What's up? Welcome to what we call the weekly pep talk with my mom. This is a five-minute

little podcast we put out every Friday. Every one day is it Sunday. Every Sunday to just

get you pumped up for the week. Something to make you think about it. Very simple, yet

deep. And she'll be on with you right after this.

As most of you know, I am entering my 70s on the 27th of this month and we started celebrating

that with family and friends on Labor Day Weekend and it's an exciting time of life actually

as I ponder what this next part of my journey will look like. And to that end, I began reading

a book by Parker Palmer on the brink of everything. And I thought I'd share a little bit

of this with you today and just perhaps it will strike something new even if you're not

in your 70s. He's talking with a close friend of his who is one of his mentees. She's a good

bit younger than he is. And he says, what I do know is that I yearn for the day when men

and women alike can sit with people they trust, including each other and share the journey

toward broken wholeness, broken wholeness. I love that expression because it's through

our brokenness and life that we become whole. He said, I'll close with one of the big

questions I'm holding as I enter the late autumn of my life. Given all my mess-ups,

how have I managed to survive myself? As age gives me an occasional glimpse into the

simplicity on the other side of complexity, a few answers become clear, grace and forgiveness,

the unconditional love of family and friends, and the openness of folks who've shared their

stories with me, helping me to feel less alone in my struggles, more grace, more forgiveness,

more loving and open friends. You are among the people who in one way or another have blessed

me with the most healing words I know, words spoken not in spite of, but because of my mess-ups.

Welcome to the human race. Maybe my main purpose in life is to pass on those words to people

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