JJ--I responded to your question this morning, and for some reason it didn't post right.
Here's a recap: Carl Jung said that people don't really get interesting until the second half of their lives. As we gradually turn away from raising kids and writing resumes and turn inward to know ourselves better, we step into what I call our "birthright," becoming more and more who we were created to be.
For some of us, the turn inward means getting more introspective and meditative. Coming to terms with our physical limitations, paradoxically, frees us to think about who we are beyond our roles as mothers and wives and professionals and all the other roles the world assigns us.
For others, the shift means taking the time to be adventurous in new ways in the world. Taking trips, taking up new hobbies, changing professions, etc., all represent living into a vision for the second half of life.
In my book, I talk about my friend Heather, who built a house in response to a traumatic mid-life divorce. Heather literally built new living space for herself. I call my own space my "watercolor bedroom" where I incubate dreams and cocoon in comforting space. There are lots of ways to create a vision--or to be claimed by a vision, as I put it in my book.
Hope this one posts! A good question. I'm interested in how others have created or lived into a vision for the second half of life. What do you hope to be doing? How do you envision living? What are your dreams for the future?
And how has your life already changed? What visions have you already realized as a midlife woman?