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Remaining Available to Life · Living & Learning with Aundria McMillan Humphrey

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: Hello and welcome to Living & Learning with Aundria McMillan Humphrey.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: This is episode 33, Remaining Available to Life.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: I've been thinking about what ageless living actually looks like,
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  SPEAKER_00: not as an idea,
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  SPEAKER_00: not as something we teach, but what does it look like when we're simply living it?
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  SPEAKER_00: Well, sometimes it looks like just sitting quietly and noticing.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes it looks like bouncing up the side of a mountain in a truck,
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: being handed a hammer and going mining for opals.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: That was me on Thursday.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: I took a day trip with my friend, Gina Montero, and a group to Tequisquiapan, Querétaro.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: Our first stop was a lavender farm.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: It was beautiful.
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  SPEAKER_00: Rows and rows of lavender, that wonderful fragrance in the air.
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  SPEAKER_00: We sampled different scents and learned about the process of extracting the oils
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: and turning them into soaps and shampoos and facial creams.
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  SPEAKER_00: And I was fascinated.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: I love learning things I didn't know before.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: I love being somewhere I've never been.
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  SPEAKER_00: I love discovering how something becomes what it becomes.
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  SPEAKER_00: And then we were off to the Opal Mines.
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  SPEAKER_00: Now, getting there was an adventure in itself.
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  SPEAKER_00: We climbed into the back of a truck and bumped our way up a very steep mountain.
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  SPEAKER_00: At the top, An opal expert explained how opals are found, mined, cut, and polished.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: We had the privilege of watching him work and learning from someone
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  SPEAKER_00: who really knew these stones.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: And then they gave us hammers.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: Now we're talking.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: There I was, hammer in hand, Breaking a pod excavated rocks looking for my opal.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: I was ready.
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  SPEAKER_00: I searched.
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  SPEAKER_00: I hammered.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: I examined rocks.
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  SPEAKER_00: And how many opals did I find?
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: Not one.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: Not one opal.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: I came home with some very pretty rocks, though.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: And you know what?
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  SPEAKER_00: I had a wonderful time.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: Because somewhere along the way, it stopped being about finding the opal.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: The search was enough.
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  SPEAKER_00: The experience was enough.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: The laughter was enough.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: And I think we forget that sometimes.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: We become so focused on the thing we are supposed to find,
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  SPEAKER_00: accomplish,
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  SPEAKER_00: win, finish, or produce, that we miss the sheer pleasure of being in the search.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: But our day wasn't finished.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: Next came food, or so I thought.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: Instead, somebody handed me an apron.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: We learned to make corn tortillas and stuffed gorditas,
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  SPEAKER_00: hands in the dough, making our own food, laughing together, and then eating it.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: Delicious.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: And the salsa was terrific.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: Later, some of us climbed aboard a kiddie train and rode around the center square.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yep, a kiddie train.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: And I didn't stop to ask whether I was too old to ride it.
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  SPEAKER_00: I didn't wonder what anybody would think.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: It looked like fun.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: And so I got on, along with some of the other gals.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: And perhaps that's when the whole day began to say something to me.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: Because Ageless Living isn't about trying to stay young.
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  SPEAKER_00: I've never believed that.
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  SPEAKER_00: It isn't about pretending we aren't getting older.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: And it certainly isn't about proving that we can still do things.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: It's about remaining available to life.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: Available to curiosity.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: Available to discovery.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: Available to play.
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  SPEAKER_00: Available to people.
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  SPEAKER_00: Available to experience.
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  SPEAKER_00: Experiences we didn't plan.
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  SPEAKER_00: Available to the possibility that there is still something we haven't seen,
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: something we haven't learned, something we haven't tried.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes available to doing something that scares us a little bit.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: Because this weekend, my adventure moved from the lavender fields and opal mines to the stage.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: I performed a monologue.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: This was only my second monologue reading.
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  SPEAKER_00: And there is something about standing or sitting before an audience
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  SPEAKER_00: that is very different from sitting at home reading the words.
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  SPEAKER_00: You have to trust yourself.
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  SPEAKER_00: You have to allow yourself to be seen.
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  SPEAKER_00: You have to step outside that comfortable little place
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  SPEAKER_00: where you already know exactly who you are and what you can do.
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  SPEAKER_00: And then something rather wonderful happened.
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  SPEAKER_00: The writer of my monologue was in the audience.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: I did not know that at the time.
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  SPEAKER_00: I met her afterwards.
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  SPEAKER_00: And then she said something that made me laugh out loud.
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  SPEAKER_00: She said, I'm going home and start work on your next performance.
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  SPEAKER_00: My next performance, apparently, I've acquired a playwright.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: And isn't that how life works sometimes?
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: You say yes to one thing without knowing where it will lead.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: You pick up one hammer, you put on one apron, you climb aboard one ridiculous little train.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: You walk onto one stage and suddenly another door opens,
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: not because you planned it,
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  SPEAKER_00: not because it was on your five-year vision board, but because you were available.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's what I've been noticing in my own life lately.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: The more available I remain to life, the more life seems to have waiting for me.
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  SPEAKER_00: Not always big things.
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  SPEAKER_00: Not everything has to become a project or an achievement or a transformation.
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  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it's lavender.
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  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it's a conversation.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it's dancing.
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  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it's learning to play an instrument.
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  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it's a new friendship.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it's a kitty train.
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  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes it's standing on a stage and discovering another part of yourself
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  SPEAKER_00: that apparently wasn't finished becoming.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe that's the real invitation, not what should I be doing at this stage of my life?
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: Instead, what am I still available for?
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  SPEAKER_00: What might happen?
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  SPEAKER_00: If we stopped allowing age,
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: habit, fear, or somebody else's expectations to answer that question for us.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: What if we simply noticed when life was extending an invitation?
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  SPEAKER_00: And then considering saying, yes.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: No, I didn't find an opal on that mountain.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: But I came home with pretty rocks.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: I came home with lavender.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: I came home with memories.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: I came home having learned something.
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  SPEAKER_00: I came home having laughed.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: And then I walked onto a stage.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: I'd say that was a pretty good haul.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: So this week I'm leaving you with one question.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: What are you still available for?
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: You don't have to know where it will lead.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: You don't even have to find the opal.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe the treasure is discovering that you are still willing to search.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_00: This has been Living & Learning with Aundria McMillan Humphrey.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: I'm still living.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: I'm still learning, and thank goodness I'm still available.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_00: And thank you for listening.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: I will be here again next Monday, and I look forward to having you here with me.