Life Under Construction: The Inspiration

The only constant is change.  My children are now college graduates with lives of their own.  Like it or not, my life is changing again. I am facing the "mid-way point" I wrote about in my last post.  The challenge of the mid-way point is getting beyond the "tiredness, lack of motivation and loss of vision" for the future and forming a new vision.  I'm not in a position to make huge changes.  I'm not going to explore the Amazon or take a year to try some stunt then write a book about it.  But I do need to get out of my "mom" spot.  I don't remember where, but I read years ago that moms stand still so that their children can hang onto them and grow.  That's a beautiful word picture and I believe I did that for my children (and loved it!), but they are strong enough to stand on their own now and I'm an empty trellis.  It's time to move and rediscover me.

One of the joys of aging is the ability to know and accept myself.  I'm not there yet - that's what this project is about - but there are areas where I can say "This is me, deal with it."  I don't mean that in a mean-spirited way, but in the sense that I have stopped apologizing for the things I like or don't like.  Life Under Construction is a journey further down that road - to create a life where I'm comfortable.

I spent some time considering what I really want in and from life in this next phase and I concluded that, for starters, I need a physical and metaphorical closet cleaning to rid my home and life of the things that no longer serve a purpose, and start fresh with only those things that add value and beauty.  I thought about the "things" I have and want to keep, those I want to add, those I am forced to give up - willingly or not - and those I can't wait to throw in the trash.  Unfortunately, there are some areas that are beyond my control.  As much as I would like to do a Reverse 360 Double Pump Slam Dunk into the dumpster with them, that's not possible. So, my plan needs to include a way to cope with those things without derailing everything else.  I laid out a general "blueprint" for constructing the life I want, divided into five areas:  Faith, Family, Home, Self and Fun. 

I am reading Never Too Late: Your Roadmap to Reinvention by Claire Cook as part of my

life re-do.  The book is mostly career focused and, heaven knows, I'm not looking for a second (or first) career.  You will notice that work did not even make my list.  That's because my job falls into the "wish I could slam dunk" category, but at the moment that is not fiscally responsible, so I show up, I do my assigned tasks to the best of my abilities, I go home, rinse, repeat. Obviously, it eats up a huge portion of my time, without contributing much in return except money.  One of my challenges will be to find the value in my job. The advice offered by Ms. Cook applies in other areas as well, so I'll be sharing tidbits as I go along.  

Remember, this is an ongoing project, not just a series of posts that will be over in a week.  I will be sharing my starting points in each of my five categories in the near future, but I will continue to post updates as I learn and change . . .   Watch for posts with the Life Under Construction banner.

For starters, the blog got a new look that I'm excited about. A custom blog theme has been on my wish list for several years.  The blog content is getting a makeover as well.  I have let the creativity drain out of the blog until even I didn't want to read it.  But, writing falls under Fun, so we'll get back to that later.