The Stage Before The End

Your time has passed.

You can’t win the battles anymore within the organization.

You know it. They know it.

You’re trying to hang on.

It’s only another five years.

You’re asking questions about ageism because that is the institutionally approved way of continuing to fight.

The fact is everyone is moving on except for you.

You are in the past, telling stories about those times.

You aren’t looking ahead anymore.

The horizon has gotten much shorter.

This is actually what the end looks like for most people.

There is a stage before this where there’s an opportunity to transition.

Within an organization, is being seen as the wise mentor.

In life, it is the space of eldership.

It is the place where your “inner good grandparent” shows up.

It is the place where you stop competing with those who are following you.

It isn’t necessarily a place of greater ease . . . At least at work.

It is the space where you can step into being more gracious, more generous, more majestic.