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As we get older, tensions and drama seem to fade behind a wondrous feeling of calm and acceptance.
More time has gone by than will be, yet we are more alert and alive than ever. Things fall into place as priorities change. We stop wondering if this is all there is and are happy that this is what we have.
The search for something bigger, better, more exciting, the need to be the first to go here or there, to discover new places at far ends of the earth where no one has been, is behind us. Been there, done that as they say.
We find our niches and delve into new found creativity. Our adventures are more fun as we no longer have to prove anything to anyone. Elastic waistbands take the place of skintight jeans.
The kids have left home and our friends move more snugly into our life. We go on vacation and connect with others who, too, are at this wonderful stage of life. Not all are older, but all have come to decisions and effected change in their lives that let them live as they dreamed. In Maine we met a couple who gave up the "good life" with a six figure income to buy a diner in a remote corner of Maine U.S.A. so they didn't have to lock their doors anymore. Another couple runs an enchanting bed and breakfast on a bay after escaping the New York life. Their day starts with a magic sunrise that paints the world gold. Yet another couple, young and ready to have children left their successful acting careers in New York to buy a farm and run a coffee shop in the very north of Maine. And years ago, I left Philadelphia to seek my fortune in Israel. We have so much in common that conversations begin spontaneously as if we have been friends all our lives.
We are finally our own person doing what we want, when we want and how we want, while at the same time reaching out to the world with hope that some sense can be made of the madness that has overtaken it.
My husband, a Sabra, and I chose to live in Israel, a land of constant turmoil with no guarantees of a tomorrow. Within this unrest, we find comfort and love through family and friends, our home and the physical beauty of this nation. We also lived in China in the past and its magnetism pulls us back year after year to be with our friends who are so like family to us. We need our friends and family. They are what are important. They are our anchors, our comfort, and our everyday experience. They are the focus of our lives and lend to it normalcy, fun and beauty. We finally sigh with wonder that after all our searches for the meaning of life we have had it all the time.
Husbands, family, friends and companions are the best subject on earth. We share a common bond. We are now the adventure.
Sheila Shalhevet