The Adults Aren't Coming!

 

I had to laugh the other day when my adult daughter was telling me about a workshop she had attended for her business and the first thing the presenter told the group of small business leaders was, "Okay, the adults aren't coming, let's get started!"

In other words, don't wait for more knowledgeable people to do things for you. YOU are the knowledge base now, you are the leaders, you are the heads of business. YOU have to be the ones to lead.

I instantly thought of how that applies to many of us in whatever stage of life we're in right now.  When you are growing up, your parents and other elder family members were usually telling you where to be, when and how to dress. But as we reach our twenties and thirties we have to grow up and make adult decisions.  Yet, so many of us 'adults' from age thirty to sixty are still waiting for our parents to tell us how to do things whether it's how to fix our homes, live our faith, raise our children or live our lives.    I can hear you saying, "Whoa there lady, not me! I am adult, I can do all those things just fine!"  And yes true it's not like we're all still living in our parents' basement yet.  But how much do we engage in the world in our decision making?  What I mean is, do we volunteer to teach Sunday School or think that someone 'older' in the parish would be better to do that?  Do we volunteer for community committees to improve our town or think that the older people have more knowledge about social concerns or politics?  We've lead ourselves into a trap of thinking we're adults, but not engaging as such. 

We could blame the fact that our parents are living longer so they are still doing these things. But that is no excuse for us to sit back and let them do it all.  It would be better for us to work along side those older adults and learn from them, not let them do it all.

The adults are not coming because we are here. Right now, in the moment and we need to sieze these moments before we truly cannot participate in them or before all the 'older' adults are gone and we never took the time to learn from them!

 So be the adult in your life. I know you don't 'feel' like the old and wise. But you are.   Take charge, take a stand and don't be afraid to say, "Hey, I'm the adult here!!!"