Marianne Williamson - The Age of Miracles: Embracing the New Midlife

THE AGE OF
MIRACLES

E MBRACING THE
N EW M IDLIFE

MARIANNE
WILLIAMSON

Hay House, Inc.
Carlsbad, California New York City
London Sydney Johannesburg
Vancouver Hong Kong New Delhi

W rinkles. Memory gaps. Cant remember what you did yesterday. Found your glasses in the refrigerator. The skin on your thighs is uneven. Your butt is too soft. Younger people call you maam (or sir). You used to be able to juggle so many more balls in the air. You dont know that face in the mirror anymore. Youre jealous of younger people. You cant believe you didnt appreciate it when you had it. You feel invisible. You havent a clue whos making music now. You used to be hip, but apparently not anymore .

If any of this sounds familiar, then welcome to the territory. Perhaps you could use a fresh layer of insight to help you navigate some shifting ground.

Every new experience confronts you with a choice, and aging is no exception. How the era of no longer young unfolds for youhow youll inhabit the space of midlife and beyondis an open question that only you can answer. If you choose the path of least resistancenonresistance not in a Taoist way but in a lazy waythen gravity will overwhelm you. Youll grow old with little grace or joy.

But if you claim for yourself another possibility, youll open the door something decidedly new. Considering the possibility that there might be another way, youll make room for a miracle. Youll pave another pathway, build new synapses in your brain, and physically and spiritually welcome new energies that would otherwise not find in you a receptive home.

Millions of us are entering a room we would have liked to avoid yet can avoid no longer. Yet if we take a good look, we realize the room doesnt have to be so bad perhaps it just needs a redesign. And then it will be in many ways a new room.

Midlife is not new territory, obviously, but what is new is how many of us are reaching for something outside its culturally prescribed norms. According to Werner Erhard, founder of the est organization, we can live our lives either acting out of circumstances or acting out of a vision. And when it comes to midlife, we can forge a new vision, a new conversation, to take us beyond the limited thought-forms that have defined its parameters for generations. The circumstances are fixed, but our experience of them is not. Every qIntroduction situation is experienced within the context of the conversation surrounding it, both in our heads and in our culture. And out of a new conversation about the meaning of midlife emerges new hope for those of us who find ourselves there.

When I say hope, do I mean the hope of more years? Not necessarily. Do I mean the hope of more fun, more meaning, more passion, more enlightenment? Absolutely. Hope, when it comes to age, is not just that the years get longer but that they get better. Recently I sat next to an aging movie star at a wedding reception. Now in his 80s, he told me with manly conviction that when his time came, he would go willingly, and get on to the next adventure. He seemed okay with whatever happens next because he is okay with whatever happens, period. He seemed connected to some flow of life thats too real to ever stop, that wouldnt dare shut down at the point of his death.