Victoria Labalme explains in her book “Risk Forward: Embrace the Unknown and Unlock your Hidden Genius:“In each of our lives at various points along the way, we find ourselves in the Fog of Not Knowing—a period of transition, when the path, the plan, or the project is not yet clear. This period in between—whether for minutes or for months—is to be respected and honored; it is fertile and full of promise. If you can meet this void without grasping for the most convenient way out, what you discover will be beyond your expectations and imagination.

Let’s add “cantankerous” to that list while we’re at it. And, yes, I know that’s how many Americans describe people 60 and older. But, it’s just not my experience. There’s ample evidence showing that our EQ grows with age as does our emotional moderation and ability to empathize.

I float in that place Between slumber and stirring In my Liminal sleep.

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.

If you read this recent post, you know I’m in love with actress Frances McDormand. But, then I came upon this interview with Katie Couric on aging and I really appreciated the last few seconds of it when she suggests our face represents the wisdom of our experience, the map of our life. Enjoy it. Good luck, Frances, tonight with the Academy Awards!

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.”

Burning Man meets Lawrence of Arabia meets Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (maybe with a tad of Mad Max). That was my experience last week when I made the pilgrimage to the White Sands National Park in southern New Mexico. As you’ll see in the video at the end of this post, this is a luscious lunar landscape that’s as curvaceous as it is transient.

This New York Times Op-Ed, “You Can Be a Different Person After the Pandemic,” prompted me to write this ode to the past year.

“Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off.” - Margery Williams Bianco, The Velveteen Rabbit

As I slide the slippery slope toward retirement, I’ve tried lots of novel activities to keep my brain sharp and engage me in the way my career has. Unfortunately, most of the standard “hobbies” I tried were quickly abandoned because I compared myself to experienced writers, artists, singers and musicians.