We’re back! 

It’s always good to get away, even if one must spend a little time each day to do a wee bit of work.  But, as always, I have re-entry issues.  I’m what one might call a “slider”.  I have to “slide” into the morning and “slide” into coming back home.  It’s my nature or the nature of my bio-rthymns (I can never be sure I spell “rthymn” correctly, but never mind - you know what I mean).

Does our basic nature change as we grow more chronologically mature?  Someone asked me that question recently and I didn’t have a good answer other than - “gee whiz, I don’t know!”

My honest opinion is that basically, our natural inclinations or internal mechanisms or whatever you want to call “it” or “them” - doesn’t change!  We are who we are in our inner being. 

However, we are also adaptable folks.  We can overcome internal issues when we really set our mind to it.  Me, for example!  “Me” is not naturally a morning person (the reason I have to slide into the a.m. hours).  I’m a night person.  It was never easy for me to get up with the first wimpers of infant children before the crack of dawn appeared.  I fed them in my sleep I’m sure and prayed they’d quickly eat so I could slide back in bed for a few more hours rest.

Over the years, a sense of adult responsibility took over.  It was simply a matter of practical fact that I had to get up and get moving - no sliding. 

Now, well into chrono-maturity, I find that I can arise at least 90 minutes before I have to get ready for the day, with relative ease.  I have my slide time - it just takes place at a much earlier hour.  But the night is much shorter than it used to be.

One of the things that sets us apart as we mature in years is a sense of responsibility.  Not that women younger than us aren’t responsible, but the reason for being so may change.  When we were young parents, we had no choice but to be responsible for young ones who depended on us.

Now it’s a different sense of responsibility.  It’s almost a decision to take responsibility for what lies ahead.  A sense that relates less to others - and more to “us”.  It’s an inner urge to be responsible because it ‘fits’ with who we want to be.

I don’t have a clue where this strain of conversation came from today except that I had to fight with my slider side to move back into mental work mode!  It may also have come from a comment I made to Harold while strolling the “Landings” in Branson.

I’ll make this quick!  We passed a number of young families with very young children.  They were wrestlin’ the kids!  One mom looked at me as we passed and I could see how tired she was.  We smiled at each other and walked on. 

“I’m so relieved I don’t have to do that anymore,” I said.  I actually felt real freedom that I was through the childbearing - childrearing years!  You can’t imagine what went through my mind at that moment and what I uttered as we strolled - unencumbered - to the end of the street.

“Thank God for menopause!”  I actually said it.  And I uttered it as a prayer.  “Thank you Lord, that you were wise enough to build us for menopause.”

And I mean that.  I love children and I adore my g’kids!  But I’m so thrilled that those years are behind me and that a different form of responsibility weaves its way through life at this point.

Well I don’t know about you!  If you are still raising youngins’ - great!  If you are like me and those years have passed by - that’s great too. 

But we’ll always have some form of responsibility and I do believe we learn over time to adapt to our circumstances and put the inner nature at bay.

I also believe that’s what’s meant by “maturity!”

Have an awesome day with much love & considerable blessings.

Linda

Yes I know!  I used a word I never use.  “Senior”.  It’s not in my vocabulary.  However, it’s the reputation formerly tiny Branson, MO. has come to enjoy.

This is my 2nd trip to what I call a more modest model of its Nevada ‘cousin’.  The “strip” in Branson is lined with tons of restaurants and show palaces featuring everything from the “Twelve Irish Tenors” to Andy Williams and a raft of country music folks.  The hotels and resorts are more modest as well.

Not so, downtown “Historic Branson”.  Gone is the sleepy little downtown area bordering Lake Tannycombe and in it’s place is a mile-long veranda of shops (including an incredible Bass Pro anchoring one end), restaurants and an awesome water & fire show every hour on the hour beginning at 7:00 p.m.

Tomorrow we’ll enjoy the 12 Irish lads ‘crossing over’ between pop and opera - something most popular these days.  Frankly, I admit - I love it!  And then we’ll head for home.

It was a nice respite.  Although too muddy for Harold to fish and my need to be ‘online’ daily; it was good to change scenery and experience parts of the U.S. we hadn’t seen in a long time.

