I’m in the final third of my life

Well Derek, while one might say "life is meaningless" you seem to have found your own meaning. Good for you.

Even having that disorder I hope you stay here for 50+ years.
I'm also entering that final third.
Thanks for the inspiration, Derek!

I'm in the final quarter. I have some of the same feelings, in that I've now let of lot of things go. I've just taken it to the next step. My whole bucket list is now on the "nevermind" list. When I look at what's really important to do, for me, the answer seems to be nothing really.

What a sobering thought and great reminder that time marches on and waits for no-one. As someone who can so easily get lost in what I enjoy and lose site of the time pressure to get ahead, I appreaciate the reminder to get working on those projects and goals that I have set in mind. Thank you as always for sharing your valuable ideas for us to be inspired by.

Derek,

You are in your ascending years.

You are an unceasing spiritual being with an eternal destiny in God's great universe.

Our life and death and the life that is to come are delicately and deliberately interconnected. We need to grow, develop, learn, and mature in character if we are to endure the eternal realities.

The most important thing in your life is not what you do; it’s who you become. That’s what you will take into eternity.

Allen

it also makes me look at what life is and what is beautiful instead of ugly.

Magic happens in the moments and you have always make them for yourself and us.
You first brought stoicism to my awareness and most of us. We have always been dying and you have been my unseen friend who has taught me how to live fully time and again.
As someone who works with the sick and dying,
Do not believe anyone, any percentage just keep making your dreams happen and be that legacy of present awareness for yourself, your kid, all of us. Keep up and youll be kept up. “ Nothing is good or bad but thinking makes it so”
( Macbeth, Shakespeare)

Well, for what it's worth and for however many heartbeats you or I have left, you have made a difference to me and my life and for that I will just say thank you.

Does everyone around this age think the same way?

Because "...it actually inspires the hell out of me. It eliminates procrastination." is EXACTLY how I also feel about it.

Onwards.

According to dr Joel wallach the mineral doctor, there are no genetic diseases
and other factors are involved . He wrote a book called Epigenetics about it.He heals people with nutrition and his systemm works and it contradicts western allopathic big pharma medicine at many places. He is reversing 900 known diseases and conditions succesfully for 50 years . selenium deficiency is a major cancer cause as one example.

I recommend "From Strength to Strength" by Arthur Brooks, if you haven't read it yet.

It's amazing what you let go of once you consider if you'd regret not doing it more when your time is up.

Being in final third of my life, I feel the urge to act now as well. But I'm wary—how much of my desires are shaped by society? Most of them likely are.

My challenge is filtering out external influences to uncover what I truly want. The more I strip away, the clearer it becomes: I seek simplicity and a way to be useful to others.

"It helps me let go of what I don’t want badly enough"- LOVE IT, not waiting till my third chapter of life (if it ever comes even) to realize that

Yes, contemplating one’s (a loved one’s) impending demise is a stimulus for savouring what you have that is most important in life. When caring for my late wife, I was acutely aware “This might be the last time that I (read “we”) enjoy… [a shared, loving moment]” For sure, that “last time“ came and I was glad that I had taken my time to savour every moment, because those became cherished memories. It is like Roy Batty’s death soliloquy from Blade Runner. Moments are the ephemeral “tears in rain” that give life its true meaning. I am pledged to live the most interesting life I can now I am entering its last (hopefully) two decades.

Love this. I'm in denial about how much time I have left and I have to keep reminding myself that many things are "now or never". Appreciate the reminder.

I am in my Final Fifteen (70 to 85) and am stripping back all the bullsh!t I have been living my life by. My desires and goals are very different, and I look forward to experiencing the changes that will arise. I have written two books about ADHD and will continue along that path and provide as much support to others with ADHD as I can in the time I have.
I love your ability to be so brief, yet so powerful, my friend. Thank you for your writing.

I was diagnosed with a disease (1968) that usually causes lymphoma. I survived 3 years as an Army medic, sometimes by dumb luck and eventually became a PA for 45 years. Retired now I try to hang on to the mindset " when I get back to the world" a common mindset among young drafted soldiers. Some time ago I discovered an attitude of Marcus Aurelius - memento mori, you are not promised another day. This helps me focus and concentrate on the day I have, yesterday is gone, tomorrow isn't promised. I realize I will be a distant memory in one generation but I can have a beneficial effect on those I live around by example, through giving my time and talents to benefit them. I think no matter how I prepare the last day will be a surprise or a welcome relief, until then I will live everyday as if there won't be another -- like my last day "back in the world"

What we call reincarnation might actually be just a different spiritual dream!



