"Wholly unprepared, we embark upon the second half of life...we take the step into the afternoon of life; worse still we take this tep with the false assumption that our truths and ideals will serve as before.  But we cannot live the afternoon of life according to the program of life's morning -- for what was great in the morning will be little at evening, and what in the morning was true will at evening have become a lie."
                                                                                         -- Carl Jung


It's a time of adventure, discovery, reassessing who we are and what we really care about.  It's often a time of inner conflict over the life we've built for ourselves and the one we want to manifest now.  It's a time of transition.  It's a "crisis" period in our lives when we are standing figuratively at a "crossroads" and are being invited to make some choices.  It's a right brain time to exercise our creativity and imaginations allowing ourselves to dive in and have some fun!

Some Native American tribes have an expression that wisdom only begins after 50 years of age.  When we reach that hallmark, we have a history of experience, mistakes, fulfilled and unfilled hopes that we can reflect upon and gain insight into where we want to go, who we want to be, how we want to live.  Lessons learned and put into practice, so to speak.

Gene Cohen suggests four phases that unfold in overlapping 20 year periods beginning in early 40s:
      
Mid-Life re-assessment (40-65) setting new intentions and priorities,
Liberation time (55-75) involving shedding past inhibitions to express ourselves more freely,
Summing-up phase (65-85) when we begin to review and concentrate on giving back,
Encore (75 and beyond) involving finding affirmation and fellowship in the face of loss.

Yet, though neat and tidy, this may just not fit the reality of any of our lives!

This time of transition is when many gay men are invited, sometimes by design and sometimes subtly,  to model what it means to be a gay male to younger gay men, to mentor another generation.  Instead of imparting the stereotypical messages of ageism, homophobia, and many gay stereotypes of the gay marketing agencies, this is the time to impart wisdom from experience, enabling a younger generation to appreciate themselves as human beings, as men among men and equal to any other men, as gay men who have a purpose in the enterprise of living.

A midlife transition is about saying goodbye, 'dying' to the old accrued beliefs, ways, 'truths' of societal framing to authenticity, to living your own truth and passion.  Such a death and rebirth is not an end in itself.  It is a transition.  It is needed to achieve one's potential and to experience the vitality and wisdom of mature aging.

It begins with giving ourselves permission to reassess who we are and what we're about and move to being true to ourselves, our passions, our dreams, our aspirations... and embodying them more fully!

"As we age, we human beings yearn for wholeness. We yearn for the parts of ourselves that have been in the dark to find sunlight, and those that were sunburned to find shade. We yearn for the  parts that  have been underdeveloped to grow, and those that were overdeveloped to be pruned.  We yearn for the parts that have been silent to speak, and those that were noisy to be still.  We yearn for the parts that have been alone to find companionship, and those that have been over-crowded to find solitude.  We yearn to live our unlived lives.  ...  (The second half of life) asks us not to defend who we are but to be open to the mystery of what we have not yet become, the mystery of coming into our own, whoever we may be."
                                                 -- Mark Gerson, "Listening to Midlife"