Originally published on MariaShriver.com on November 22, 2015 By Maria Schriver.
It’s been a couple of weeks now since I turned 60 years young and I’m still basking in the glow of all the love and support I received. I’m choosing to focus on that instead of what I read in the news or see on TV because those stories are only making me feel fearful, scared and powerless. So instead, I’m making a conscious effort to focus on what makes me feel strong and hopeful in my life. I know I’m lucky to be the age that I am. Not everyone makes it to this age, so I’m choosing to see it as the gift that it is. I’m blessed to be alive. Blessed to be standing here on the eve of Thanksgiving, blessed to be standing out in what I call The Open Field. The mystic Rumi described it as a place “out beyond ideas of wrong doing and right doing.”
To me it’s that and more. To me The Open Field is within me but I also visualize it as a destination. It is a place metaphorically “out beyond.” Out beyond harsh judgements, out beyond shame, guilt, fear, anxiety, hate. It’s in my heart and in my mind. And it’s a place I think we, as a world, desperately need to gather in.
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I have learned that you have to be brave to step out into The Open Field because it’s filled with people who are!! It takes bravery to be accepting, peaceful, kind & loving. The Open Field is filled with Architects of Change, “Conscious Idealists” who followed Robert Frost’s advice and took the road less traveled. And for them, that has made all the difference.
Architects of Change are using their voices and their lives in pursuit of the common good. They are the ones I want to learn from, the ones I want to listen to, the ones I want to grow young with, evolve with, the ones I want to be like.
I want to think out beyond what is and think about what can be. I want to be part of a society and culture that values people of all genders and honors those who work on the frontlines of humanity and rewards those who are socially conscious and who seek to build a more compassionate world for all. That’s what it means to be what I call a “conscious idealist,” and that’s what I want to be and who I want to be around.
As I stand here looking out and looking ahead, both in the short-term and in the long-term towards the rest of my life, I think of all the Architects of Change who helped me get to the place I am today. Some have passed on. Some have moved on through and some stand here right next to me. I’m deeply grateful to them all.
[Sam Shriver: I’m on a Solo Journey & Experiencing Incredible Bliss]
I’m deeply grateful for, and to, my family. They have held me up when the sea got rough and they have encouraged me forward with love and laughter. I hope you have family that does that for you. And if you don’t, go about creating one for yourself that does.
Which brings me to my deep gratitude to my friends and for my faith. I have relied heavily on both in my life. I’m deeply grateful for all the lessons I’ve learned, the easy ones and the painful ones. Because they have all brought me here. To this place I’m in right now.
It’s taken me a long time to get here. I made mistakes along the way. I haven’t always liked me or liked the way I treated others. I have failed, but I always got back up. I’ve made amends and I’ve carried on. Ive learned that life is rarely black and white. I’m not going to say it’s Fifty Shades of Grey… I’m just going to say it’s grey, alright? ????
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The secret — if there is one — is to know yourself deeply and communicate who you are. Calmly, clearly and confidently. Check in with yourself as often as you can because you will change along the journey. I know I have. Pause, pray and ask for help as often as you need to, so that you can get to where you want to go. And while you are traveling along the bumpy, broken road called life, remember to be kind. Because everyone else is traveling too, dealing with their own stuff stuff that can often be unimaginable.
What a gift 60 is. I feel both peaceful and powerful at this age. I feel blessed and happy. Not the kind of happy you get at Disneyland, the kind you have deep in your soul and all I want to do is #PassItForward and share it — with people my age, people way younger and people that are older and wiser.
So, today, with Thanksgiving upon us — which by the way is my favorite holiday cause it’s about food, family and gratitude — I look forward, I see and feel joy. When I close my eyes I see laughter, I see friends and family. I see people who want to make a positive impact in the world, as do I. I see people who want others to stand in the light because there is plenty of light for us all.
And what I have learned over my 60 years is that all of this is within my grasp. It’s actually all within me.
What a revelation that is. Everything I need is within me… Wow.
[Read more of Maria Shriver’s ‘I’ve Been Thinking’ Essays]
Happy Thanksgiving. That’s what I’ve Been Thinking, how about you?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Maria Shriver is a mother of four, a Peabody and Emmy Award-winning journalist and producer, a six-time New York Times best-selling author, and an NBC News Special Anchor covering the shifting roles, emerging power and evolving needs of women in modern life. Since 2009, Shriver has produced a groundbreaking series of Shriver Reports that chronicle and explore seismic shifts in the American culture and society affecting women today. Shriver was California’s First Lady from 2003 to 2010 and, during that time, she spearheaded what became the nation’s premier forum for women, The Women’s Conference. Shriver’s work is driven by her belief that all of us have the ability to be what she calls Architects of Change — people who see a problem in their own life or the community around them, then step out of their comfort zone and do what it takes to create the solution. Like her page on Facebook or follow her on Instagram.