If my concept of my current temporal human lifetime actually being one dream session of my eternal spirit, then when my spirit wakes up from my current spiritual dream, which is my current human lifetime, then my next spiritual dream might be a completely different human lifetime.



I agree with Ingrid Honkala that my spirit has NO NAME, nor am I an old man with a fractured spine, a damaged aortic valve and a bunch of teeth which ALL need to be removed :)



My spirit is ALWAYS in perfect wellness, absolute silence, Divine Presence, and does NOT need to eat chocolate pudding for energy :)



batgap.com/ingrid-honkala-transcript/



[quote]Ingrid: I knew, Rick, and I would look at my parents, so that was hard too, because you will think, how is this child with her parents? But I had some sort of disconnection at some level, as in “I know you’re not just my biological (parents), I know you’re not this.” I felt them as my equal. I couldn’t relate with other children, because I would look at the people, Rick, and I’d be like, what is happening with these people? They don’t know anything. To me, they’re like, what is going on? So I came already with that awareness, and not just with knowing I am more than this body, I am not this. I would look at myself in the mirror, Rick, and I said, that’s not who I am. That is not my name. But I would just say, I should not be here, because I just didn’t want to be here. And my mom, what can you do with a child like that? It’s like my mom just tried to say, you’re beautiful, don’t think this way, be grateful with God, whatever, but what do you do? And then I started to feel very angry. I didn’t want to eat, I didn’t want to even be touched by people. I didn’t want to be here, Rick, because I just, for me, it’s like, what is happening? Why am I here?



Rick: It’s not your home. You had gone home, and all of a sudden, you’re not home anymore, right?



Ingrid: Yes, Rick, and now this is the other incredible thing, all the validation that happened in this experience. Now I came back and I had the abilities of being able to read, write, resolve mathematical problems, put together complex puzzles.[/quote]



[quote]Rick: Let me ask you a couple of mundane questions, just to make this more real for me and other people. So I got the impression from what you just said that it didn’t really matter whether your eyes were open or closed. It wasn’t really a matter of your physical eyes, if it were even pitch dark, you could have seen them, right?



Ingrid: Yes, yes, yes. And the thing is, I like to continue going deeper with what you just asked. I didn’t think about that there, but later in life, I understood. I know now, I understand this concept of home. Home is not a place, it’s a state of being. Because when the beings of light started to appear here, in the physical realm, I started to heal, Rick. I started to talk to my parents, I started to feel well, I started wanting to interact with others, I started to eat. My physical body, I was very ill. After the drowning, I was worse. But I just started to feel well. So, now later in life, I understand that I didn’t have to go anywhere. Now that the beings of light were here, and I felt that sense of well-being, I felt love, I felt care, I felt that I was not alone. And then this is the other thing, because I felt that I did not have attachment with my name, Rick, or with my persona, and I was throwing big tantrums. They would call me by my name and I would get aggravated. And there was an evening when they were calling me for dinner and the lady was like, “Ingrid, Ingrid, and I said, “don’t call me like that.” Then I would just ignore it. And then she came and said, “Ingrid, don’t you hear? We’re calling you for dinner.” And I turned to her and I said, “Do not call me like that. That is not my name.” And she looked at me and she’s like, “So what is your name?” to just aggravate it. And I said, “I do not need one.”



Rick: They must have thought you were a strange little kid.[/quote]



youtu.be/BeyliZzVozc?si=Ai-vDQz2e-coaUWQ



[quote]batgap.com/ingrid-honkala/



Chapters:

