Tea With My New Mentor

So now that my time is my own once again, I made good on a promise to have tea with my 80-plus-year-old neighbor, Ripah (a psuedonym). I didn't know it at the time I had made the promise, that she would be my new mentor. However, nothing gives you clarity (after a near-death experience, and having a child) like being downsized. My old mentor is still of value to me, and his lessons I keep in mind. However, I'm at a point where I've essentially graduated from the first quarter of a typical professional life, 25-34, per Robert Kiyosaki, and needed some additional tools in the midst of the next quarter, 35-44.

Ripah is a kind soul with a simple life. I don't know if she's ever been married, but I know she never had any children of her own. I don't know if that was a matter of choice or circumstance, but I do know she would have made a great one. She's surrounded by a huge cadre of nephews, niece, grands, and great-grands. They call and visit from across the U.S., and from the looks of it they can't call or visit her quick enough. They keep her pretty busy. I guess it's partly because she's the last of her generation in their family.

Anyway, I listened first, and then asked some questions about what I had heard. Then Ripah asked me some questions about how I and my wife were doing. She didn't make a judgment or opinion one way or another. Ripah isn't the type of person that one ought to wait on for the answer to "tell me what I should do." She's pretty aware of character, and will only point out the obvious if you've clearly missed it and it hasn't occured to you AND it's important that you not miss it.

What I learned is the importance of service. Not pie-in-the-sky service, or lip service, or service when it's convenient. Ripah spoke of a lifetime and attitute of service in good times, convenient time, obligatory times, and in bad times. I had been getting the vibe over the last year that I needed to put service back in focus in a more consistent way. I needed to weave it back into my life's purpose in a more hollistic way. Ripah really crystalized it for me. Thanks Ripah.