Tag Archives: relationship

Fearless Aging

The Way It is

By Irene Noble 

My mother, my friend, died when she was 91. I miss her still, yet it was eighteen years ago.  She was a beautiful, elegant, stylish lady. More than that, she was forgiving, uncomplicated by her total honesty, always willing to learn new ways, new directions even though it might require a reversal of old assumptions.

When our family gathers around a Christmas tree,
a dinner table or backyard barbeque, we usually bring in to our
conversation the people who are no longer with us. We laugh at moments
we remember, we cherish the time they were here and, sometimes, we mock
the things they used to say. My mother summed up just about everything
with these words, “That’s the way it is.” I can’t count the times we
have all laughed and said in unison when

read more
Fearless Aging

Community

By Shae Hadden | Bio

In the busyness of mid-life career pursuits, we can easily find ourselves letting relationships slide. In no time at all, it seems years have gone by, we’ve lost touch with dear friends from near and far, and forgotten the lure of long-promised adventures we were going to share. A recent NY Times article about Elizabeth Goodyear, a centenarian confined to her one-bedroom

read more
Wisdom in Action

Polarity

By Jim Selman | Bio

Either/or.

This way of thinking about and relating to life is one of the most persistent and difficult aspects of our culture. Everything is either this or that. And if it isn’t this, it must be that.

We are either independent or dependent.

We are either the part or the whole.

We can be unified and whole or we can be fragmented and incomplete.

If something isn’t true, it must be false.

If something isn’t wrong, then it is right.

And on it goes….

This either/or mode of observing

read more
Fearless Aging

I am not a thing

By Jim Selman | Bio

I just saw the movie WALL-E about a lonely robot on planet earth 700 years after a Wal-Mart-like enterprise wins the game of mega mergers and is the only corporation left, effectively running the world. The people had to leave because they couldn’t keep up with the trash. WALL-E (Waste Allocation Load Lifter – Earth Class) spends its days (we soon begin to think of it as a ‘he’ thanks to some brilliant scripting and Pixar magic) creating skyscraper-scale mountains of

read more
Fearless Aging

Renewing Relationships

By Rick Fullerton | Bio

Earlier this month, I was away from home for over a week on business. In itself, this is not a big deal. Lots of people travel more frequently and farther than I do. Yet for me, this trip was filled with unexpected feelings of gratitude and wonder.

At the outset, it was to be a routine work trip to two cities to conduct seminars at the completion of the MBA course I teach. What set this apart was the opportunity to be in Calgary, the home of Canada’s energy sector and fastest-growing city in the country. But it wasn’t the booming economy or the shocking growth that impressed me. Rather, it was being able to connect and have time with friends and family members whom I haven’t seen in many years that touched me

read more
Retirement

Memorial Day II

Today is Memorial Day in the USA. This is usually a long weekend filled with family and fun. I am at Lake Kiowa in Texas, a retirement community of about thousand homes. My Dad and sister live here. There is a lot of golf, fishing and endless clubs. This is a prototypical retirement community—most people are active. There are flags in front of most of the houses, there is apparently a cottage industry that will put up and take down your flag on special occasions like this weekend, election days

read more
Leadership

On Surpressing Energy

By Charles E. Smith | Bio

Over
the years, I have seen and recognized the enormous effect of the CEO’s
personality and ‘way of being’ on the energy of a company. All
personalities have limitations and drawbacks. But when somebody has the
top position in a system, the effect of what they focus on and what
they suppress is immense. Whatever a CEO’s automatic way of relating to
the world, whatever their way of dealing with relationships, or with
conflict,

read more
Leadership

Energy as a Way of Life II

By Charles E. Smith | Bio

Lorin Smith had developed his own healing practice based on massage, singing, dance, telling stories. As I came to know him over time, I saw he could look at a person, individual, or look at a group, and see exactly what kind of energy was missing. He could see where the joy was missing, or where the relationship was missing. He could see whether people didn’t mean what they said. He could see how their bodies were contracted or turned against themselves or twisted out

read more
Fearless Aging

Relationship Success

Relationships will atrophy over time. Not because of intentional neglect or lack of love, but because, like any ‘muscle’, relating takes exercise. Use it or it will lose strength and functionality.

I see a lot people in various states of ‘midlife’ crisis confronting their primary relationships from the perspective of ‘time left’. This perspective is different for most of us than the one we had in the early years of relating—even different from the perspective of the ‘maintenance

read more