MUSINGS and other writing by Mark Kolke

. . . . . . there is no edge to openness

TODAY'S MUSINGS

FEEDBACK / COMMENTS

MARK SPEAKS

ARCHIVED COLUMNS

ARCHIVE WINTER 2022-23

ARCHIVE AUTUMN 2022

ARCHIVE SUMMER 2022

ARCHIVE SPRING 2022

ARCHIVE WINTER 2021-22

ARCHIVE AUTUMN 2021

ARCHIVE SUMMER 2021

ARCHIVE SPRING 2021

ARCHIVE WINTER 2020-21

ARCHIVE AUTUMN 2020

ARCHIVE SUMMER 2020

ARCHIVE SPRING 2020

ARCHIVE WINTER 2019-20

ARCHIVE AUTUMN 2019

ARCHIVE SUMMER 2019

ARCHIVE SPRING 2019

ARCHIVE WINTER 2018-19

ARCHIVE AUTUMN 2018

ARCHIVE SUMMER 2018

ARCHIVE SPRING 2018

ARCHIVE WINTER 2017-18

ARCHIVE AUTUMN 2017

ARCHIVE SUMMER 2017

ARCHIVE SPRING 2017

ARCHIVE WINTER 2016/17

ARCHIVE AUTUMN 2016

ARCHIVE SUMMER 2016

ARCHIVE SPRING 2016

ARCHIVE WINTER 2015/16

ARCHIVE AUTUMN 2015

ARCHIVE SUMMER 2015

ARCHIVE SPRING 2015

ARCHIVE WINTER 2014/15

ARCHIVE AUTUMN 2014

ARCHIVE SUMMER 2014

ARCHIVE SPRING 2014

ARCHIVE WINTER 2013/14

CONTACT

MY REAL ESTATE LIFE

WHY I WRITE MUSINGS

SHORT STORY PROJECT

POETRY PROJECT

MARK'S SPEAKING TIPS

SELECTED OTHER WORK

THEN AND NOW

Friday June 1, 2018

Many folks – fifties, sixties and beyond – don’t appear to be striving much.

Focused on health, knitting baby things, walking slower – seemingly focused on trying to survive, to stay alive, get retirement plans launched, and to get their affairs in order.

Hold it, WHOA!

I’m not ready for that stuff. Not yet. Maybe not ever.

What we’ll leave behind or how we’ll be remembered might have been important in younger days, but now it’s more about ‘what am I doing that is productive?’, and ‘am I spending appropriate time and energy on it?’

Lately, thinking focused on ‘having a productive and creative’ second half of life, I see ribbons of fresh smooth pavement and gentle rainy ahead but admit I’m in the second half. Working hard to made it to double over-time!

Second half is an interesting sports metaphor, after which half of our time remains.

In life, for many, by the time ‘second half’ thinking arrives, many are far closer to their final buzzer that their math or wishes indicate.

Yet most days don’t look or feel much different. Tiny, mostly deliberate, incremental changes. Shifts of direction, focusing more energy on fewer things – there is less about more and more about less.

What we do, what we accomplish – what we expect we’ll leave behind seems to shift as we move through life. What was important in teens and twenties is irrelevant now. What we strove for in our thirties and forties – not as important as they were then, don’t matter much now.

I think about this – not every day.

Every now and then.


SIGN UP TO GET MUSINGS BY e-mail: CLICK HERE

SIGN UP TO GET MUSINGS BY e-mail: CLICK HERE

sign up to get Musings CLICK HERE

Comments are always welcome - please contribute to the discussion.  Reply to: kolke@markkolke.com

You can also connect with me on LinkedIn. This site is updated daily, each column is retained in the archive when the next day's column is loaded ...  


Copyright - all rights reserved - Mark Kolke, © 2003-2023 - MaxComm Communications

- this site is updated daily, new column on main page, older columns archived - use the tabs; last update - 2023 - January, 28