Thrive to 105

I seem to be hung up these days on making sure I don’t ignore or minimize the wealth of my years…the experiences, the learning, the people, the spirit, the love.  After 50+ years of hanging around, how do we take stock of the things that are worth holding on to and the things that we should share…disseminate…like the seeds of fruit and flowers that will bloom again in the coming spring and summer?  In addition, I have always found it a bit overwhelming knowing the amount of knowledge I have yet to gain…bookshelves full of unread words, music yet unheard, nature not yet enjoyed!  Even with a goal of being around for another 50 years, it can make you a bit crazy knowing it’s a never-ending process.

But, for today I’m trying to focus on insight gained from yet another book I have found tremendously enlightening called, Discover Inner Peace; A Guide to Spiritual Well-Being. There’s a section in it titled, Seasons of the Spirit.  Naturally, I searched out the chapter on autumn and found some great food for thought:

The most basic spiritual exercise for autumn is to rid ourselves of such pseudo-poetic melancholy.  True spiritual awareness has no room for regret.  The passage of time is no reason for sorrow.  When the past streams behind us…it must not be allowed to accumulate in some receptacle of regretfulness, along side failed dreams.  If, indeed, we are carrying such a receptacle around, it can only impede our journey.

The pseudo-poetic melancholy referred to is thinking that with the end of summer comes shorter, colder days and the onset of decay…lifelessness.  But for those of us in this second half of life,

It is the season to take stock and to harvest, to gather the fruits of personal spiritual experience and store them away to nourish us during leaner, more difficult times….pressing inner truth from our discoveries.

I like that analogy, especially because I really dislike the winter months (even though I was raised in the winters of Buffalo, New York).  Somehow the mental image of snuggling in on a bitter evening in January to feast on all the truly significant emotionally and spiritually satisfying fruits I’ve harvested does lessen the dread of those inevitable chilly nights!

This is one of those posts that I hope will make an impact on those in the first half of their lives, i.e. my much-loved children.  There’s no reason that this insight should only be of benefit to those of us looking to make sense of a half century or more of memories.  I wish I had been aware and open to this kind of reflection twenty years ago.  It would have made many a long, cold winter a lot more palatable.

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