One of the joys of aging for me has been time for reflection, the time to find a “neutral zone” and really think and reflect.
By LIZ MARCHI
I have always had a bias for action. Over my life I have spent many hours, as most of us who are working or engaged in communities, in committee meetings, strategic planning sessions and retreats. That was mostly torture for me, as I wanted to get to it and was confident enough that whatever “it” needed to be was where I was headed. Please follow and I will show you!!!
One of the joys of aging for me has been time for reflection, the time to find a “neutral zone” and really think and reflect. I love time that doesn’t have to be about action but about purpose in this season of life. For me, there is real change in where joy comes from.
Jon and I have had many long discussions about our lives. That’s what we do on our 3,000-mile road trips. There is such great joy in having a life partner who, while you may share many common interests, has a completely different last quarter plan.
We spend time talking about growing old with the shared gratefulness that we are together. I have had an epiphany about our divergent plans. I want to downsize, reduce maintenance time and costs and get familiar with a smaller place closer to civilization. Jon wants to live here, working cows until he can’t.
When we got home late Monday, I had this overwhelming sense of how much I too, really want to be here. Our ranch, while hard work, isolated and always needs something fixed and has the worst driveway on earth is the greatest blessing in our lives. We had a new calf, the sunset was stunning and the peace of being home was overwhelming for me. It is a place of beauty and peace beyond description.
Breaking all my rules, I have joined the board of the Montana Meat Co. www.montanameat.co in Bozeman. I have been a supplier of sustainably raised, hormone and antibiotic free, forage fed, Wagyu to this startup. The founder is a 4th generation Montanan who lives on a ranch his family homesteaded in Ennis. Besides being real to the core, his passion is building a business with sustainably raised proteins as a way to keep our rangeland open and healthy. That’s a worthy cause.
I love technology and what it enables me to do but the dirt, the cows and my cowman are what really give me purpose these days.
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Liz Marchi lives on a ranch in Polson, Montana with her husband Jon. She is the Fund Coordinator for the Frontier Angel Fund and spends a lot of time thinking and learning about entrepreneurs, the economy and Montana’s unique place in the world. She has three daughters and a stepson and daughter and a grandchild. She graduated from Hollins College and is entering the final quarter of life…unless we go into overtime.