When One Door Closes

Another one opens.  I was thinking about that saying and how true it has been for me, throughout my life.  It has also been very true for the women I am interviewing for the Beyond Sixty Project.

I did phone interviews with two women today, preparing them for future filmed interviews.  They both talked about “the doors.”  My first three inteview subjects talked about them as well.

There is a clear commonality among all of my story tellers and it is resilience. The capacity to recover quickly from difficulty and adapt well in the face of adversity.  I am fascinated by it and why some women seem to have more of it than others.

Doors are opening and closing all the time.  The need to change or adapt is perched on the doorstep.  We lose loved ones, build and change careers, get divorced, raise children, deal with illness and muddle through days frought with challenges.  But we continue to open new doors. We are driven to keep learning about ourselves and others.  We want to remain productive and relevant.

Most of the women I am speaking with tell me they have a network of friends and family that provide encouragement, love and support, all necessary to build and feed their resilience.  Each woman talks about her need for balance and flexibility and how she creates the most nurturing environment for herself in order to remain active and in pursuit of new challenges.

I love hearing the stories.  They are all so completely different yet common in their resilience quotient.  They are risk takers and curious about life.  They are continuing their journeys through new doors every day.

I am excited about opening the door to my fourth filming next week.  I hope you get to open some new doors this week.

Happy first day of summer!

Melissa