Overview

While each stage or ‘season’ of our lives brings changes, sometimes we don’t recognize the freedoms and limitations different seasons offer. In this exercise you will look at the present and discover how it has both limited and freed you.

45 minutes High School and Up Introspection
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A journal, if desired.

  1. Specify the season of life you are in right now. While there are broad life stages that are widely recognized (early adulthood, parenting preschoolers, retirement, etc.), you might need to be creative in describing the unique season where you are now. For example, it could be the “newcomer in town” or the “leader who is no longer leading” phase of your life.
  2. Reflect on the limitations that are built into this stage of your life. These may be in areas such as responsibility, relationships  (family or others), economic security, health, or energy levels.
  3. Reflect on the freedoms you have in this stage of your life. Sometimes freedoms are more challenging to identify than limitations, particularly if the new freedom involves diminishment (such as the loss of a spouse). You still have the freedom to choose how you live with the loss.
  4. Sometimes the same reality both limits and opens your life. Retirement or job loss can severely limit your spending but open you to a different way of living (less shopping at the mall and more use of library books, videos, and computer services; less eating out and more experimentation in the kitchen). What aspects of this season both limit and free you?
  5. As you reflect on what you have written, use it to remember your desire to live this season guided by God’s wisdom and light. What would it be like to live the limitations gracefully? What would your life look like if you really embraced the freedoms offered by this season?

This practice was drawn from Nancy Bieber’s book, Decision Making & Spiritual Discernment (2010), available through QuakerBooks.  Used by permission of Nancy Bieber.

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