Gabriel Shirley

On Friday I turn 40.

When I was a child, perhaps 12 years old, my mother turned 40 and I remember it was a Big Deal for her. She didn’t want it to be a Big Deal, but some of her friends planned a surprise party for her, which she discovered was in the works. So instead of throwing a surprise party, they threw a “non-surprise” party complete with a big yellow construction sign announcing to the world that she had passed this particular mark on her journey. Then there was the male stripper. If you know that my mother is a former Catholic nun, you get the picture that this made the event a Big Deal.

At the time I tried to imagine what it would be like when I turned 40. It seemed so far away. Past the turn of the century.  Some other foreign land of future time that barely had any meaning to me then. Now that I’m here, 2008 seems very present to me. I’m in grad school, I’m a consultant, I have an amazing family and an expanding cadre of friends doing good work in the world. My idealism is as present as ever, but it’s more refined, deeper, trusting people to be who they are and still wanting to strive toward the as-yet-to-be-defined best in all of us. I’m intensely grateful for my life. And the ongoing sense of being on a journey that’s bigger than me and also a collaborator with me. We’re woven together in the interplay of individual/collective, each supporting the other to realize itself more fully as part of a larger whole. My mother, my life, and all of the people on my journey have helped me see this is how life works.

Being present to what’s happening right now is, well, really cool. The present is where the individual and collective really meet each other, the place where things actually happen, the place where new possibilities emerge, where we imagine better futures, where we experience all there is to experience. The wisdom traditions of the world invite us to get in touch with the present through meditation and prayer. The expanding modern work on multiple intelligences is really all about the “multiple intelligences of the present.”

As I move into my next decade, my wish for myself and for the world is that we choose to be conscious of the fact that we live in the present. What will happen in the future is important, yes. And how we are right now will determine that future course.

Turning 40 is a Big Deal for me because it’s a marker of coming into my own. While I consider myself a life-long learner, I am also making a choice to speak out more, to be more present with my unique voice, to contribute what I have to contribute, to lead where leadership is needed. We live in a time that calls for a fullness of thinking, being, and acting. I’m signing up to contribute my part and encouraging others to do the same.