00:00:00 - Introduction to Buddha at the Gas Pump with Rick Archer

00:04:42 - The Incident with the Water Tank

00:09:16 - Remembering the Eternity of Who I Was

00:13:39 - Floating with Flowers

00:17:14 - Playing the Game of Going Places

00:20:33 - Connected to the Being of Light

00:23:44 - A Blast and a Vacuum

00:27:08 - The Bell and the Awakening

00:30:40 - Not Feeling Belonging, Anger, and Increased Abilities

00:34:14 - The Beginnings of Seeing Beings of Light

00:38:18 - Becoming a Being of Light

00:41:50 - The Importance of Names in Communication

00:45:51 - Profound Spiritual Awakening

00:49:12 - A Vision of My Future Job

00:52:25 - Interaction with Beings of Light and their Influence

00:55:49 - The Observer: Life Through Personal Experience

00:59:12 - The Challenges and Awakening

01:02:24 - Removing the Blocks and Shining the Light

01:06:12 - The Loss of Light and the Illusion of the World

01:10:17 - The Illusion of Truth and Appreciation

01:15:22 - The Symphony of Nature's Welcome

01:21:30 - Quieting the Mind and Connecting with Beings of Light

01:27:20 - The Importance of Acknowledging Near-Death Experiences

01:33:18 - The Power of Connection

01:39:36 - The Power of Connection and Unconditional Love

01:45:30 - A Life-Changing Robbery Experience

01:51:24 - A Probing Thought Turns into a State of Prayer

01:58:09 - Awakening and Integration

02:03:37 - Embracing Challenges as Opportunities for Growth

02:10:24 - Connecting with Inner Wisdom

02:16:44 - Creating a Community and Speaking Engagements



Ingrid Honkala, Ph.D., was born in Bogota, Colombia, where she grew up with her parents and three sisters. From the moment she drowned in a tank of cold water at the age of nearly three, Ingrid was aware of other dimensions of life than those most of us normally experience. She was also gifted with the wise input of “Beings of Light” who gave her invaluable insights and assistance as she faced the challenges of growing up, falling in love, and finding her professional destiny as a research scientist and oceanographer. Despite many hardships, she accomplished her dreams, becoming not just a successful marine scientist, world traveler, and mom, but also a mentor and a giver of light.



Through her compelling life adventure that journeys from her native Colombia to Europe and her eventual home in the United States — and from a deadly war zone to underwater explorations and a NASA research center — Ingrid reveals how any human experience can be illumined from within. If we are willing to pay attention to subtle signals, take our intuition seriously, and forgive our most challenging difficulties, anyone can experience a brightly guided life. Throughout her life, Ingrid has been guided to meet and help many people on their journey to become aware of a deeper reality and reconnect with their inner wisdom.



In her autobiography, A Brightly Guided Life: How a Scientist Learned to Hear her Inner Wisdom, Ingrid reveals how after having her Near Death Experience, the first glimpses of heaven were revealed to her and the doors that allow her to communicate with Beings of Light were opened. Since then a myriad of experiences that many could call mystical and perhaps impossible have crossed her path. However, the Beings of Light have made it clear to her that she is not here to convince anyone about anything but to be a giver of Light. To accomplish this purpose, she has been guided through an amazing journey of unimaginable challenges, awakenings, and miracles where along the way she became the vehicle to help others to rise up from some of the deepest states of hopelessness and bring them back to life. For all this she is eternally grateful and committed to continue awakening, growing, and serving the Light.[/quote]

On your way out, eh?

A soldier who fought the Nazis reflected at the time that authoritarians want their children to grow up to be just like them, while Americans are in awe of the unknown potential of their children.

I just turned 93, the last decade of life, although my heros go to 100 and beyond. The Road of Life twists and turns and truly you have little to say about what is placed in your path. Now I jettison my belongings (because they won’t fit in the coffin), and include certain items in my Will. I wonder why I accumulated all this stuff anyway!
Wow! Thanks for this. — Derek

I too am invigorated and inspired by being in the last 1/3 of life. But also, I am fascinated by death and what is on the other side and though I’m not wanting to die anytime soon, I think it’ll be so interesting to see what happens after we shed our mortal coil. “I’m on my way out”! Heh heh. Love your cheerful, interesting intonations of voice in this recording.

Hi Derek
Excellent perspective!
Loving your posts.

PLEASE
CONTINUE sharing
CONTINUE writing!
😇🌻🎉

At age 71.5, I feel that we all need to START SOMETHING which is a road for others to travel, so that they may add more footage to said road. Maybe our special works are not important (as some religions would tell you,) but that's attempting to steal your vision and refocus it on another entity, which usually desires your money/fealty. Your invention of CDBaby allowed me to gain a foothold in the world of music, to have (at present) 677 of my songs out there allowing Spotify to rip me off (on the one hand) and to inspire others as others inspired me on the other.
Reincarnation says that we work to right the wrongs of the past lives we lived - I don't believe that as I am not aware that I was some Russian cavalry dude in 1876 and even if I thought I was, how would I fix the past whilst living HIS future? No, our sum experience is this ONE life - that's what I believe will gain me access to the next, to be allowed to stay and have access to a better place that does not contain, by default, the ridiculous challenges we face here. The Earth is a very rough school...better do what you can with every day instead of only long-range estate planning for a future that may never come. Build a road.

