“What if, instead of being afraid of even talking about death, we saw our lives in some ways as preparation for it. What if we were taught to ponder it and reflect on it and talk about it and enter it and rehearse it and try it on?What if, rather than being cast out and defined by some terminal category, you were identified as someone in the middle of a transformation that could deepen your soul, open your heart, and all the while-even if and particularly when you were dying-you would be supported by and be part of a community?” IfsWayTryingHeartSoulWould BeCommunityTalkingSawsOur LivesMiddleDyingTaughtTransformationCastsDefinedPreparationYour SoulWhat IfCategoriesPonderingBeing AfraidOpen Your HeartTerminalIfs And Author:Eve Ensler
“If you stay in the mainstream of life, you let in the suffering of the world that invariably enters all of our lives by the time we're in our middle years, when we've experienced a few deaths and read a few headlines.” IfsWorldYearsSufferingOur LivesMiddleLive ByMainstreamHeadlines Author:Richard Rohr
“The young person isn't certain that love can be real; the middle-aged man is only discovering that it is; and the older person seems so sure of it. I was interested in the way that many of us go through the whole of our lives staying with someone just out of complacency, because leaving isn't easy.” MenWayPersonsRealWholeSeemsYoungCertainEasyOur LivesMiddleLeavingStayingBeing RealDiscoveringComplacencyMiddle Aged Author:Conor McPherson
“We live a pleasant life shopping at the Food Shoppe . . . taking the kids to the Weinery-Beanery, . . . and eating bran flakes . .. and then, with no warning, we wake up one morning stricken with middle age, full of loneliness, dumb, in pain. Our work is useless, our vocation is lost, and nobody cares about us at all. This is not bearable. In despair, we go do something spectacularly dumb, like run away with Amber the cocktail waitress, and suddenly all the women in our life look at us with unmitigated disgust.” LooksCareRunningKidsAgePainLostMorningOur LivesMiddleLonelinessDespairEatingWake UpDumbUselessPleasantWarningShoppingRunning AwayDisgustingVocationMiddle AgesCocktailsAmberWaitressBearableNobody CaresFlakes Author:Garrison Keillor
“Programming is how we talk to the machines that are increasingly woven into our lives. If you aren't a programmer, you're like one of the unlettered people of the Middle Ages who were told what to think by the literate priesthood. We had a Renaissance when more people could read and write; we'll have another one when everyone programs.” PeopleIfsThinkingWritingAgeOur LivesMiddleProgramMachinesProgrammingMiddle AgesProgrammersRenaissanceWovenPriesthood Author:Tim O'Reilly
“In the middle of this despair [of postwar Germany], my family learned about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the healing message of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. This message made all the difference; it lifted us above our daily misery. Life was still thorny and the circumstances still horrible, but the gospel brought light, hope, and joy into our lives. The plain and simple truths of the gospel warmed our hearts and enlightened our minds. They helped us look at ourselves and the world around us with different eyes and from an elevated viewpoint.” WorldMindLooksHeartMadeStillsDifferentLightEyeJoyJesusChristDifferencesChurchSimpleHealingOur LivesMiddleCircumstancesDespairMessagesJesus ChristMy FamilyMiserySaintHorribleGermanyLatterEnlightenedViewpointsLatter DaysSimple TruthsLatter Day SaintsPlain And Simple Author:Dieter F. Uchtdorf
“The land is not old. It only changes, becoming one thing and the next. We are the ones who ascribe age, the brevity of our lives demanding a beginning, middle and end.” EndsAgeNextOur LivesOne ThingLandMiddleBecomingBrevityBecoming OneBeginning Middle And End Author:Craig Childs
“If you stay in the mainstream of life, in other words, you let in the suffering of the world that invariably enters all of our lives by the time we're in our middle years, when we've experienced a few deaths and read a few headlines. Famine, poverty, abuse, you can't keep that all blocked out. If you let those things teach you, influence you, change you, those are the events that transition you without you even knowing it to become more compassionate. In other words, you hold onto your values, but you do it much more inclusively, humbly and in an open ended way. Suffering takes you there.” IfsWorldWayYearsSufferingValuesPovertyTeachKnowingOur LivesInfluenceMiddleEventsAbuseLive ByTransitionCompassionateMainstreamWithout YouFamineHeadlinesBlocked Author:Richard Rohr