Mid-Life Perspectives

Spir­i­tual rewards begin when you are very young. That exquis­ite sense of won­der begins its meta­mor­pho­sis into the mature breath-taking awe of your clos­ing years. When you are young, you won­der what it would be like to be older. I remem­ber, before I was old enough to go to school, that some­day I just might be thirty. That was a com­pletely mind-blowing thought. Now I can look back at that with a smile. I have nearly dou­bled that fig­ure and still sense the child inside that had that feel­ing more than a half-century ago.

The post-midlife side of the moun­tain is when you rise above your aches and pains to expe­ri­ence the spir­i­tual panora­mas of all pos­si­bil­i­ties. It is not that you are achiev­ing this on your own, but you cer­tainly have to coop­er­ate with your bet­ter nature…and the Nature above all nature. Spir­i­tual matu­rity is a gift as well as an inten­tional jour­ney. Here are a cou­ple of my favorite per­spec­tives, now that I real­ize that I am well out to sea in this earthly life:

Neg­a­tively, pet­ti­ness is an evil to avoid at all costs. It looks super­fi­cial, but it betrays an inner world of unre­solved jeal­ousies and buried rage. It seeps out like the smoke of a vol­cano. Do not be manip­u­lated by it in your­self or oth­ers. Take note of it and go on. The past is never resolved by poi­son­ing the present with a bad atti­tude toward any­one or anything.

Pos­i­tively, your dreams increase in qual­ity. Pay atten­tion to them. You have some won­der­ful emo­tions and real­iza­tions that have sur­vived the belt-lines of your younger years. They deserve the lion’s share of your atten­tion. Because of your well-invested spir­i­tual hopes, you can die with a pos­i­tive antic­i­pa­tory smile on your face. Life may still have some suf­fer­ing ahead, but all ulti­mate dread is gone.

In the mean time, con­tinue toss­ing your worldly wor­ries. Your life cir­cum­stances are only props on your par­tic­u­lar life’s stage. They are not the play itself. Embrace the moment — even if it is painful. Moments pass and fade into end­less time. None of the minor moments define the end­less sea of life pos­si­bil­i­ties ahead. Lift your gaze a lit­tle. It gets better.