Knowing our time is short has a tendency to focus the mind quite acutely. As I've moved into my early 50's, I've become much more aware that I've wasted a lot of time on ideas and not spent nearly enough of execution. Going to murder that bucket list over the next 10 years.

My dad is in his 60s and say that all the time.

Some say that if you live 20 years more AGI will find a solution with epigenetics programming and we’ll be able to live 150 or even thousands of years. This is a curious thing to think about and I found that it splits opinions, some people would like to live hundreds of years if they could do it in a healthy and independent way. Others hate this idea.

What do you think about it?

I always love your work and your perspective. And I hope you live a long healthy fulfilling life.

"It helps me let go of what I don’t want badly enough. Can I die happy without it? Yeah. So nevermind."

I'm sorting through my own cognitive dissonance between the practicality of making a living and focusing on the hard work of building a business - especially when it gets hard and the focus on being present to my own life and family...which is all that really matters to me.

So could I live without the business? Sure. But damn. Why can't I unwind from the notion that it's so much of my identity? Thanks for the thought-provoking prompt.

I like to call it my Third Act and fully expect to go out with a bang (when the time comes)

When my daughter was about 7 years old, she asked me when I would like to die. I was surprised by the question, but I liked it because it was a good question. I had never really thought about it. After thinking for a moment, I answered, "If you ever have a child, I'd like to see it, then it's okay if I die. I wasn't happy with my answer, especially because I was making my death dependent on my daughter.

Over the years I've thought about it several times and my answer has changed a little.

Currently I think the right time for my death is when I get up in the morning and have no more purpose, no more plan, no more growth, no more curiosity, then it's time to go. This is independent of the trigger for this passivity.

Will I think differently in a few years? Probably.

I always love how you say so much with so little. it's inspiring. thank you

I had this same thought today and am at a similar life stage.

Got to be honest, it made me sad.

I don't feel like I am at that stage. So much more to see and do.

Then again, there always will be.

Understanding how small and insignificant one human life is is a challenge for me.

Very true, Derek. Believe Steve Jobs had famously said - your time here is limited so don’t waste living someone else’s life.

Coming to think of, death is also one of Mother Nature’s best invention - its most powerful change agent.

Have you read Siddhartha by Herman Hesse?

I don't believe that life ends when we "die"

I have gone through a near death experience (a similar state) and with my grandmother we talked after she passed.

God has a plan for us.

See you, on the very banks of the eternal.

Nothing like doing an online Memento Mori chart and learning you've lived 89% of the weeks of your life. That's what happened to me January 2. So I adjusted the chart parameters and gave myself 9% more.I have a lot of stuff to do..

I love your brief, thoughtful posts. On the topic of death, I'd recommend Nothing to Fear, a fantastic book about becoming more familiar with and having less confusion and anxiety around death. It was written by a hospice nurse I was on an improv team with when I lived in Santa Monica, a block or so from where lived.

I was thinking about you saying you're in the final third of your life.

We have no idea when we will die.
It could be today.

You might be in the final hours of your life.

You might be.

Don't give up, right before the miracle

Yesterday I was in the hospital (nothing serious) and the 40 year old woman behind the curtain (also in for nothing serious) had a tiny device playing a drama. I heard an older lady say, "I won't be alive in 30 years."

I had my hand up on my pillow, so I counted on my fingers. "How about that, I won't be here either." Strange that although I had counted my years upwards, for financial planning, I hadn't really approached downwards, for seeing that I have a wall blocking the younger years.

Too bad I have to go, for I wanted to live to see the Mars landing.

Interesting perspective as usual. I'm four years old than you and I'm having the opposite feelings. I used to love to travel and experience new things, but now I have no desire to travel, or experience anything new. I used to be a bit of a foodie, but now I'll just have a piece of bread and a cup of coffee. Maybe I've achieved a Zen-like state? Maybe I'm depressed?. Maybe it's just me? Who knows?

We cannot inherit any disease:) pls read about doctor Hammer and New German Medicine.

Every disease is an emotional conflict.
The point is to find our conflicts and finish them asap.

Or, live in harmony with what we want and feel. :)

"I expected that idea to scare me, but it actually inspires the hell out of me."
- This is the way!

Interesting to think of "this world belonging to the next generation.” But you’re aware you are still contributing.