On my seventy-fifth birthday in November, the years 2009-2024 will represent exactly 20% of my life, i.e., five parts, each fifteen years long. When this arbitrary mathematical marker interfered with a recent meditation, I was unsure where it would take me. But as is my lifelong habit, soon after my return, I began writing. Perhaps some of you will follow me down this short four-pronged path? I found it instructive; I suspect you might as well.
* Depending on your age, divide your life into between two and five parts with an equal number of years in each part. Then, write down the years of each part, e.g., in my case, part five reads 2009 - 2024.
* Looking at the years comprising each part, do a brief automatic writing exercise, capturing the first several things that come to mind that occurred during those years. Capture as many or as few as you like but avoid overthinking, evaluating, or editing. Just write.
* Next, give each part a descriptive name/title/heading. Again, avoid over-thinking; go with your gut. If you want, you can re-name any or all of the parts after you do the final step. For example, my part five ended up being later re-named "The Post Full-Time Work Years".
* Last, try to identify at least one predominant feeling attached to what you captured in the second bullet above. Dig deep here; try to be as specific as you can. For example, I wrote "most personally satisfying" alongside part five vs. a word like "happy", which is accurate but less precise. It's possible this final piece will end up being the most challenging and most revealing for you. It was for me.
"And now a quarter of my life has almost passed, I think I've come to see myself at last."
If anyone has contact information for John Sebastian, please ask him on my behalf if he stands by the sentiment expressed in that lyric from Darling Be Home Soon, written in 1966 when he was twenty-two years old. Since Sebastian is now eighty - making twenty-two close to a "...quarter of his life..." - it's a fair question, don't you think? And how about you? Would you assert that you were able to "...see yourself..." when a quarter of your life had passed? I know I wasn't that precocious. If I shared with you my title for the second 20% of my life, i.e., from age sixteen through thirty, you'd know for sure that John was way ahead of me.
Pat, I hope to follow your lead and play around with my timeline.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, the song reference made me dig into my musical archives to find the "Joe Cocker!" album on which he did a cover of "Darling Be Home Soon". (headphones recommended). This album is still a favorite.
Hey Bill; Thanks for the comment; I'm pleased my little experiment has prompted you to try something similar. Although Cocker's version of that Lovin Spoonful song is not a personal favorite, once again I'm pleased if the song reference in this post inspired you to dig into your collection. Isn't music the best thing since sliced bread? (Actually, music pre-dates sliced bread so that's a silly question.)
DeleteHey Pat. Very interesting exercise. I chose to divide my years into 3 parts. And, yes, part of was due to being the easier math - lol. And I found it to be more meaningful than I had expected after I read your post the first time. While I won't go into the 3 parts in detail here, I can say that one of the things it reminded me of was something a friend, who was 25 years my senior, said many years ago about growing older ... and I'm skipping to the latter part as it would take too much to list it all ... but she said that in your 40's the years start to pick up speed and by the time you hit your 50's 'Hold On'. I can now safely say that as I am in my latter 60's the ride has picked up even more speed but at the same time has provided so much more to enjoy about life.
ReplyDeleteBe well,
Bob
Bob; I'm pleased you decided to give this is try. Maybe the next time we cross paths we can compare your three parts to my five.
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