Growing Old & Gathering McMusings

All the McMusing Series links in one place!

At the end of this email, I have listed the links to the four parts of the McMusing series from this week. This series was as clarifying to me as writing Trauma in the Pews. I wrote it for myself and am not pushing everyone to read it. Sometimes I write pieces to have on hand when someone asks me questions like: “Why do you believe so strongly about [fill in the blank]? I need to answer those types of questions just once.

But before I go there . . . let me share a few thoughts about growing old, gracefully.

I think I would have been an unhappy old person if I had not done so much work to heal. My lifelong search for the biggest and best validation would have haunted me as I found it impossible to continue the search.

The ridiculous thing was that I had done so much that qualified but a validation-hungry hamster running round, and round on a wheel beside me. It was a very exhausted hamster and one day, I said, “We have done enough, do you want to get off the wheel?” The look of gratitude from that exhausted hamster was remarkable. He jumped off the wheel and ran away—and the wheel broke into a thousand pieces.

What I get to do instead is write and encourage those who have the strength to do what I cannot. A combination of the impact of a nervous system that I rode far too hard and the natural aging processes means that I needed to slow down and pivot.

Healing is helping me do that gracefully and make good choices about how to care for myself and use my energy wisely. I still am involved in a goodly amount of amazing opportunities, but in quieter, more relaxing ways. Healing helps me understand this is exactly what I am meant to do.

Thank you to all who are enjoying this journey with me! This is likely one of the “funnest” ideas I have ever had! Trauma is a serious subject and I do my best to add sprinkles of joy to lighten the load.

"We are happier in many ways when we are old than when we were young.
The young sow wild oats. The old grow sage."
—Winston Churchill—