We are gradually coming to see that the years beyond sixty five or seventy,
the years of our second maturity,
may be evolution’s greatest gift to humanity.
Jean Houston
Reading an article by Jean Houston, “The Genius of Second Maturity,” this week birthdays have been on my mind. It is not my birthday, but many dear friends are celebrating: one turning 70, and another turning 60. I am going to a party so I got a very funny card with a young woman with BIG hair. You may remember that look.
Carl Jung is said to have reflected that his life would only have meaning in terms of centuries. Houston wrote: “One of the greatest capacities of second maturity is the capacity for spiritual development. Having known the breadth of existence, we now have the capacity for knowing the subtleties of the depths as well in ways that few could have known them before. No longer needing to compete, to be acceptable, likeable, and all those other things considered respectable in society, people are finally being uncaged in their elder years, free to release energies and capacities that the culture restrained in them when they were younger.”
This sense of no longer needing to be acceptable, likable, or respectable came to me in spades last Saturday morning as I was driving to join Betty Lue Lieber and Robert Waldon for a day workshop while they were in Kalamazoo, Michigan. This is a group that is generally very high conscious when it comes to food, and the workshop included a potluck lunch. The dish I had brought to contribute was peanut butter pie. Not exactly a health food, but delicious!
I arrived at the choice to bring the pie based on some tricky logistics of having just gotten home from a road trip to San Antonio, Texas, and having taught all day (13 fifteen-minute presentations on stress relief at Three Rivers Hospital) the day prior, and staying the night in Kalamazoo.
I am guessing the conversation I had in my head about the pie was influenced by an experiential learning with Karen Drucker while in San Antonio: Taming Your Inner Critic. It went something like this, “If no one chooses to eat the pie, I am fine with that. Another person’s choice is not a reflection on me, it is simply his or her freedom to choose.”
It was really quite wonderful to have this exchange within myself and to be totally in awe at the ease I was feeling about however things played out. I laugh even now realizing that Betty Lue opened with a talk about the need to honor that our path does not have to be anyone else’s, it just has to be genuinely ours! I was moved to share about the peanut butter pie, and that became a symbol for all of us of the ease of respecting personal choices in our lives.
On a much deeper level, though, what Houston calls second maturity, really is gift. It is about inner transformation.
From the poem, Minnie Remembers, by Donna Swanson:
I remember Hank and the babies.
How else can I remember them
but together?
For out of the fumbling, awkward
attempts of new lovers
came the babies.
And, as they grew, so did our love.
He still loved it and touched it.
How else can I remember them
but together?
For out of the fumbling, awkward
attempts of new lovers
came the babies.
And, as they grew, so did our love.
And, God, Hank didn’t seem to mind
if my
body thickened and faded
a little.
He still loved it and touched it.
Every piece of that peanut butter pie was enjoyed. Sometimes as the outer fades, our inner beauty shines more brightly.Thank God for that truth!
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Right after I posted this, a friend received a newsletter from James Twyman with the same theme and this handy checklist. You know you are a “Golden Indigo” if…
1. You are over the age of 60.
2. You have always felt a “stirring” within your soul to heal and bless humanity.
3. That “stirring” has increased considerably over the last five to ten years.
4. You feel a tangible connection with the Indigo Children.
5. You can’t keep silent any longer, but feel drawn to share your wisdom.
6. You refuse to sit back and simply “retire.”
7. You felt a resolute “YES” when you first read or heard about the Golden Indigos.
