Whispers from the Universe at Midlife

A friend posted this Brene Brown quote, which has been making the rounds:

"I think midlife is when the universe gently places her hands upon your shoulders, pulls you close, and whispers in your ear:

I’m not screwing around. It’s time. All of this pretending and performing – these coping mechanisms that you’ve developed to protect yourself from feeling inadequate and getting hurt – has to go.

Your armor is preventing you from growing into your gifts. I understand that you needed these protections when you were small. I understand that you believed your armor could help you secure all of the things you needed to feel worthy of love and belonging, but you’re still searching and you’re more lost than ever.

Time is growing short. There are unexplored adventures ahead of you. You can’t live the rest of your life worried about what other people think. You were born worthy of love and belonging. Courage and daring are coursing through you. You were made to live and love with your whole heart. It’s time to show up and be seen.''

Then my friend wrote, "I have felt this. In fact, I’m in it now. Has anyone else felt the universe telling you to seriously start moving?"

I replied, "Piercingly I have felt this."

My friend asked, "What kicked it off for you? Was it an event? A feeling?"

I liked my response so much that I decided to post it here.  I can't always find things on Facebook again when I want, so I often transform them into blog posts or journal entries.  Here's what I wrote:

"It's been growing since the election, and then there was Hurricane Irma and reports of sea levels rising more rapidly than we anticipated, which made me think my retirement plans needed to be re-evaluated. Once I start to re-evaluate one thing, I've just kept going. But mostly, it's a realization that I no longer have as much time as I once did, and it's time to go into a higher gear. I don't always have the energy for the higher gear--which may also be saying something about my choices. What drains me? What energizes me? Once I'd have avoided those answers, knowing that the answers meant I should be re-evaluating. Now I know I need to re-evaluate, so I'm returning to the basic questions: why am I here? What needs to be done? Or, to paraphrase writer and theologian Frederick Buechner: what's the intersection between my deep yearning and the world's deep hunger?"