Mondo Mundo

As baby boomers born between 1946 and 1964, we have lived enough years for each one of us to have been through lots of challenges and issues.  We survived!  We had to overcome obstacles, solve problems, and adapt.  All of these experiences have taught us many life lessons.

There’s no way any of us could get to the age we are without experiencing lots of change.  We’ve seen (and maybe been involved with) protests and sit-ins.  We’ve been hippies and flower children.  We felt free and talked about love and peace around the world.  We believed we could change the world.

Then something happened.  We grew older. The guys shaved their beards and cut their long hair. The girls took the flowers out of their hair.  We started wearing shoes, and exchanged the love beads for gold jewellery.  We traded in the tie-dye shirts for business suits.  Instead of talking about love and peace, we talked about money and how to get more of it.  We moved out of communes and into suburban houses.  Instead of psychedelic colours, we painted the walls in muted tones.

Our lives became muted.  And stressed.  And we became disconnected from others.  Neighbours became strangers, and doors suddenly needed to be locked.  How on earth did the generation that had such fire and boldness, and wild dreams of a world living with love and peace, get so jaded?  How did we stray so far from where we once were?

I believe we’re still in there.  I believe in our hearts we are still the ones that know we can change the world and many have been doing just that.  We long to be reconnected, to experience community, and live in a world where the focus above all is on love and peace.

We’re now coming full circle.  We’ve experienced enough stress, and busyness, and emptiness.  We’re asking the right questions, such as “Is this all there is to life?” and not believing it is.  We’re at that stage that with all the wisdom and life experiences we’ve accumulated, we’re ready to take on the world again.  We’re ready to reach out to neighbours, no matter where they live because we know a neighbour could just as easily be across the ocean as they are across the street.

We’re ready to see what changes we can make, what mark we can leave, with the years we have left.  It’s time to go back to peace and love, and to create connections both close to home and far away.  It’s time to spread our wings, to travel, to learn, to experience, to share, and to create change.

We’ve learned that life is unpredictable and that we have to jump at opportunities and take chances.  We don’t know what will happen, or how many years are ahead.  It’s now that we can reach across the world and make a difference.  We’re ready to create change for the better, both in others, as well as ourselves.  Yes, there is more to life and while we have life, let’s do it.  Let’s do it now.

Join me on a journey where we can be inspired, do good, and create change.  Join me in South Africa and we’ll start there.

Tags: boomers, make a difference, South Africa, travel

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 24th, 2011 at 2:47 pm and is filed under Baby boomers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.