A few years ago while participating in the School for the Second Half of Life, I began to write poetry about how that stage of life is a distinct developmental stage that calls to one’s creativity, and can lead to a greater sense of wholeness, freedom and meaning. Here is one of my poems.
My life is a
story in
two
chapters.
The first?
It’s the story of my
introductory journey,
my initial awareness,
in search of
identity,
to play
a particular part,
living
in
the world.
“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.