I have a great family, with my first great-grandchild born this month. One's mortality certainly looms closer with such a momentous arrival. There were great satisfaction and love in my two marriages and I have had a successful career as CEO of various not-for-profits as well as an unsuccessful stint working for the Government of New Zealand.
BUT, there was an increasing, difficult to pinpoint, unease as I innately knew that a certain 'je ne sais quoi' was missing in my inner life. That has slowly begun to change. Although I have read widely,
I had recently stopped doing that and was more addicted to Netflix than the written word. However, once again I am reading not just fiction, but non-fiction and heaps of interesting material. Mindvalley continues to be my backstop for inspiration, but I now read TED talks, Brain Pickings by Maria Popova, Aeon Magazine, some Baba-Mail articles and anything that piques my interest.
The net result of the above is much fold. First and foremost I had a compelling feeling that my last relationship (I am 77 years learning), before my blink of time diminishes, would be a gloriously intimate one, with all the riches that that brings. I truly believe that almost all young people, passionately in love as they can be, are incapable of the kind of intimacy and bonding that experience, grief, resilience and learning can provide. I have been internet dating for a time and have had coffee with a few 'train-spotters' during this time. I treated it like any other project I have achieved, with a goal, criteria (which had to be constantly re-assessed) and evaluation. Now I have met a wonderful man who is on a journey like I am. We share not just an exceptional love, but an insatiable sharing of knowledge and more importantly wonderful discussions about our emotional status. Our sex is blissful and punctuated with laughter. Seventy-year-olds have to laugh at themselves.
Secondly, I have gained a deeper understanding of myself and the expanding horizons for Iris. This is bountiful and I truly thank Mindvalley for my personal epiphany.
Kind regards