One Precious Life

Here’s this week’s reflection. I hope it resonates with you and ask that, if you enjoyed, please comment and share on your social media. Heartfelt thanks for all your support!

Keeping the light on for you,

Carol

“Tell me, what is it
you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?”

– Mary Oliver

Reading this quote a while back spawned an era of personal enlightenment. Some called it a midlife crisis. I called it freedom.

The safety of convention had always been my compass. “Not making waves” was a guiding principle of my subdued upbringing; one that also led to a subdued ability to have unabashed fun.

When I turned an exhausted, sandwich-generation fifty years old, the mirror revealed more than errant chin hairs. My eyes lacked fire and the wrinkles weren’t all laugh lines. To quote my dad: “There I was at the corner of Walk and Don’t Walk.”

Having cared for everyone but myself, I had a choice to make. 

I took up the sport of triathlon, learned to scuba dive, began  journaling more consistently, and started listening, finally, to my heart. None of this was easy for a self-professed coward but, with determination in my veins, I persisted. 

By the time I turned 55, all gloriously giddy hell broke loose and whatever filters remained from turning 50 completely vaporized. My once-imperceptible voice now loud and proud, I frequently shared regardless of others’ opinions. Realizing I would not die by expressing either my truth or my foibles, and that some folks very much enjoyed what I had to say, the art of tactful banter offered even more fun. And to think I’d wasted all those years in silence. 

Generations of women in my family were prohibited from taking part in important conversations. My mother parented much as her Victorian-era mother did, albeit dipping a curious toe into the burgeoning autonomy of the 1960s and 70s. But now, as reigning matriarch (and one employed in a verbally collaborative profession) I feel it is my duty to shove the sisterhood forward with a giant boot kick in the hinder.  

As parent to daughters navigating school and entering adulthood, I continually remind them to speak up! There is no shortage of opportunity to embrace and share one’s truth; my only hope is that they fully develop this skill long before their mother did. And given the verbiage currently directed toward their parental units, they seem to be on an assertive trajectory.

My wild, precious life is still unfolding. Mary Oliver’s quote continues to guide me as I make up for lost time. While I would like to think I have made Mom and Dad proud, far more important to me is the strength to hold my own in a willy-nilly world. The head and heart now happily exist in unison as I follow a more balanced way forward.

I ask you, dear Reader, what do YOU plan to do with your one wild and precious life? Break the molds of the past? Blaze new trails? Create beauty? Cultivate kindness? Or all the above?

Whatever your choice, you are in very good company.