11:47 PM
"The second half of life doesn't have to be smaller. It can be truer." — Steve Martin — Vision-Keeper and Dream Coach
11:47 PM
He was sixty-nine years old and could not sleep. This was not unusual — sleep had been negotiating departure for several years. What was unusual was the notebook.
He had not written in a notebook since graduate school. He didn’t know why he’d bought one, only that something in the bookstore said this and so he bought it.
Now he sat in the kitchen at 11:47 PM and wrote the question that had been waiting:
If I had one year left, what would I stop doing? What would I start?
He wrote for forty minutes. When he stopped, his hand was tired and the page was full and something in his chest was lighter than it had been in years.
He didn’t need one year left. He needed the question.
He started on the list the following morning.
By spring, two things on the “stop” list were gone. One thing on the “start” list had begun.
Small. Real. His.
ONE SIMPLE ACTION TO TAKE RIGHT NOW
Identify one thing you’ve been doing for approval rather than meaning. It might be a commitment, a habit, a role you play. Name it. You don’t have to eliminate it today — but name it. Named things lose power. Unnamed things run you.
Beautiful and wise