Hi friends!
Social media to the contrary, Mike and I are back home again after our Seine river cruise with his sisters. It. Was. Fabulous.
“What are you doing here?” we heard at church on Sunday. “Thought you were still in France!” Someone else said, “I heard a rumor you moved.” (See what happens when you go away?!)
We’re home for a few weeks, and as they say in these parts, “It’s fall, y’all!” The calendar grants us a few weeks yet of summer, but just as Memorial Day marks its informal start, Labor Day signals its departure.
A New York Times editor described the seasonal change of pace this way:
“Labor Day arrives, and we shift gears, shift wardrobes and menus and mind-sets. Maybe our gaits get faster. Summer self is self-indulgent; fall self is all determination. Summer self puts things off and fall self gets things done. There’s a harmony and a rhythm to our seasonal incarnations that keeps things interesting, divides existence into movements: adagio, andante, allegro.”
Whether you are still lingering in the slower pace of the warmest months (adagio), picking up speed as you return from summer travel (andante), or moving into high gear with the arrival of autumn (allegro), our lives still seem to pass more quickly as we age.
Like a well-seasoned cast iron pan, we mature and, one would hope, we’re all the more useful for it.
Before my close friend Cindy McDowell was called Home early last year, she had begun to post her weekly essays under the banner “Letters from a Seasoned Soul.” I resonated with that description and often told her so.
As an experienced life-traveler, Cindy spent her days pouring into other’s lives. With no premonition it would be her last, she signed a contract for a book of prayer-blessings for women. Just days before she passed away, I asked Cindy if the publisher had settled on a title yet. She shook her head.
“BENEDICTION,” I blurted out. “Blessings from a Seasoned Soul.”
Her eyes were closed but I caught her whispered response: “I love that.”
While it’s not the title the publisher ultimately chose, 52 Prayers of Blessing for Women truly will be Cindy’s final benediction to the world she served and the people she loved. It’s scheduled to release on October 2, and I’ll be giving away copies then.
In Cindy’s memory, I’m going to title my Tuesday letters to you Letters from a Seasoned Soul. And because she loved bling, I have a super-cute pair of earrings in fall colors to give away this month (see photo below).
But now I have a question for you: What three or four words would you choose to describe what you want your life to look like in the months and years that remain to you?
My friend Judy Allen writes a thoughtful series called “Reimagining Retirement” that I read regularly. In a recent post, Judy quoted Mitch Anthony, author of The New Retirementality, in which he describes the problem with the old idea and term of retirement.
“Words like curiosity, connectivity, challenge, and contributing are hallmarks of a new generation of retirees who are transforming ‘retiring’ into ‘refiring’ and ‘reclining’ into ‘refining.’”
YES! Isn’t this exactly what most of us desire our later years to be?
We want to be eternally curious about the world around us and the people in it. There is no commencement from the School of Lifelong Learning, nor should there be. Every ending can also become a beginning of sorts.
Curiosity is not about being absorbed in our own concerns but rather being attentive to others, listening to their viewpoints and learning from their experiences. It’s about rediscovering the wonder we had as children, allowing our interests to lead us to inquiry, pushing out the boundaries of what we think we know.
Curiosity is for the young of any age.
The remainder of this month we’ll focus on the other three concepts: connectivity, challenge, and contributing.
And until then?
Remember that curiosity is "the wick in the candle of learning" (William Arthur Ward.) Let’s light a few matches together!
With so much love,
Maggie
P.S. Letter-writers love getting notes in return. Please leave a comment about something you’d like to learn more about that piques your curiosity, and include the word "curious" if you'd like to enter the giveaway.
I’ll choose a reply at random to win this fun pair of earrings that I purchased from Rooted Home, a small business begun by a homeschooling mom.
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