Thrive to 105

In working through The Second Half of Life, you have to pass through the Eight Gates of Wisdom.  Who knew, right?  I’ve known for quite some time that I’m wiser than I was 40 years ago; but one would certainly hope that, after all we’ve gone through over four decades, we would come out the other side having learned something!

The first of the eight gates in Angeles Arrien’s book is the Silver Gate:  Facing New Experiences and the Unknown.  I’m sure there are plenty from the Baby Boomer set who would say, “No thanks, I’ll just stick with the familiar and comfortable at this point in my life.”  Personally, I’m intrigued by new experiences; the “unknown” makes it sound a little more ominous!  However, I’m game!

At each Gate in the book we are given a “Task”, a “Challenge”, a “Gift”, “Reflections”, and something we’re supposed to “Practice”.  Apparently, Arrien isn’t going to make it easy for us to get through all eight gates in order to gain all that wisdom.  For the sake of making it a little simpler, I’m going to break down the journey through each gate into one blog post per section mentioned above.  I’m hopeful that some of you reading this will take this journey with me.  As a rule, I think journeys are more fun when you have company!

I’m also holding out hope that for those reading this who aren’t yet in that “Second Half of Life”, they will find it good food for thought.  After all, who’s to say you can’t get a head start on all this wisdom stuff, anyway.

The Task of the Silver Gate includes acceptance of the aging process we’re going through, the aging of both our minds and our bodies.  That’s already a hard one, don’t you think?  This means, as is pointed out in the book, letting go of our egos.  There are times when I tell myself to just let go, that it is too much work to fight it.  Then there is the other side of me that has for years said that I’m going kicking and screaming!  What I find appealing is that in letting go and accepting where we’re headed, we find freedom.

With this freedom comes the opportunity to experience not only our status as “elders”, but also discover new adventures.  Of course, the author tells us we need to:

…see our lives with new eyes so we can begin to prepare for the ultimate new experience, which is our death.

Yeah…I’m not so sure about that “adventure”.  Not that I’m afraid of acknowledging it is on my journey somewhere down the road; I’m just not ready to travel that path quite yet!  I’ve got too much living to do first…too much to discover about the next 50 years of my life!

The “essential” task of this first gate, the Silver Gate, is to live this part of your life “like a river flows” with flexibility and perseverance.  Arrien challenges us, at this gate, to:

…return to a fresh innocence and resourcefulness as we fully explore the spirit of fluency, looking at our world with expanded curiosity.

The poem she quotes, by John O’Donohue, called Fluent does give a very simple, yet attracting way, of looking at how to live life:

I would love to live

Like a river flows,

Carried by the surprise

Of its own unfolding

Float trip anyone?!!

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