“Boomer Power” by Kay Strom, author of “The Second-Half Adventure”

About Kay Marshall Strom

Kay Marshall Strom has written thirty-six published books, numerous magazine articles, and two screenplays. Four of her books have been chosen as book club selections, eleven have been translated into foreign languages, and one was optioned for a movie. Her writing is also included in numerous volumes and compilations, including the bestselling Conversations on Purpose for Women (Zondervan 2005) and various editions of the NIV Devotional Bibles.

In addition to her writing, Kay taught writing classes through the California State University system for ten years, and still teaches at writers conferences around the country. In 2008, she was invited to India to teach writing in order to give a voice to those not normally heard.

A sought-after speaker, Kay is in demand for retreats and special events throughout the US and around the world.

Kay and her husband Dan Kline make their home in the Pacific Northwest.

You can visit her website at www.kaystrom.com.

Boomer Power!

Inside every baby boomer zipping toward senior-dom is a thirty-five year old asking, “Hey, what happened?”

Life, that’s what.

We—who vowed to stay forever young, who promised never to trust anyone over thirty—are actually talking about retirement. Thing is, we’ve learned a thing or two along the way. And now, just as we’ve really become good at so many things, society suggests we hang up our useful lives.

Shows how little society understands boomers, doesn’t it?

For years I taught a class to really senior people (think 80s and 90s) called “Writing Your Life Story.” I always started a term with my micro-biography assignment: In 100 worlds or less, write the significance of your life. It was fascinating to see what people looking back at a lifetime of memories considered worthy of their one hundred words. Most of the men described the jobs they had held. Many of the women used their words to talk about their children.

I always smiled kindly and said, “This is all so interesting.” But then I handed the papers back and urged a rewrite. “I want you to tell me about you!” I said.

Most of my senior students seemed genuinely stymied. One time a woman wrote exactly one hundred words describing every one of her perceived faults and shortcomings, including the secretarial course she started in her twenties and never finished. Imagine vexing over that for more than half a century!

Then there was the dapper white-haired gentleman in his eighties, always jauntily dressed in a sport jacket and wool Scottish plaid tie. Charles was his name. He began his micro-biography this way: “At the age of sixty I got a retirement watch from the railroad and went to work as a free repairman for anybody who needed my help. That was when I became a person of significance.”

A wise man, that Charles! He is right, of course. Significance is not about success; it’s about consequence. It’s not what pads the checkbook; it’s what gives meaning to life.

Baby boomers have always stood out in their passion to change the world. That passion hasn’t changed; it has simply matured. Now, in their clear-eyed seasoned years, they are more determination than ever to give back, for they are realizing that significance truly is found beyond themselves and their own lives.

Many of us boomers are likely to live into our eighties or nineties. More than a few of us will blow out a hundred birthday candles. Yet, our days are numbered. And no one can reclaim the past. That’s why now is the time to rethink values and reset goals so that we will have a legacy of significance to leave to those coming along behind.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” Never in their lives have baby boomers been willing to stay silent about things that matter to them. Why should they start doing do in their second half?

We have only just begun to show the power of our second half!

About The Second Half Adventure

Whoever you are, whatever your skills and experiences, you can use what you have gained in life to help change the world. In connection with The Finishers Project, The Second-Half Adventure will enable you to analyze where you have been, where you want to go in the second-half of your life, and how to start preparing today.

Through the stories of individuals and couples who have found meaningful involvements—from business people to housewives, from engineers to artists—this book will help you infuse your special God-given years with purpose and eternal significance. The best adventure is yet to come!

Read the Excerpt