With that said, it will be another day before I’m back at the Blog post, so I ask you to keep us in your prayers for a safe journey.  And wherever you are - the same is asked for you!

Have an awesome evening with  a ton of love and great blessings!

Linda

Well it’s even warmer today in the beautiful Ozark mountains of Arkansas!  Today, I left the socks at home and am enjoying the barefeet-in-sandals that comes with Spring.

Yesterday I wrote about “retirement” and just moments ago published it for folks to read.  The one thing about planning for or enjoying retirement (whichever place you happen to be at the moment), is the freedom of time.  Freedom to use time as we choose.

When we are less chrono-mature, someone owns our time!  Youngsters, bosses, laundry, household chores and the various asundry things we are required to do.  Once we leave the well at which we’ve worked for a number of years, time is our companion.  It’s our friend because we can now say “today, I will do this or do that!”

Even when we choose to ‘retire’ from one profession to the next.  Even when we go from serving another’s well to serving our own - we can choose the hours & days we’ll work and how we’ll go about it.  And of course, if we don’t want to do a thing other than travel or pursue a favorite hobby fulltime - that’s our choice!

Just thinking about it is freeing!  Just realizing that at some point, we can choose to do the things we always wanted to do but couldn’t because time did not permit.

Most of the women I know have a passion for many many things!  And they are exceedingly good at them.  But pursuing them during the 1st half of the journey wasn’t an option.  NOW, that we’ve arrived at a place in time where we are free to make choices unencumbered by former obligations - we can pick & choose to our heart’s content.

If you are in the early days of the 2nd half of the journey, plan now for a 2nd, 3rd or 4th career of your choice!  And welcome the time you know you’ll have to do them.

Well that’s about all the right hemisphere of this brain can create in these moments, so I’ll wish each of you an awesome day with much love and considerable blessings!

Linda

It’s hard to write for such a broad-based audience as ours!  Some are not even 40 and others such as myself are pushin’ ‘chrono-maturity pretty hard.  I seldom mention ‘retirement’, but it’s good to do so from time to time.

 I’m reminded of a comment one of the women at our March 17 Affiliated Women’s meeting made as she was leaving.  She commented that we are the same age.  As she walked from the door, she threw the phrase, “I failed retirement” at me.

“I failed retirement!”  What a delightful comment.  I guess I failed it too.  In fact, I didn’t even try it and fail.  I simply decided there is too much of life to be experienced in a productive way that to ‘retire’ would be a disgrace.  Besides, I’m somewhat of a late bloomer who didn’t get a handle on what might be my purpose until well into chronological maturity.

Financial planners and advisors; attorneys and all those involved in advising us on our future talk in terms of ‘retirement’.  “Retirement from what?”  We may retire from the ‘well’ we worked for a number of years - but why retire to do nothing.  That used to be the perception of retirement - do nothing.  My parents and their friends, when in Florida for the winter months, would plan their next meal while chowing down the current one.  That was the extent of the excitement, creativity and productivity that passed as ‘retirement’ to them.

Most researchers and experts in the area of the ’silver generation’ (or “boomers”) credit the aging of the boomers with the change in our perspective on ‘retirement’.  They say it is not at all uncommon for folks to retire not once, but multiple times during the years from 50 forward!

Don’t get me wrong.  If you want to retire retire - that’s fine.  But most folks I know talk about retiring as a way to leave what they’ve done for some time and tired of along the way, to do something they always dreamed of doing.  In fact, current research indicates that most of the ’silver generation’ want to work at something productive until they die.

Now that’s what I call a healthy attitude.  Because other research states that when we ’sits down’ & ‘does nuthin’, we shorten our lives by years.

If you are investigating what you might want to do when you leave a current position or make a change in your work life, consider it wise to plan for a 2nd or 3rd or even 4th career. 

Thinking of Pat’s comment as she exited the meeting, I’m thinking that the one place it may be perfectly fine to “fail” at something is to “fail to retire” - at least completely.

Another beautiful day in Arkansas with sunshine and temps in the 70’s.  So wherever you are, have an awesome day with much love & considerable blessings.

Linda

When you read these posts, I’m in Arkansas in the midst of the Ozark Mountains at an awesome Wyndham resort.

