Possibilities We Never Knew We Had
Every season of our lives has its pros and cons. In our college years, life started happening all at once. Joyfully or not, we were separating from our parents and envisioning a lifetime of great success, the “I can’t live without you” type of perfect relationships, and happily doing things our way.
Between our 30s and 40s, life started revealing its true nature. Things were different than we originally imagined but still manageable. Our energies slowed a bit and then took off again, as we adjusted our goals to fit our lifestyles. Here we learned the difference between “Me, Me, Me” and “We, We, We.” Life was good as long as we were willing to open our hearts and minds to the world.
Midlife comes onto the scene with a vengeance! For some, it’s a shock to look in the mirror and discover a new landscape or an entirely new life. Now we remember all those things we wanted to do thirty years prior before interruptions and distractions took over. We start making plans, realizing time is starting to speed up.
The good news is that we can look around and see new possibilities we never knew we had. Currently, thirty-four percent of people in the U.S. are age fifty or over with fifty-three percent women and forty percent of men and women living as single/single-again. So we are not alone by any means. If we genuinely want to do something with the next fifty years, we need to be willing to get out of the house and meet others in our "tribe."
Five Ideas to Start Planning
Thinking about it, our experiences pile one on top of the other for our entire lives. They build for us an entire “library” of knowledgeable events, good and bad. We can not actually go back in history and re-do our lives. But we can go forward, call on our learning episodes and make things new and different. We could start with these ideas:
- Lifelong Learning - always beneficial and fun, pick something you’ve wanted to learn or participate in doing. Many local colleges are beginning to re-open their campuses post-Covid with some reduced schedules.
- Road Trips - how many of the U. S. states have you seen? How about renting a car in that foreign country you’ve dreamed of stepping foot in? Day trips are also a great way to see sites without a big commitment.
- Community Events - right in your own hometown, there are plenty of outdoor occasions (social-distancing) to use your skills, learn new ones, or volunteer and make your neighborhood better.
- Church Groups - just ask and you’ll see your church can always use your help. You’ll feel useful and needed for sure.
- Dating - please take note that dating clubs, organizations, and especially online dating, are not recommended by this author. They rarely result in any permanent relationship, are sometimes costly, and can actually be dangerous for the novice. However, if you feel you are ready to begin a new relationship, getting out and joining with others in some of the above groups may lead to meeting someone with similar interests. And that is a very good beginning!
Getting to Step Two Using Step One
No matter our circumstances and lifestyle at the moment, there is a way to make a difference with our days. God provides what we need when we need it if we just ask. He is always ready to help and will never, ever leave us. He's our own personal training coach! Just having a determination to do something with our lives that is worthwhile and beneficial is Step Two. Step One is placing our faith in the One true God. There's no reason why we can't do that, right?
“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, and I have remained faithful" (2 Timothy 4:7 NLT).
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