Tag: retirement

Writing Pearls

Illinois Women’s Press Association (IWPA) hosts a contest for writers, both professional writers and beginning writers in high school. I became a member after re-reading Natalie Goldberg’s wonderful book, Writing Down the Bones, and realizing that I too might call myself a writer even though I had only “morning pages” under my writing belt. Goldberg received sage advice from a Zen master: “Why do you come to sit meditation? Why don’t you make writing your practice? If you go deep enough in writing, it will take you everyplace.”

Yes, writing takes one everyplace. In 1995 I fell down steep stairs in Chicago on the eve of taking my firstborn to college. Unable to hobble much in my cast, I slowed down. I began writing “morning pages” according to journalist and film/TV writer Julia Cameron’s inspiring book, The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity. I did not imagine that later I would publish three developmental psychology books and create a weekly blog, Pearls of Peace. The word “blog” was not invented until Jorn Barger coined “weblog” in 1997; Peter Merholz reduced the concept to “blog” in 1999.  

Goldberg is strictly a pen-and-notebook (of a special kind) writer. She prefers writing in a café. I can take notes and write poems with a pen, but I prefer the keyboard at my desktop computer for books and blogs. Classical music is my companion when I write, not extraneous conversation. Reportedly, Ernest Hemingway wrote naked at a lectern. He used a pencil but switched to typing for dialogue. Each writer develops their own writing style.

Cameron wrote her “morning pages” for decades; in a lecture she commented that writing is a way to “zip up a concern.” She believed she was writing her 1992 Artist’s Way for “about 5 people.” She was shocked when 5 million copies sold! I do not have this following, but the people who do read my writing give me compassionate feedback. However, we writers are most in need of saying something when we take our pen or keyboard to hand. Among others, Cameron believes that we teach what we need to learn ourselves.

I feel lucky to discover the stimulation of writing in an encore career. I feel lucky to receive awards from my two submissions to the 2024 IWPA Mate E. Palmer Communications Contest:

  • First Place in Web & Social Media Blog, Nonprofit (Government or Educational), IWPA 2024 – “Banned Pearls” (online 10-2-23) 
  • First Place in Non-Fiction Books for Adult Readers, IWPA 2024 – Transforming Retirement: Rewire and Grow Your Legacy (published 2023)

The best part of the Award luncheon was hearing high school writers’ enthusiasm for their craft! I recommend writing at every age. Take Hemingway’s advice: “All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.” My advice? Write a second sentence. Keep writing.

Pearls of Peace (PoP) Quiz

295. What kind of writing engages you?

296. Is there a type of writing you would like to begin?   

Growth Pearls

The Pew Research Center issued a December report (2023) showing 19% of Americans ages 65+ are in the workforce, either by choice or necessity. This number doubled in the past 35 years, partly due to older adults maintaining good bodymind health. Many more in this labor group have a college degree than decades ago. Also, work conditions have changed; office jobs are overtaking the physical labor necessary in factories and farms.

You may ask, “What motivates those who choose to continue working?” Answers range from being bored with golf or pickleball to the desire for a sense of purpose. Jane Goodall (89 years-young) continues her ecology-motivated passion for chimpanzees as well as her initiative to teach youth about conservation. Her legacy Roots & Shoots youth movement, beginning with 12 teenagers on her back porch in Tanzania, now offers programming in 100 countries. Working actresses Judi Dench (88 years-young) and Helen Mirren (78 years-young) also love their careers and defy sexist stereotypes for female actors.

Many everyday seasoned citizens return to the workforce after “retirement age.” A spunky teacher in her 60’s returned to the classroom as a substitute teacher at a private school where she puts in an 8-hour day instead of the 16-hour days that she frequently found herself working in a public high school. Her reason for a continuation of her career reflects my own reason for my current work in prevention psychology: “It’s fun, and it keeps my brain going.” I am a strong proponent of maintaining a growth mindset for every age, but it is especially important for those of us who are lucky enough to reach the seasoned citizen stage of development.

The research of psychologist Carol Dweck (Mindset: The New Psychology of Success) defines two mindsets:

  • Fixed mindset: You believe your qualities are set in neurological and psychological plaster—you have a fixed IQ, a set personality, and a certain moral character that defines you. A fixed mindset is a learned behavior.
  • Growth mindset: You believe that you are capable of continuing growth. Your personality is flexible. It has plasticity. You cultivate new qualities through your efforts. You can adjust your moral compass with your life wisdom. Your true potential is unknown.

I am not suggesting that aging into 65+ territory is easy, even for those with a growth mentality for lifelong learning. I believe that it takes a growth-and-grit mindset in your beyonder years. Psychologist Angela Duckworth (Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance) researched the importance of grit or what my parents called “stick-to-itiveness.” Duckworth’s father taught her about the value of “pushing through and doing the hard things.”

I watched the enduring persistence of the first flower pushing through snow in my garden; the Lenten Rose inspires me to make a growth-and-grit mindset my everyday compass.

Pearls of Peace (PoP) Quiz

273. When do you respond to life’s challenges with a fixed mindset?

274. What times can you recall when you were in growth mindset territory?