One of the blessings of this season of chonological maturity is ownership in Wyndham-Fairfield timeshare.  We had points that would expire on 3/31 if we didn’t go somewhere.  So we chose Arkansas for part of the week and Branson for the rest.  Who goes to Arkansas on a vacation?  We did and it’s because of the 40,000 Greers Ferry Lake.  Normally an excellent fishing spot, the floods raised the water level and dredged mud from the bottom - so not only is fishing less than perfect, so is boating.  But the spot is beautiful and the condo is delightful.

It’s a working vacation for me as you can guess.  I’m in the only wireless accessible area - the Welcome Center.  So for the remainder of the week, I’ll hit the W.C. sometime during the day to check emails & say “hi” from this gorgeous retirement spot where the weather is a wee bit warmer than Indiana.

So wherever you are these days, enjoy and I’ll think of you as we wonder this beautiful part of our country. 

Have an awesome day with much love and many blessings.

Linda

Okay, so this is not the “Forum”.  When I’m away, I have to use the BLOG to talk on our Perspectives piece.

I’m a huge advocate of experiential learning.  I also know that experiential learning has a foundation in the concept of modeling.  We do/did it all the time if we were parenting young children - whether we realized it or not!

We talk a lot about ‘modeling’.  At least I do!  What I think is the most powerful & effective teaching tool is modeling!  I can read it from a book or I can see it in action and then I can experience it for myself.  When I see it and then experience it - the learning is most likely to stick.

I call it the “ah ha” model!

It has become popular to look to the Man Jesus as a model for how to connect, enrich, encourage & empower others.  From a business perspective.

We all know that he was viewed as an itinerant teacher who traveled from Gallilee to Judea, modeling the Kingdom wherever he went.  He is the model.

What did he do that made him so effective?  For starters, folks experienced him as authentic (the what you see is what you get).  And they experienced him as genuine.  They simply knew he cared about them.  He gave examples to help them comprehend what he was teaching.  He answered questions openly & honestly.  And he gave of himself.

When I reflect on him as the model, I think of how he took 12 ruff and tumble men; shaped and formed them and entrusted them with a great mission.

And they grew to love him, as a person they admired, trusted, respected and wanted to emulate.

We model something for someone all the time - whether we want to or even know it!  And others are doing the same for us.

We are wise women who populate AWP!  We have traveled the road and perhaps changed paths many times.  That wisdom is something we need to model for others.

 I suggest we take that same wisdom in our “essential tool bag” when we look for someone to serve as a model for us.  Whether you know the Man through a faith experience or simply know of him and his ways - he remains the model. 

If all we ever “copy” from him or find in others, is his authenticity, genuineness, honesty & care, we’ve become or found the one we want to model. 

And be modeled by!

Have an awesome day with much love & the blessings of a great model!

Linda

Oh, yea I trust her!

How often I’ve spoken those words with resolute enthusiasm only to learn that my trust was ill-placed.  And I hear the same lament from many women with whom I chat.

What is trust anyway?  Is the challenge that we don’t know what it means or are we naive to think that “what we see (or hear) is what we get!”

It’s always easier to use one’s self as the example.  I’m an enigma when it comes to trust.  I will tell you that I don’t trust easily and then turn around and trust another after just one conversation. 

Are you like that?  Say one thing and then turn around and do just the opposite?

“Trust” is giving my heart & soul to another with the anticipation that the other will guard “me” more carefully than themselves.  When “trust” is betrayed, it hurts to the core of our being. 

“Trust” has to do with handing “me” over to someone else without fear or doubt.  Now, why in the world do we do that so easily?

We do it because we are built for relationship.  “It is not good for man (or woman) to be alone!”  And quality relationships that last a lifetime are laid on the foundation of “trust”.

How can I know - really know - that I can trust another? 

I can’t in just one meeting or one chat or any other “one” event in time.  Even with the best “gut” in town, I can’t really know that a ‘budding’ new relationship is with someone I can TRUST!

Time will tell!  Time will tell me if I can trust this other.  As each of us are a little more mutually transparent with each other - something will grow within us & between us that we will label “trust”.

Trust is built on mutual transparency.  If you are in relationship with another and you’re revealing more about you than your learning about the other  - that should be a red flag.  So should how mutual the decision to connect with each other.  If you’re doing all the connecting (via phone, email, etc); then you’re probably more interested in the relationship than the other.

