MEA

One of our revelations at MEA has been the pattern consistency of transitions. They often start with the end of something, move to the often-awkward liminal period, and then crescendo with a new beginning. Once you understand those three phases, you can witness your life as a series of transitional episodes and, with some experience, you can plot out a roadmap that gets you through that messy middle.

In the course of three days, two well-known NY Times Op-Ed columnists recently wrote columns that sounded like they were written on the beach in front of MEA’s campus. David Brooks pondered the value of wisdom and deep listening, Wisdom Isn’t What You Think It Is.

Wikipedia defines “stalemate” this way: “a situation in the game of chess where the player whose turn it is to move is not in check but has no legal move. The rules of chess provide that when stalemate occurs, the game ends as a draw.”

Baja is famous for its treacherous roads with its stunning vistas. It’s heaven for anyone who loves to drive backroads. It’s hell for rental car companies. What an apt metaphor for life. We’re issued a vehicle at birth: our body. We’re offered expensive rental insurance (growing up with our parents), some driver’s education (school), and a roadmap (life lessons).

Chip’s Note: My two co-founders, Jeff and Christine, were recently in Santa Fe brainstorming how we might design our new 2,600-acre ranch there to become our first U.S. MEA Regenerative Community. The property is located in the Galisteo Basin which has a fascinating cultural history. While he was there, Jeff started conjuring up this poignant poem about the occasional “fantasies” many people have of Santa Fe.

You were first introduced to Lisa Carmel a few weeks ago when she wrote a guest post called, “How Do You Use Your Voice?” She’s a very active member of the MEA alumni community having come to Baja for both a workshop and Sabbatical Sessions while also participating in MEA Online.

Today, we have six generations of adults inhabiting our planet. The original 20th-century premise of adulthood learning revolved around the simple idea that we would learn until early adulthood and then use that learning for the rest of our lives.

Chip’s Note: Mike Land traveled from Texas to Baja by himself and left two weeks later part of a new family. Yesterday’s Wisdom Well featured Mike’s rock balancing abilities. Here’s an email that he wrote a day after he left Baja to his fellow Sabbatical Session friends.

It was exactly one year ago when MEA had to close for business. It all happened so abruptly, with the World Health Organization announcing that we’d slid into a global pandemic on March 11, 2020. We had our 50th MEA cohort of 18 mid-lifers on campus at the time, scheduled to leave on March 15, with another cohort scheduled to arrive that same day.

I love this TEDx UCLA talk from brand strategist Pash Pashkow, who humorously helps us see that a company rebrand isn’t all that different from the rebrand we might want to experience in midlife. He reminds us that many companies come out stronger on the other side of a rebrand based upon asking the following three questions: