A Brand New Twenty-Sixty Life
My wife is a psychotherapist, and I'm a leadership coach (former therapist). We're in our fifties (her) and early sixties (me, although everyone swears I don't look like it), and you'd think we were in our mid-twenties.
We have these lives that defy our ages.
Five years ago we moved to a new town after turning loose three kids to succeed in the world. We gave up everything we were used to in order to start new careers (those mentioned above). We moved to an unfamiliar culture -- east coast, smoking, pentecostal, hyper, crowded -- from being westerners -- laid back, casually dressed, big sky. It was one hell of a switch.
We tell each other we "went off to college" to earn our informal degrees in midlife change. Don't get me started on how this isn't mid-life... it's only midlife if I'm going to live to be 124.
This return to school includes having an economical rancher instead of a ranch. No eating out hardly ever. Drinking cheap booze instead of the good stuff. Working way too many hours and doing work that absolutely requires the energy we had at twenty-five. The only thing that isn't the same is we don't have sex twice a day and stay up late while doing all that.
We talk about how tired we are sometimes, how we really aren't twenty-something. I pine for a more relaxed life where I fish every day, don't work much at all, have time to sleep late, maybe write a book. After all, aren't I at the age where I get to do that?
Nope.
Both of us are spiritual people. Not religious people, spiritual people. We believe in the God-ness (the alrightness) of everything. We even go to church, but not because we are into this religion or that. We just want to celebrate our connectedness with others.
In our spiritual selves, just between us and all-that-is, we have seriously committed ourselves to being of service, to making a difference, to bringing some love to this sore and scared world.
I'm finding out that means there is no such thing as "retirement". There is youthful service, no matter the age. There is the joy of major leaps and small gains; there is no such thing as "age-appropriate" behavior.
Shop until you drop? No. It's serve until you stop, sliding into home plate, glad and full of love, ready to find out what's next. It's stay excited about each day. It's treasure what you've got.
We have four grand-babies now, and a fifth on the way. That's a lot of wiggle in a room. My wife loves the puppy pile. I hyperventilate at some point and go fishing with a friend. But in the back of my mind, whether I'm fishing or working, I'm full of gratitude for this life I have.
I may be sixty-something, but I love my twenty-sixty year-old life. It's warm and full, and it's mighty alright.
See more of Doug Hickok's stories at http://www.ChurchofMightyAlrightness.typepad.com
