Ominous black clouds boil out of the mountains heading our way. Quickly, we duck under an abandoned Gas Station cover just as the storm washes over attacking the front of the van with a horizontal mixture of graupel (mushy hail) and thick sheets of rain.
Old-Life Crisis Hits Hard
Waiting out the storm, a strange thought hits me as hard as the surprise storm outside. ‘I will be 70 next year, SEVENTY YEARS OLD!’ Doing some quick calculations, I realize there may be 15 years of ‘good’ living before… who knows what?
Mid-Life Crisis was a pain but I had never anticipated ‘old’ years before, just life’s next stages or benchmarks. Seriously, who ever thinks about ‘OLD-LIFE’ or wants to? ‘Well, maybe just those who reach an Old-Life Crisis… like I’m having.’ BAM!
‘Well,’ I thought, ’15 years is still a long time.’ Until I looked back 15 years. ‘It was like yesterday.’ BAM!
The Terrible-Twos Crisis, Terrible-Teens Crisis, Leaving-Home Crisis, First-Major-Job Crisis, Mid-Life Crisis, Lose-Job Crisis, and Retirement Crisis, all have the same things in common; who am I, can I face this new challenge, am I good enough, and my favorite, I like things the way they were.
The beautiful thing about all of these Crises is the emerging to the next level more refined, confident, and wise. It’s a growth thing.
Unfortunately, this Old-Life Crisis is different. It seems to be a declining thing, sliding to the end.
Here Comes the Sun
Fortunately, a happy flash of insight shows through! Even though the storm outside still rages, the storm inside my head clears and the warmth breaks through.
‘I have been heading for the end since the beginning. This is just another growth thing. And there is plenty of time and passion left for tons of adventure and purpose.’
The real sun then shines into the van. Off we go a bit more refined, confident, and wise.
Enjoy the day and do some good!
Russ Harris loves all things technical and making the world a better place, especially for Margrit.
