Change

Okay, I’ll admit it: I’m a bit of a change junkie. My shelves are packed with books that promise to help me banish bad habits, boost my creativity, and become a rock star at parenting.

In the Gregorian calendar used throughout most of the world, a Leap Year is a calendar year that contains an additional day, called a Leap Day, added to keep the calendar year synchronized with the seasons. In use since the 1500’s, a Leap Day compensates for the small amount of extra time it takes the Earth to make a full trip around the sun and allows for a realignment of the Gregorian calendar with the Earth’s position in the solar system.

We've all heard the saying,"if it ain't broke, don't fix it", right? That may be good for maintenance purposes, but if "it" can change for the better, shouldn't we be on board with that for growth's sake? At some point, we've most likely felt the nudge to make some kind of change, even getting motivated to the point of almost making said change, only to ultimately Resist The Reset.

“I think as one grows older, one is appallingly exposed to wearing life instead of living it. Habit, physical deterioration and a slower digestion of our experiences, all tend to make one look on one’s dear life as a garment, a dressing gown, a raincoat, a uniform, buttoned on with recurrent daily (tasks)...

Once upon a time, there were three sisters: Serendipity, Synchronicity, and Epiphany. They lived in a small fishing and farming village in southern Baja, a tranquil place some called Yet. From far and wide, midlife pilgrims flew into the bustling Los Cabos airport seeking the sisters. But they would immediately realize this was “Not Yet.”

You came frozen brittle Punched and pinched from the cold Washed by a strange wind To the warm Baja shore.

Would you invest in a business that has an 80% failure rate and lasts only about 45 days? Well, that defines the effectiveness of our average New Year’s resolution. Some pundits say you can improve your odds by making sure your resolutions are SMART: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Results-Based, and Time-Oriented. But smart isn’t necessarily wise.

Last week I met someone I hadn’t seen for over two and a half years and they asked me what I’d been up to. I could have said so much.

“Wholly unprepared, [we] embark upon the second half of life. Or are there perhaps colleges for forty-year-olds which prepare them for their coming life and its demands as the ordinary colleges introduce our young people to a knowledge of the world and of life?

My husband and I took a gap year at age 62, forty-four years after our respective parents forbade us from taking a timeout before starting university. The goal was to reinvent ourselves. We were determined to resist the tyranny of the three-stage life (learn, earn, retire). Our children were grown and launched. Why not, we thought?