Elderhood

Yesterday was one jam packed day, full of life, beginning with my early morning session with the prophet Hosea. Then came back to back meetings, with intense phone conversations in between, ending with a quite pleasant 70th birthday celebration for my sister-in-law, along with family and friends.

I was even able to work in a fine game of chess with my grandson given an unexpected school closing.

Adjusting to Elderhood, given the varied patterns modeled around me is challenging. More and more I seem surrounded by those who have chosen to exit worklife much earlier, some with leisure time on their hands, others revealing an accelerated physical decline.

Neither seems attractive to me.

My lunch meeting at the local Chamber yesterday was so invigorating. Scheduled to speak in a few weeks, I felt the need to get a sense of the audience, given the tremendous growth since its earliest days.

I quickly spotted a few long time community leaders, though all at least 20 years younger. Suddenly, I was reinvigorated, almost as if we had never been apart, though a couple years had passed. You'd think I was early on in my career, networking, searching out some new career opportunity, when in reality, I have few needs beyond sharing life lessons.

I loved being in that moment, though it serves only to exacerbate this ever mounting sense of urgency to convey what I have learned on the journey. I have to buffer my grandfather-like sense of responsibility for seeding a much deeper tranquillity than I knew in my earlier days. What I found among these young entrepreneurs was a sense of assurance that life works when you partner with others, offering your best, while being true to yourself.

Not only is that a mouthful, but an example that a religion free, marketplace environment can provide deep spiritual work as well. Seeding a well disciplined and positive attitude, a deep belief in one's uniqueness, which always spawns energizing expectations.

That leads to resting in and recognizing the long proven reality that you are a spiritual being, housed in a human body. Your spirit is connected to others not just by way of your professional contributions, but by design, a very intelligent design!

You are a part of a spiritual ecosystem, that extends beyond the sanctuary, one as secure as Creation herself, though she "neither sows [seed] nor reaps [the harvest] nor gathers [the crops] into barns, and yet your heavenly Father keeps feeding them. Are you not worth much more than they? Matt. 6:26-27 (AMP).

This amazing Being that presides over the galaxies, (though I am no longer sure what that looks like, other than when once manifest in human flesh, the Christ) has carried me now for 7.5 decades.

All the while I was kicking and screaming, testing the waters, tasting both the good and the bad of life. Yet, never have I been in a moment without remedy, nor alone and totally at the mercy of others.

Now at the end of my days, I am even more comforted and convinced of a Higher Power that knows me by name. In fact, I am who I am because of the "I Am." My days. My purpose has been held in providence, my successes long assured by a womb work well before my first breath.

Why would I not be excited about where lIfe has taken me! I just wish I had heard what I have now learned much earlier, or maybe told in a way that I would have cared better to listen.

May I now in this brief window bring remedy to that, for those who come behind me!