True longevity

The Baby Boomers are coming of (old) age. Do not think for a moment that that will slow them down. Do not expect the generation that liberated and revolutionized sex and sexuality, music, feminism, marriage, divorce, out-of-wedlock babies, and glass ceilings to slide into oblivion without leaving its mark on the golden years. They cannot be the rebels for four–five decades to disappear from the scene just because they hit 65.

That is ridiculous.

The Boomers’ legacy gives permission to age as we darn well please. Nothing holds us back from redefining retirement and putting a trendy crown on a great era and a great generation, whether we go skydiving at 80, start a new business at 60, or live the retirement of our parents.

I have two suggestions:

One:

Do not take for granted the privileges life bestows on you. Whatever you do in that later stage of life: celebrate, and marvel, and live it with gusto.

Choose one moment every day and live it with extra intention and intensity. Enjoy it thoroughly, with great awareness—be it basking in the early morning light, joining the birds at the feeder, or floating in aromas from your kitchen.

If today is the day for your sky dive, live in the enormity of that split second between the security of the plane and plunging into the great yonder.

Sit back and allow feelings of pride and amazement on the first day of business at 60. Celebrate the hard work over long years you have put in to come to this specific moment in time with awareness of its beauty and significance.

My second suggestion is: share!

By taking these moments for granted, or worse, forgetting them, the memories will grow stale and dusty and their true dimension will be lost. They die with you.

Sing your song!

When you share that deeper dimension and your being in it, you live it twice. You cannot gauge what your discoveries will mean to others and it does not really matter either. The intention is to feel the moment, live it and share it to set it free and give it a life of its own. 

That is where true longevity begins.

 

 

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Post

This I believe

  End of January 2007, I kissed my life in upstate New York goodbye. My kids all grown up in South Florida and Seattle, my body aching, my future in a dark storm cloud looming directly over me, I realized nothing made sense any longer. I signed over the apartment lease, gave the cat and plants new homes, divided my stuff between Salvation Army and storage, and drove out of state for a year of reflection and regrouping.   That really was the plan: a twelve-months’ sabbatical with exposure to new places and people, to recharge the battery, come back to Upstate and put all that newness in place for the next stage in my life: the golden years! As I crossed the border into Pennsylvania and waved New York goodbye, I knew I would never live there again. In one flash, my neatly planned sabbatical became a pilgrimage. Destiny: unknown, Goals: keep breathing Obligations: one and one only: connect with my core and find out what it wants, without the comfort of income, ruts to...
Read more

Auto biographies

If you want to take a hard look at your life and plot your future, look at how you came to be where you are now.  Go into your past to find your future.  If your autobiography has to produce honest answers, you have to find honest questions.  What do you want from it? Analysis? The red line through your life’s story? The helicopter view? The out-of body-experience? The way forward?   The real motivators behind our significant decisions often hide behind routine explanations. Incident by incident they help us slip through the escape doors we invent to justify our actions.  If you're done with the chronological format, may I invite you to rearrange the order? Organize the events in your life in different context. Here are a few examples: List all the schooling, that is all education, continued education, mentoring, self-study you have done over the years. Include all the reasons why you engaged in them and their lasting effects. What attracted you?...
Read more

Does your money respect you?

  Do you have a mutually respectful relationship with your money? You probably give money much more importance than it gives you. Maybe your money is constantly demanding your attention, like a jealous lover, stressing, pushing, seductive, and illusive.   But what about you? Do you receive the same care and concern from your money? What does money give you in return?   Peace of mind? Stability? Harmony? When is it your turn to decide and guide the relationship? If you were king or queen of your money, what would your domain look like?   This is my money whisper for today : Take charge of your money affairs and let your money court you for a change.     August 2010  
Read more