Tag: Retirement

Mid-Life Crisis Grandparents

Mid-Life Crisis Grandparents.

“Grandparents can help preserve the innocence of their grandchildren – but there is a cost.  They will have to give up any shreds of cynicism that may have crept into their hearts, and they will need to open their eyes to the world of wonder as seen through the innocence of childlike faith”. — from Hugs for Grandparents

Cynicism.  It’s useless, in my opinion, in teaching positive values to young children.

At mid-life, we have choices to make.

We can be cynical about life or we can be positive about life.

I constantly remind myself, “Life is hard.  No one has it easy.  Not even the people who look like they have it easy”.

There is a great, but invisible, equalizer.  We can’t put our finger on it, but it revolves around the fact that everyone has some sort of hell they’re dealing with.

The difference for mid-life crisis grandparents, I believe, is that they should now be wise enough to positively move forward with their lives.

Move forward, even in the face of adversity.  By the time we reach a mid-life crisis, we have seen the enormous mental, physical, spiritual and financial challenges that can tear us apart, or build us up.

Let adversity build us up, so that we can be living proof to children, that hardship is part of life and that with focus and discipline, we can survive, and even thrive, in stormy weather.

That’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it.  Carpe mid-life diem, jeff noel 🙂

Mid-Life Referral?

Mid-Life referral?

We don’t stop doing things because we get old.  We get old because we stop doing things.

Enthusiasm for overcoming our mid-life crisis is what usually does the trick.

Mid-life crisis or mid-life celebration?

It’s our choice, just like enthusiasm is our choice.

I’m going to humbly suggest you visit this jungle jeff blog to read more about enthusiasm’s significance in your mid-life journey.

I realize the choice is yours.  Do you?

Carpe diem, jeff “mid-life” noel 🙂

Mid-Life Learning

Mid-Life Learning.  We got to mid-life and became who we are at mid-life, by many things we learned as a child.

CHILDREN LEARN WHAT THEY LIVE……

If children live with encouragement, they learn to be confident.

If children live with praise, they learn to appreciate.

If children live with approval, they learn to like themselves.

If children live with acceptance, they learn to find love in the world.

If children live with recognition, they learn to have a goal.

If children live with sharing, they learn to be generous.

If children live with honesty and fairness, they learn what truth and justice are.

If children live with security, they learn to have faith in themselves and in those around them.

If children live with friendliness, they learn that the world is a nice place in which to live.  — Dorothy L. Nolte

To teach is to learn twice.  Who will you teach today?  Carpe diem, jeff noel  🙂

PS.  Here’s the full version of her poem.

Mid-Life Gift

Mid-Life gift?

“If you give your son or daughter only one gift, let it be enthusiasm”.  — Bruce Barton

Amen.

I realize that some of you are not parents, and some will never be parents.  Maybe we could be open-minded and creative enough to say, “If you ever give a child a gift, let it be enthusiasm”.

How contagious is enthusiasm?

How contagious is the lack of it?

I rest my case, your honor.

Make it a GREAT day!  Carpe diem, jeff noel  🙂

Outward Bound 1980

Spring break, 1980.  Road trip.

My University offered The Outward Bound School as an alternative to the beach, or home, during spring break.

Here is a profound quote that has stayed with me since.  It was in the Outward Bound handbook each participant received.  Here it is:

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“You cannot stay on the summit forever.  You have to come down again.  So why bother in the first place?

Just this: 

What is above knows what is below, but what is below does not know what is above.

One climbs, one sees.  One descends, one sees no longer, but one has seen.

There is an art of conducting oneself in the lower regions by the memory of what one saw higher up.

What one can no longer see, one can still know”.

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What does this mean at mid-life?

What we have seen in ours lives can help us move forward with the next part of our lives – the part that descends from mid-life.

What we no longer see, we can at least still know.  What we do with this experience makes all the difference, in my humble opinion.

Carpe diem, jeff noel  🙂