I love this! “Now tell me what to do when you have two things (or more than two things) that are equally and incredibly important to you and you have to pick. Presentation to the Board that only you can do vs kids championship game? “Learn to prioritize” – “F you.”
Thanks for sharing this Jeff. It’s why I’ve developed a disdain for inspirational self help - it often ignore where people really are (anxiety, fear, loneliness). For those of us used to sailing out own boats through life it’s like losing a rudder. It’s a weird place to be to have to sit and wait for the tide instead of sailing your own ship. You’re articulate - maybe you can do some writing while you’re on the island with Wilson 😉
Omg Don thank you have having fun. You write poetically as well 🙏🏻 Not sure if I will embrace chicken as a totem any time soon but maybe a hawk so that if I do decide to cliff jump at least I can fly 😉 Your a good dad to let your daughter do your hair - you’ll miss it in the coming teenage storm - but she’ll remember those moments and hopefully when she’s 30 or 50 she’ll remember her dad with warmth and hopefully see your wisdom 🙏🏻
Lovely, raw, and honest -- thank you for all that. As an "Obliger" I often feel as though I'm borced to choose between equally important things.
Just yesterday, in a wonderful conversation between female entrepreneurs all of whom are 55+ years old, we talked about preparing for what's next. One person asked "How to you get ready when you don't know what's next?" So true, especially when what's next—as you said—is not something we wanted or predicted or could control.
Glad you didn't jump -- we need throughtful writers who can help us navigate through this phase in our lives ( I will be 74 next month).
Thanks for your thoughtful comment! I so love that you are having these conversations with fellow mid life female entrepreneurs. We so need community - we’re pioneers and it’s lonely to be a trail blazer without company to ask these tough questions of what next!
I am still in the early stage of my transition into my "new life", and as such when I approach the cliffs of my life, it's not what I see and what I can choose to do that cause me anxiety, sadness, fear, loneliness or otherwise...it's the inability to see what is there. What is around that corner? What is behind the next door that is about to open? What happens if I take the leap of faith off this cliff?
For now, there are no answers. There is no vision of tomorrow. There are no obvious choices, or masked choices, for there appears to be no choices at all...other than to simply process this day. Put an incremental bit of distance from the last. To learn to cope with the "today", in hopes that I will be better for my "tomorrow".
But for now...it's just loneliness, sadness, fear....and a little bit of excitement. And strangely, it's the excitement that also returns me to the sadness. But to quote Tom Hanks from Cast Away "And I know what I have to do now. I gotta keep breathing. Because tomorrow the sun will rise. Who knows what the tide could bring?"
So here's to tomorrow, and seeing what the tide brings.
Maureen, this is absolutely beautiful. Wisdom and humor in the same place..... what's not to love? Your perspective on living is sage and worthy of consideration and implementation! So honored to be your friend and glean food for the soul from you ~
I love this! “Now tell me what to do when you have two things (or more than two things) that are equally and incredibly important to you and you have to pick. Presentation to the Board that only you can do vs kids championship game? “Learn to prioritize” – “F you.”
Thanks for sharing this Jeff. It’s why I’ve developed a disdain for inspirational self help - it often ignore where people really are (anxiety, fear, loneliness). For those of us used to sailing out own boats through life it’s like losing a rudder. It’s a weird place to be to have to sit and wait for the tide instead of sailing your own ship. You’re articulate - maybe you can do some writing while you’re on the island with Wilson 😉
I love your writing. I hope you don’t mind if I have a bit of fun…
Ah, the right choice. The easy choice.
Didn’t our parental figures tell us that the easy choice was not necessarily the right choice? Or, visa-versa?
Parental guidance whether political, religious, or familiar can be so.. unusable.
You are brave, beautiful, imaginative, creative, energy.
You are catlike.
You are embracing the cat spirit.
With grace and dexterity, you climb your emotional ladders.
Armed with poetry and post-its you narrow your focus to that parental guidance:
Look for right and easy choices.
But now you're starting to see the cracks in the veneer of their logic.
Stuck in Sophie’s choice you see the uncontrollability of it all.
Sometimes there is no easy, right choice.
There is only the path that you decide to take.
In the mist you reach up and take the rung you find. And then the next one..
Unzipping that catsuit, you are starting to discover feathers..
Because you are also chicken.
In your years you are becoming wary of the consequences of bad choices.
Never mind.
Embrace the chicken spirit.
It's what’s kept you from cliff diving all this time.
As I write this my daughter has taken her hair clip and scraped the top of my scalp into a faux mohawk.
She’s laughing at me.
And I know this is temporary because she’s 13 going on 40.
In three seconds she’s going to be pissed at me for god-knows-what.
But for now, I’m laughing.
Life is messy, unpredictable, and uncertain.
But we climb on.
Chinese proverb say: Cat falls seven times, Chicken stands eight…
Omg Don thank you have having fun. You write poetically as well 🙏🏻 Not sure if I will embrace chicken as a totem any time soon but maybe a hawk so that if I do decide to cliff jump at least I can fly 😉 Your a good dad to let your daughter do your hair - you’ll miss it in the coming teenage storm - but she’ll remember those moments and hopefully when she’s 30 or 50 she’ll remember her dad with warmth and hopefully see your wisdom 🙏🏻
Lovely, raw, and honest -- thank you for all that. As an "Obliger" I often feel as though I'm borced to choose between equally important things.
Just yesterday, in a wonderful conversation between female entrepreneurs all of whom are 55+ years old, we talked about preparing for what's next. One person asked "How to you get ready when you don't know what's next?" So true, especially when what's next—as you said—is not something we wanted or predicted or could control.
Glad you didn't jump -- we need throughtful writers who can help us navigate through this phase in our lives ( I will be 74 next month).
Thanks for your thoughtful comment! I so love that you are having these conversations with fellow mid life female entrepreneurs. We so need community - we’re pioneers and it’s lonely to be a trail blazer without company to ask these tough questions of what next!
I am still in the early stage of my transition into my "new life", and as such when I approach the cliffs of my life, it's not what I see and what I can choose to do that cause me anxiety, sadness, fear, loneliness or otherwise...it's the inability to see what is there. What is around that corner? What is behind the next door that is about to open? What happens if I take the leap of faith off this cliff?
For now, there are no answers. There is no vision of tomorrow. There are no obvious choices, or masked choices, for there appears to be no choices at all...other than to simply process this day. Put an incremental bit of distance from the last. To learn to cope with the "today", in hopes that I will be better for my "tomorrow".
But for now...it's just loneliness, sadness, fear....and a little bit of excitement. And strangely, it's the excitement that also returns me to the sadness. But to quote Tom Hanks from Cast Away "And I know what I have to do now. I gotta keep breathing. Because tomorrow the sun will rise. Who knows what the tide could bring?"
So here's to tomorrow, and seeing what the tide brings.
Maureen, this is absolutely beautiful. Wisdom and humor in the same place..... what's not to love? Your perspective on living is sage and worthy of consideration and implementation! So honored to be your friend and glean food for the soul from you ~
Thanks Charmaine it’s for people like you that I write 🙏🏻