Recently I was invited to serve
on a certain board of directors in Fairfield. I almost fell off my chair. Not in my wildest dreams would it have occurred to me that I might be considered
for this board. I have done some public speaking over the last year for this
group; I do feel quite passionate about the direction this organization is
taking. But a board member?
My first thoughts were: Are they mad? Why would they want someone
who is eighty-one to serve on what is a vibrant, important board, consisting
mostly of members younger than my children? This can’t be happening!
“You don’t have to decide
now,” I was told gently. “Just tell me that you are even willing to consider
it.”
Stunned, I nodded my head.
“Of course, I will consider it. I am so honored to be asked.”
But, at the same time, in my
head I could hear the following sentences: You
are too old. Your board-serving days are long over. (There was a time when
I served on boards.) As a
single senior you are supposed to be learning to play bridge and thinking about
retirement communities. This is not for you. You will fall asleep at the
evening meetings.
I came home dazed but
determined to think about it. This was an amazing opportunity, I knew. What
would this mean for my life?
I plunked myself down at my computer where I
am accustomed to thinking, and there, lying beside my Mac, were pieces of
yellow, lined paper containing quotes from a recent sermon delivered by the
empowering pastor, Joel Osteen.
On top was a single piece of paper, which read:
“I wouldn’t be alive unless there was something greater in my future.”
The other bits were my notes from
Osteen’s recent talk about “living small.”
Was that it? Was I “living
small?” Was I afraid to live a
wide-open, spacious life? “Limited thinking leads to living in a small way,”
Osteen tells us. “Don’t get stuck and stay there.” Whatever our age, whatever our situation in
life we are to dream new dreams and seek new horizons, he admonishes us. We are
to “live large!”
According to Osteen, “God”—the
Universe--whatever works for you—“wants to enlarge us, wants us to gain new ground, and we have to make
room for that new ground in our thinking.”
The idea here is not to
compulsively bite off more than we can chew, but simply to remain open to
expansion, to new possibilities in our lives.
Was I stuck? No longer able to
think of living a larger life? Was I caught in some age-determined stereotype
that had snuck up on me like a creepy, red rash whose itch held me fast?
Living in a “small
environment,” Osteen tells us, gets inside of us and begins to control how we
think about ourselves. We need to combat this diminishment and instead,
encourage ourselves, be willing to seize the next opportunity and be unafraid
to spread our wings no matter how frazzled those feathers appear to us. We are
called to live an “overcoming and expanded life.”
There are no accidents. The notes beside my
computer, hastily scrawled one Sunday a couple of weeks ago while Osteen was speaking, made my decision for me.
I opened my email, typed in
the address, and sent: “YES!”
***
Check out www.whatIknowtobetrue.com offering personal
growth groups in Fairfield every third Thursday. Caroline J. Temple and Lisa
Jacoby are the compassionate leaders of What I Know To Be True and my
companions on this journey of reflection and self-discovery. Call Caroline: 203
866 9331for the details of the workshops. Click here for general information:
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