Late Life Purpose

I’ve always loved how this abstract I painted reminds me of a treasure map.

Because I’ve been having some deep and delicious ponderings lately about PURPOSE, both in midlife (40-60 years) as well as purpose in the Fourth Quarter.

If I were asked to name the ache I hear most often from women my age, it might be this:

“I’m not sure what or who I’m here for anymore.”

Roles shift. We’ve become astonishingly competent at things we’re no longer entirely sure we want to keep doing.

And so we try to manufacture new “purpose.”

But manufactured purpose feels…um…manufactured.

Contrived. Ugggggggh. (As an artist, both copy and contrivance is anathema to me…I HATE it.)

What if, instead of copy or contrivance, we looked at our ACTUAL life (versus “wished for” life) as an opportunity for a cartography-related session of evidence gathering?

What if the years behind us contain maps and tracks for the years ahead?

What if our recurring longings, hard-won wisdom, things we’ve made, people we’ve loved, losses we’ve survived, gifts people keep coming to us for, have been quietly leaving markers of destiny?

I keep coming back to this:

The Fourth Quarter is not (not…NOTTTTTT) about having less time.

It is about having more evidence.

Enough life has passed behind us to begin recognizing the holy signposts.

And perhaps the question isn’t only:

What is my purpose now?

Perhaps it is:

WHO is all this accumulated LIFE for?

Ohhhh, friends.

I think there is something here.

And I’m gathering the kindling. You go get the stuff for S’mores. 😆🔥🙌🏻