Living the Wisdom years
We spend the first third of our lives learning – not just our school lessons, but learning what we will need to navigate our place in the world. In these years, we acquire information and probe the accepted norms of our culture as we prepare to be productive citizens of society.
In the second third of our lives we are conscripted by duty and obligation – often joyfully so – as we raise children, work at our jobs, and pay the mortgage. We measure success – our own and that of others – in terms of accomplishments and rewards.
But in the last third of our lives we are invited to walk a deeper path as we participate in the full ripening of our souls.
The last phase of life is not non-life; it is a new stage of life.
Joan Chittister
The Wisdom Years 