We at Mercy by the Sea have so much we want to share with you:
Inspiring and transformational quotes, prayers, poems, videos and books we discover or rediscover
Conversations with upcoming presenters
Resources and thoughts on contemplative prayer, spiritual direction, the second half of life, emerging leadership, creativity, our relationship with nature and much more!
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I was totally focused on harvesting the tomatoes, sorting through the crop, deciding which vegetation to remove. It was stifling hot. The air was so thick that I felt as if I was moving in a dense liquid. Suddenly, the heavy silence was interrupted by the voice of my fellow gardener. “Look up!” Thinking I could ignore the directive, I lowered my head closer to the earth. “Look up!” came the persistent call. Obeying the command, despite my desire to quickly finish my task so I could escape the heat, I looked up and there above my head was the most glorious sunflower I had ever seen.
“The second half of my life will be ice breaking up on the river, rain soaking the fields, a hand held out, a fire, and smoke going upward, always up.”
I begin this reflection on second half of life spirituality with an excerpt from Joyce Sutpen’s poem “Crossroads.” With so many poems on the topic from which to choose, I picked Sutpen’s for its evocative imagery and its outright acknowledgement that we can choose to thrive in the second half of our lives. In just a few lines, the poet describes some of the beautiful gifts we can anticipate.