Oh, been there - done that - and have the tee shirt (and ‘bruises’) to tell. 

It hurts, but unless you’ve turned yourself inside out for the other; it’s an awesome lesson in learning to be strategically trusting.

And of course, we swear an oath to “never, never, never do that again!”

Yea! 

My hope for each of us is that before opening up to another in a way that has tremendous “hurt” potential; we’ll recall our words to “never, never, never do that again!”

Have an awesome day with much love & significant support!

Linda

It is not yet dawn.  I want to scurry from the room before the others awake.  Quickly I stuff a few precious items into my basket and creep away without a sound.

I run along the path that leds to the garden and pray I can tend to my work without being disturbed.  My heart is heavy and as I enter the lush trees and pass the wine press, I feel a sudden agony of spirit.  Leaning against an olive tree, I begin to weep.  How will I ever be able to go on.

What is this?  The stone is gone and the guards are not at their posts.  I rush to the opening in the rock wall and peer in. 

Empty!  It’s empty.

How could someone be so cruel!

I hear a sound behind me and turn to see the gardner.  “Sir, I’ve come to care for the body of my friend who died on Friday.  But the stone is gone and the tomb is empty.  Please sir, if you know where they’ve taken him - tell me so I can tend to his body!”

“Mary,” he says. 

I’ve always loved that Jesus first appeared to Mary following his resurrection.  It has always felt like a vindication of women - of the feminine!  He didn’t seek out Peter or James or John.  He approached Mary.  And when he spoke her name, she recognized him.  His conversation with her was so gentle and tender and understanding of her state of mind as she grieved the loss of her friend.

Jesus was the consummate lover of women.  Oh yes I know, some folks might find that statement offensive; but I mean no offense.  He loved them unconditionally and he gave them great deference.  He treated us as equals and respected what we brought to the table - as the old expression goes.

How awesome that must have been for Mary.  To hear her name spoken by the man who had given her back her dignity and cared not about her past - only the bright future that lay before her. 

One rarely hears anyone make note of the fact that Jesus appeared first to Mary - a woman.  One who, some say, had been a harlot, a woman of considerable ill-repute.  It’s rarely talked about from pulpits across the nation as men of the cloth gloss over the fact.

I’m proud and pleased that He did so.  I feel a little smug about it actually.  Big strong strapping Peter, sleeping on a mat in a dingy room with 10 other cowardly souls who dared not venture out.   What must they have thought when Mary burst into the room shouting, “He’s alive!” 

The point of this is not to demean men in general or the men who were Jesus’ closest friends.  The point is that Jesus chose to reveal himself to her.  And she chose to get up early, before the dawn and tend to his body in death.  Had she not done so, she would have missed the most glorious moment of her life.

Most importantly, Jesus entrusted the awesome message that “I am alive” to Mary - a woman.  It was her he sent to tell them - the others - the men.  He gave her the monumental task of revealing his resurrection to those who would tell the world that he is alive.

Think about it, dear women.  Think about the fact that the Lord of life for those of us who believe gave the most important message in history to a woman.

We ought rejoice and be exceedingly glad in who we are as women and celebrate the dignity the Man gave us when He revealed himself to Mary - a woman.

Have an awesome Easter Day with much love & considerable rich blessings!

Linda

Friday has passed and we look toward the morning!  We look with anticipation and a sense of joy because we know the “end of the story”.

But the men and women who followed Jesus for 3 years and had come to love him and depend on him were devastated!  They didn’t wait with anticipation and joy.  They waited in despair.

Have you had those dark times when you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face?  Days when you didn’t want to see the dawn - but hoped & prayed the dawn with it’s bright light would come.  SOON!

Those of us who have entered the 2nd half of the journey may have had many of those seasons in our lives.  Hopefully, we’ve moved through them and found the meaning amidst the ashes of the experience.

When I look at Scripture - it’s life blueprints, patterns & processes - it always works better for me when I look at it from ‘their’ perspective.  The perspective of those who were living it at the time.

What must it have been like for them?  Their leader; their “Rabboni” had died a horrible death just hours before.  They must have been in shock.

