I feel the earth move under my feet.
I feel the sky tumbling down, tumbling down.
~ Carole King, “I Feel the Earth Move”
It was an ordinary summer day on the East Coast. I was enjoying a nice lunch out when suddenly the luncheonette started trembling. I couldn’t wrap my mind around it. An earthquake? In Connecticut?!
Gaia is trying to tell us something. In fact, she has been trying for a while, but we haven’t been listening.
So she’s decided to raise her voice.
How many of us can relate? Like Gaia, we’ve lived beautiful, fruitful lives, yet we have yet to find our full voice, or we’ve found it, and no one is listening.
Women over 50 are especially expected to live increasingly invisible, irrelevant lives. We shy away from raising our voices, from saying what we need to say with confidence, from blowing our horns. Yet the world needs our voices now more than ever. Our ideas and leadership, our hard-earned wisdom and ability to focus on what really matters—to us, to our families and communities, and to our planet. We don’t do anyone any favors by following the status quo, by ignoring that voice inside that tells us we were meant for something more.
The Earth is showing us, in no uncertain terms—it’s time to shake things up.
Consider this: A recent study by the Kauffman Foundation found that the most successful companies are started by entrepreneurs over 55 years old. Their rate of success is almost double that of entrepreneurs under 55. Why is this? Duke University researcher Vivek Wadhwa, who studied about 550 successful companies, found that their success often rested on their founders’ extensive experience as well as knowledge that can only be deepened by time in the field, plus an acute understanding of their customers’ needs. Boomer entrepreneurs know that the essence of any successful company is serving others. They are combining work they love, that fulfills their own needs, with having an impact in the lives of others.
We can make a difference in our world while living out our true purpose—our full purpose, not just the glimpses of it that we pretend to be satisfied with. We can have purpose and profit, meaningful work and meaningful play. We have a lasting impact to make, a legacy to leave for the next seven generations and more. And we must start today, because the kind of reinvention I’m talking about doesn’t happen overnight.
Now is the time to stand up for who we are and what we believe in. We can take a stand even when the ground is shaking. We can speak up, even when our voices are shaking.
Right now, stop where you are and decide: What were you meant to do in this life? What will make you leap out of bed in the morning, excited not by what the day brings but by what you will bring to the day?
What moves you?
My own answer to this question led me to create a new website, www.AgelessFutures.com, devoted to the idea that the future of aging lies completely in our hands. This site has been a long time coming, the culmination of years of personal and professional exploration, including earning my post-graduate in adult development and aging, becoming a certified gerontologist, and interviewing women visionaries over sixty years old, women who had answered for themselves the same questions I was asking—women who had lived those answers.
We are on the cusp of an exciting time, when we have the ability to live beyond age and a generation with the guts to make it happen—for all of us. I hope you’ll join me as the site evolves and expands into a community devoted to reimagining the future and living an ageless life. We really can be forever young.
“Women over 50 are especially expected to live increasingly invisible, irrelevant lives.” So, who says that women are expected to be invisible? While I do think all women struggle with relevancy, my primary concern is the harm we do to ourselves, by making the choice to be invisible. One of my most cherished memories of the the last year was an afternoon spent with my 95 year old aunt and her 80 year old cousin. Both are intelligent, engaged, thinking and active. My cousin is busy helping the Tibetan people.
You provide great call to arms and I share your vision. There is work to be done as we get older, and women need to embrace their passion and purpose to do it.
Sorry, everyone! I’ve been unplugged for writing assignments the last week or so. Back again.
Cathy, I completely agree. It’s really about making the choice…first comes the deeper work of accepting ourselves as worthy of being visible, not in spite of growing older but as a part of what we gain as we do. In our early days as ’70s Clio feminists, we had CR groups to reflect back our value, and we had women’s sacred circles to hear ourselves, as if for the first time, out of sight of the patriarchy’s rule makers…especially powerful for the women who then were over 30! We need to create the modern equivalent of these important collaborations, in addition to embracing the rich reality of aging vs. the stereotypes.
Cathy love that you started the comments. I will start reading groups posts as soon as I finish writing up several reviews of conferences and what I’m hearing & seeing. Did you get to read my review of PAC? If not I’ll send it to you. It should be up now as a post too. Please also check out my other and newest blog, AgelessFutures.com/blog
Will catch up with you soon, Karen
Awesome blog posts! I love that we are aligned with thoughts on women over fifty! I look forward to reading more of your posts.
Thanks Wendy, we need each other’s voices to join in! This is solely for those of us over 50, or close to it…and for those who truly want to serve us as we swell into a new powerful force for positive change…again! Love you to also check out my newest blog, AgelessFutures.com/blog, solely for those of us 50+. Love to hear from you again.
Wendy love to hear from you! Please continue so we all keep keepin’ on with our important impact in/on the world.
I love your message, Karen. The Dalai Lama says that American women will change the world. We need to put ourselves out there, but we need each others’ support. I’ll keep up with your inspiring messages.