I'm a renaissance woman interested in living a fully expressed life of wholeness and contribution. And every day, I meet women like me. Artistic, creative, energetic people with life experiences that have led to unique worldviews. Are we a new species? Here's my comparison. I’m quite global/international in my perspective, have deep respect for people’s right to do their lives their way, make their own choices. Currently moving out an executive job as VP for a (b)leading-edge solar technologies company where I was a founding partner. At 56, I am very interested in moving my own dreams forward and seeing how the fullness of that can impact the world. Although I'm in Phili, not NY or LA, online, in business or even in Borders or Starbucks, I am finding we're everywhere. There are droves of us.
Now for the unique part: this is my dream, but I find people are excited to hear about it and want their own dreams to take off, and even want to opt-in to mine. What lights me up? I am extremely interested in the potential of aging well, far beyond what the positive aging community has set as its goal. I'm an artist and creativity buff, so I looked into creativity and aging and was stunned to see it is a golden key. In fact, research has proven that our brains actually grow and increase in connections between 55 and 70 and that being creative is one of the best things we can go to enhance this process, engendering wellbeing, aliveness and health envisioned and developed Creativity Toolbox for Seniors last year (creativitytoolbox.org), a subscription website for retirement communities and assisted living centers that provides a wealth of arts/mental fitness activities for seniors. Why not make growing into a marvelous third stage of life easier online?
What if aging offers the extraordinary opportunity for a new kind of life? Just as adolescence throws the child into a mental and physical turmoil of change, so does aging for the older adult. The difference is we have a positive context for the changes of the teen years to soothe the aches and pains and create a bright future paradigm. My vision of a new context for aging would handle the fears of pain and the unknown, address the sense of loss and grief integral to change and look the concept of diminishment square in the face. We have the tools available in today's world to be relaxed and actually examine what is really happening as we age, all we need is the context! I expect there are many surprises if we take the blinders off. Biographies of aged artists especially demonstrate this “new life” potential. I see this as the birth of elder wisdom: the third age of human beings, a fully satisfying life of meaningful experience and contribution.
So, this is what I am up to. And I keep working on it, in my creative, artistic way. I love people—who they are, how they do it, what delights them, how we are not all the same. That's the blessing. I’d like to see more people being more intrinsically themselves out there, fearlessly in the world. Besides, elderlife is an area worth addressing—after all we’re all going there, aren’t we?
