Guest Post

I just got back from a weeklong workshop called “You Are NOT Your Title: Finding Joy in a Career Swerve.”

I work in the field of retirement planning and coaching. One of the most pervasive forms of thinking among people that come to see me is to separate time into before and after retirement. Retirement acts as the wall separating who they are while employed and who they are going to be in the future.

There was a time in my early forties when I once spent the better part of a day shopping for a soap dish and toothbrush holder that would perfectly match the brushed nickel faucets in my newly remodeled spa bathroom. Back then, I was extremely proud of my just-spicy-enough jambalaya and how well it paired with dry Gewurztraminer.

I recently re-read Dr. Carol Dweck's “Mindset” book, and I came away with a new understanding. What if a fixed mindset is all about Ego? Conversely, what if a growth mindset is just an expression of Soul?

I’ve had the pleasure of participating in and co-organizing the MEA Corazon Third Act Discussion Group over the past year or so, along with Pat Whitty, Stuart Evans, and others. Our monthly topics have led to some interesting and very relevant discussions to all of us as we age.

On the Monday of our MEA journey, bread-making was offered as a creative and collaborative experience, much to the delight of all….

I learned today that in 1917 the novelist E.M. Forster was in Egypt for the first time. As a conscientious objector in World War I, Forster served as a Chief Searcher (for missing servicemen) for the British Red Cross in Alexandria, Egypt.

On the day after America’s Stars and Stripes holiday, we offer this simple, lovely poem from MEA cofounder Jeff Hamaoui, our poet laureate.

I have a lot of friends enraged and grieving this week: Dobbs, Congressional hearings on January 6, mass shootings. I wanted to offer something I read in journalist Oliver Burkeman’s newsletter:

The past few days have been emotional for women all around the world. For me, our civil liberties have been diminished and I wonder about our dystopian world.