And they were scared!  They hid from the religious and secular authorities because they believed they would be “next”. 

Although they were ‘leaderless’, they had each other!  Strong bonded relationships had grown deep and secure (with the exception of one) over 3 short years.  At least we have each other must have gone through their minds.

It was little consolation though!  It was more than Jesus just being a strong dynamic leader who took them from obscurity to maturity.  Each of them had come to love him.  They wanted to walk with him through the years and now he was gone. 

It didn’t occur to them to examine what he’d told them at dinner Thursday night for some glimmer of trust or hope.  It didn’t occur to them to organize themselves and begin the work of rebuilding after the collapse of all they’d known.

It’s often like that with us.  We have what it takes to walk blindly in the dark with an amazing trust and hope that continuing on will eventually bring us into the light - but we miss that piece of knowledge.  Miss it because we’re frightened by the change that has occurred!

We’re shocked by what has happened and we can’t think clearly.

What do we normally do when the day turns to night? We rest or sleep.  Our body quiets and our mind rests.

If we can just remember that we are on the “other side of the story”.  That we know Sunday came with glorious bright light.  And if we’ll allow the strengths & abilities we’ve gained in other dark seasons to emerge as we rest and remain quiet - we’ll move from the darkness into the light with quiet assurance.

Be at peace today as we wait to recall, remember and rejoice that Sunday comes!

Linda

Good Friday has been for a number of years, a very difficult day for me!  My heart remembers what happened on this day in approximately 33 A.D. that took a man’s life, but brought awesome change to the world that would be felt around the world for centuries - and beyond.

I’m not going there today!  Because many of us will hear the messages in church services around the world this day.

I want to go to subject matter that has been brought to me over the last several days - and it ‘fits’ with the purpose for that savage, bloody day on a hot Friday afternoon eons ago.

“Inspired!”  “Inspiration!”  Those are the words I’ve heard this week from more than one woman.  They were spoken in the context of what has transpired in the lives of women over the past months since getting connected with A Women’s Place. 

No, this is not a commercial for AWP.  It is a compliment and confirmation that the vision and mission for which we came is making an impact in women’s lives!

For too long, we as women have not risen to our full potential.  I’m not sure I know the “why”, but I know that the outcome has been women who know they have a purpose but have shelved it because no one encouraged them to do anything but shelve it.  No matter where they turned, there was no person - male or female - who said “you’re meant to do it!”

This conversation began mentally last evening when I hung up from a conference call.  I heard a story about how a woman who has become involved in the planning process for an Affiliated Women’s ™ launch in another state - has taken a business plan she developed years ago - off the shelf.

She has done so because other women said “you can do it!”  Although the words were not spoken, you could hear that excitement, renewed energy and enthusiasm now runs through this precious woman’s being.  She won’t let it languish any longer!

All we need is one person to encourage us!  One person to inspire us with words that say “don’t wait any longer” - “do it!”

We all know that the world has not always been kind to the softer gender.  We know that women have often been relegated to ‘washing the altar cloths’ & ’sweeping up the crumbs from the table’.  But it’s not something we have to continue and not something that should ever keep us from striving to achieve all we are meant to achieve!

I was thrilled to learn that the connections being made between AWP women is beginning to have the impact and outcome it was designed to have!  I was inspired to continue on and move forward and be a source of encouragement, enrichment, empowerment & inspiration.

What does this have to do with our remembrance of events so long ago on a Judean hill outside the city walls?  A man bled and died a horrible death that we might become all we were meant to be.  He gave his all that we might be our all! 

Whatever tradition or lack thereof from which you come - one has to marvel that a man would give his life for others in order to fulfill his purpose and create the possibility that we will fulfill ours!  One can’t help but be inspired by such commitment to purpose and a love that knows no bounds.

But the ugly reality of today gives way to hope and an inspired opportunity to rise above who we may have thought we were to grasp the reality of who we’ve become.  If in the 2nd half of our journey, we bring that hope and inspiration to each other - think what an impact the softer gender will have?!  On each other & on the world!

Too much to ask?  I don’t think so!

So as you go about your day and occasionally recall the events of this day long ago; be inspired and know that there are others waiting to encourage you in all you want to be - and do!

Have an awesome day.  Give and receive great love and be blessed.

Linda