{"id":3095,"date":"2013-08-21T17:21:18","date_gmt":"2013-08-21T22:21:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.womens-spirituality.com\/?p=3095"},"modified":"2013-08-13T17:21:37","modified_gmt":"2013-08-13T22:21:37","slug":"this-last-twenty-years-has-been-most-compelling-and-surprisingly-exciting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.womens-spirituality.com\/?p=3095","title":{"rendered":"This last twenty years has been most compelling and surprisingly exciting."},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>(In case you have not read the preceding post, I am projecting out twenty years and looking back on what my life was like.)<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Dear Karen,<\/p>\n<p>Your decision to assign participants in a workshop in 2013 to look back on their lives from a future point was fortuitous. \u00a0As you might recall, you were contemplating your own &#8220;next phase,&#8221; wondering if slowing down was really what you wanted to do. \u00a0You weren&#8217;t sure how many or how few workshops to commit to for 2014, let alone the next two decades. \u00a0Even stopping to ask yourself that question was good. \u00a0You had never \u00a0asked it before. \u00a0While you loved your work and your intense and ever so intimate interactions with people, you also hungered for more down time to just hang out with Joe and friends. \u00a0You feared loss though, loss coupled with a sense of ennui, which to you meant not measuring up any more. \u00a0Truly believing it was okay to do nothing was not easily swallowed.<\/p>\n<p>How fortunate that you stuck with the process of letting &#8220;the future&#8221; speak to you. \u00a0It did and your activities fell into place, just as they always had. \u00a0That next book had been &#8220;waiting on you,&#8221; for sure. \u00a0Essays for the old timer, you \u00a0called it and Nina came up with some great ones too. \u00a0Even though it was slow getting out of the gate, it felt right. \u00a0You loved it. \u00a0Just as you have loved every book before and since then. \u00a0How lucky that you discovered your passion and let it feed you, both literally and symbolically for all those years. \u00a0Making the decision to write at least thirty books was a good one. \u00a0And bypassing that by a couple was icing on the cake. \u00a0That you played with fiction, though never publishing a full length novel, was a good exercise. \u00a0The occasional short story in small magazines fit you better. \u00a0And they were good too!<\/p>\n<p>Continuing as a road warrior was simply not to your liking after your 77th birthday. \u00a0An occasional luncheon or dinner talk was perfect but not traipsing all over the country to do 3 day workshops. \u00a0The traveling took its toll. \u00a0Admitting that, though not easy at first, offered great freedom. \u00a0The search for a hobby just never garnered your attention like it does for many. \u00a0You dabbled. \u00a0And you finally said dabbling was a fine hobby in and of itself. \u00a0What a glorious 94 years you have had. \u00a0Who knows how many more there will be but how lucky for you that Joe is still along for the ride too. \u00a0Laughter continues to feed you. \u00a0It always will. \u00a0May however many years remain be just as fruitful as these last 20. \u00a0Praise be to God. \u00a0And the hovering angels.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(In case you have not read the preceding post, I am projecting out twenty years and looking back on what my life was like.) Dear Karen, Your decision to assign participants in a workshop in 2013 to look back on their lives from a future point was fortuitous. \u00a0As you might recall, you were contemplating [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[8,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-karens-musings","category-reflections-in-the-mirror-you-and-yourself"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>This last twenty years has been most compelling and surprisingly exciting. | Karen Casey<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.womens-spirituality.com\/?p=3095\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"This last twenty years has been most compelling and surprisingly exciting. | Karen Casey\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"(In case you have not read the preceding post, I am projecting out twenty years and looking back on what my life was like.) 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