“Why am I interested in sharing my insights on the process of continuing to develop and evolve as we age?” Great question – and here is why this topic is so integral to my life. First and foremost, the older I get the more I appreciate the true gift of being alive, and I decided many years ago that I wanted to enjoy all of life’s seasons. In the same way that I have found ways to enjoy all of our calendar seasons – Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter, I want that same experience in the seasons of my life. Just as each of the calendar seasons can have aggravating aspects – too hot and humid in the Summer and paralyzing blizzards in the Winter, I still find that each Season offers its rare and precious gifts of beauty. I live in the Northeast, and we have our fair share of life-disrupting blizzards. And while at times these wintry conditions can create real challenges that complicate my daily life, such disruptions are temporary and they don’t take away from the pleasures of the Season. I enjoy looking out my kitchen window on winter nights; the silhouettes of the bare trees against the backdrop of the moonlit sky captures my attention, and I readily pause for a moment to appreciate this silent, quiet beauty.

Early on I recognized that our society doesn’t share my perspective on Seasons, either the ones associated with our annual calendars or the ones associated with living. I first began to internalize this message as I shopped for birthday cards as my family and friends got older. There is a lot of dark humor contained within these greeting cards that encourage feelings of dread and doom as one ages. And if you listen carefully, you can hear the same sentiments shared in casual and more intimate conversations. I hear people in their early 40s and 50s already complaining about getting older. The discouraging aspect of these complaints is that they never seem balanced by the gifts that come with aging.
I’ve concluded that if we want to enjoy our lives through all of our Seasons, we’re going to have to find ways to build our resilience and practices to help us prepare for and enjoy the gifts that come with aging. I’ve heard friends say that they feel they are becoming invisible as they age, but here’s the thing. We each have a VOICE, and we can learn to use that VOICE, but internally and externally to maintain our visibility and presence. We have a choice about whether or not we disappear.

Do I have all of the answers? No, but I have engaged in rich, eclectic pursuits throughout most of my life to develop insights into the various stages of our lives, including the kinds of practices and endeavors that can help us understand both the challenges as well as the gifts that these stages offer us. I don’t see myself as a coach; instead I hope to serve as a guide by sharing my thoughts, my eclectic practices, and the activities that I make time for. It is through my ongoing engagement with this repertoire of resources that I find the energy and enthusiasm to continue to evolve and grow. I believe that it us up to those of us who are living these stages of life beyond adolescence and young adulthood to create our own paths, and to come together to share what works, how we’re doing, and what helps us work our way through the challenges in later life in such a way that we don’t lose our enthusiasm for living. Our collective dialogue – I believe – will provide us with the confidence and comfort from realizing that we are not alone on this journey.
I envision sharing insights on the practices that have helped anchor me in my life, and how these pursuits over time have helped me gain my own Voice and given me the confidence to set aside time to pursue the practices that lead to engaging and energizing experiences. I also plan to share my frustrations and the lessons I learn as I spend time in meditation in an effort to become more self-aware.

I am struck by the level of increasing anxieties that we experience In our lives. While I have studied and read extensively about the process of human development, I don’t have a degree in psychology so I can’t speak to the clinical aspects of what contributes to anxiety. But I see increasing levels of anxiety in my peers and I read about the rise of anxiety levels in younger generations leading to increasing numbers of people turning to medication to help control their anxiety levels.
I, too, am not immune from experiencing anxiety, but based on my experience, I believe there are outlooks and practices that we can build into our lives that not only help mitigate and regulate our anxieties, they can also help guide us in creating a higher quality of life.
I aim for experiencing JOY In my life! And when I share this expectation with many of my peers, I am taken aback by a consistent reply along the lines of, “I don’t expect to experience Joy.” “Joy at this stage of my life is out of the question.” “I’d be satisfied to just experience some happiness.”
Think about the above statements for a moment. How and why do we so easily give up on experiencing joy? Is it because we have too incomplete an understanding of what it means? Or we don’t know where to look for it? Or is it because we have not built time in our lives for reflection so that we can be in closer touch with our “inner” or “true” self that will help us find our way to joy?

As I look forward to sharing parts of my journey to this point, I’ll share reflections on my travels and as best as I can, I’ll talk about the ups and downs, the lessons learned, the shifts in my thinking and outlook, etc. My journey is not a linear one, and while some of it was intentional and planned, much of it was a combination of serendipitous connections and the opportunities that arose either because I was in the right place at the right time or because I was more alert to seeing as a result of a higher level of awareness.
I look forward to hearing from you as companion travelers on this journey!
Namaste