Scientist Marie Curie

What does it mean for you to really enjoy this moment?

Creativity and Life

When I talk to groups about creativity in the second half of life I usually get at least one response that goes something like "Oh,no, I can't paint or write poetry or play music. I'm not creative." For me, that response is more cultural than real.

For the sake of argument, here is the definition of creativity I like to use: Creativity is a mental process involving the discovery of new ideas or concepts, or new associations of already existing ideas or concepts. This means that "the arts" do not have sole rights to what it is to be creative.

Painting, sculpting, writing and playing music with others are all understood in our culture to be "creative activities". But what about cooking a good meal, tutoring young people, baking bread, meditating, walking in the woods, or spending a day pampering yourself. Now, if creativity is the act of creating something intentionally which has never existed before, don't these activities fit the definition?

What about our lives? When we live our lives intentionally and authentically aren't we always in the creative process?

Our life is the canvas for our creativity. When we live our lives according to our unique values and sense of purpose we stay in the creative state. And the intentional life, well lived, is perhaps the most beautiful and longest lasting product of our creative nature.

Now go be creative!!

What Do You Love?

I am taken by the notion that we become what we love.

Wayne Muller says "When we do what we love, again and again, our life comes to hold the fragrance of that thing. When we hold something in our hands day after day, our hands conform to the shape of what we have held." (How, Then, Shall We Live?)

There are many things in life I did not have the ability to love. On the flip side, I have also loved many things. My family and my community of friends. My music and wild places. My home and my town. I have come to know these things and people and have come to realize that what I love has shaped me, without a doubt. These are the things which have created the fabric of my life. I am fortunate and grateful for everything and I am also wondering how it might change as I grow in to this next stage of life with more intention than I showed in the first two-thirds.

I think that in the beginning of this adult life I loved the things I was supposed to love...doing my duty, so to speak! I loved them for what they could do for me... money, fame, status, friends, etc. Now I am more discerning about what I love including how and with whom I spend my time.

Now I tend to look for people and things that nourish me spiritually and emotionally and bring joy and satisfaction. These things seem to be more in alignment with my sense of values and how I wish the world to be after I'm gone. I also gain in courage from doing what I love. Courage to be myself..as unfinished as that is.

What do you love? When you answer this you gain clarity of purpose and the ability to act on what you believe...and isn't that what we really love?

Can you Be Ageless?

Have you ever noticed the dynamic that goes on between a child and a grandparent or elder? It's like they have a special bond, a special knowing, a sense of what is really important in the world. I can't explain it but it seems like if a parent or other adult comes in to the room where an elder and child are engaged in anything together the adult becomes irrelevant, unnecessary and, in fact, a nuisance.

Recently I read something that may shed some light on this phenomena that I'd like to share with you.

From Joan Chittister (The Gift of Years):

"Getting in touch with the young again is what keeps us in touch with the world. Children give us a lifeline to the present and the future that is denied to us if we sit alone in an independent-living unit. They don't play checkers much anymore but they can teach us all about video games. They might not know lullabies, but they know the words to every song on the radio. They tell us what the new language means. They keep us in touch with the warm and breathing world. They keep us warm and breathing, too.

They remind us that we are still part of the whole human race. We are not meant to be cordoned off from the rest of society. We are meant to be its wisdom center, its sign of a better life to come, its storehouse of a kind of lore no books talk about.

Once a society divides the human family as a matter of course, there is no family at all anymore. Instead, we have day care for children, senior citizen complexes for the elders, and condos where "families with children need not apply."

The older generation has been denied the right to teach. We are strangers to one another. This natural and necessary linkage between the old and the young cannot be reduced to a scheduled "activity for older citizens." This is the heartbeat of teh culture we are talking about here. It keep newness running in and out of our veins. It keeps ideas beyond murder, mayhem, drugs and sex running in and out of theirs.

Relating to a child who is not theirs enables elders to reach out beyond themselves and the confines of their own private lives to become fully human again. And having elders who are not their parents take an interest in them, talk to them, show them things their parents do not have time to do enables the child to be anchored by an adult who is not a disciplinarian."

Maybe that just explains the close connection between elders and children...each is a lifeline for the other!!