Close your eyes and think of a tea party. People are coming and going. People old and young. Sometimes you need them and sometimes they need you. Authors Kate Klimo and Buffy Shutt, of Coming of Age All Over Again: The Ultimate Midlife Handbook, interviewed recently on the “Forever Young” segment of the "Today Show", talk about visualizing yourself at the tea party ... with friends, with children, with parents, with young people you mentor professionally. They say the key to aging well are friends and the changing roles you play in each others lives.
At mid life we can share ourselves with others and allow others to share in ours ... asking for help, when we need it. I found myself asking when my mother died ... from relatives and friends. I found myself asking when I was recently divorced ... from old friends and making special new ones. And just as important, I found myself asking for corporate support in order to create a new enterprise so that I was able to cede ownership of work to colleagues who needed to grow as well.
I like the tea party visualization ... no invitations or closed doors just heartfelt sharing of the deep layers in ourselves and that rich, deep, moist chocolate cake. Yum.
Eileen Marcus