About Later Bloomer
According to Wikipedia, “a late blooming adult is a person who does not discover their talents and abilities until later than normally expected.” In other words, a late bloomer lives outside a socially-accepted timeline.
Late blooming isn’t about a particular age. It’s about the aha! moment that transforms everything that follows.
LaterBloomer.com seeks to give late-blooming adults inspiration to pursue their passions through stories, biographies, book reviews and more. I focus on those who’ve wearied of the corporate treadmill and crave a more creative, intellectual — artier, smartier – life.
What You’ll Find Here
Later Bloomer Biographies: Each week I profile a well-known Later Bloomer outside the corporate milieu. Although the founders of MacDonald’s and Kentucky Fried Chicken built fast-food empires after age 50, you won’t find them here!
You will, however, find people as diverse as Bram Stoker (author), Buster Merryfield (actor), and Mary Somerville (scientist).
After finishing 35 biographies, I publish an anthology. The first one, Later Bloomers, Book One: 35 Folks Over Age 35 Who Found Their Passion and Purpose is free if you join my mailing list!
I’ve collected 140 lives so far, enough material for three more volumes, which I’ll self-publish electronically. When finished, they’ll be professionally edited and compiled into two print editions.
Learning, Creativity and Longevity: I also cover learning, creativity, adventure, longevity, anti-retirement, and cultivating an enduring vision — all of vital interest to Later Bloomers. As an introduction, please check out Why Are Some People Later Bloomers? Part 1.
My Story
I’ve always been a late bloomer. Until recently, I did what others thought I should — especially my parents. They thought I should get out of the house and earn a “decent” living, so I left home at 19 to study business.
By age 26, I managed the contracts department for a large aerospace firm. Every day I wondered, Is this it? I hated the corporate milieu. I dreamed of an exciting, creative, intellectual life, so:
Upside Down In The Trenches, or How I Spent The '90s!
- At 30, I entered UCLA to study Anthropology.
- At 32, I spent the summer in the California Channel Islands doing archaeology.
- At 33, I received an Ahmanson Foundation Grant to help Dr. Maria Gimbutas bring her final book to fruition.
- At 35, I excavated a medieval motte in Wales and a Neolithic passage tomb in Ireland.
- At 36, I earned a combined BA and MA in Anthropology, with an specialization in Archaeology.
- At 38, I took up Jeet Kune Do (Bruce Lee’s martial art) and eventually became a beginning class instructor.
- At 40, I backpacked solo across Europe.
- At 41, I learned sword fighting from a real-life modern Amazon while co-managing an Olympic fencing center.
- At 42, I broke my foot doing a cartwheel in a stunt tumbling class (oops).
- At 43, I bungy-jumped off a bridge in New Zealand.
- At 44, I attended screenwriting school (and discovered I had neither the desire nor the talent to write movies).
- At 46, I found the love of my life and got married.
And at 47, I got sick. Chronic, soul-crushing pelvic pain that is still my nemesis after two surgeries.
The pain returned after I had my uterus sliced up by lasers and siphoned out through my belly button. I completely broke down. I was 50 years old, in constant pain, with 35 extra pounds, $35,000 in debt and wondering, Is this it?
What happened to that other person who was me?
Between wracking sobs, an inner voice said,
You can be miserable for the rest of your life or you can be something else. Choose well — you could have another 50 years.
Another half-century of illness and self-pity, parked in front of the TV supporting the pharmaceutical industry? No way.
I’m going to be a healthy late-blooming centenarian and I want to inspire you to join me.
You know what they say — better late than never!
Warmly,
Debra
P.S. Keep in touch. I’d love to hear from you! Just email elle.b (at) laterbloomer.com
I'm Debra Eve, proud late bloomer & possessor of many passions.
{ 71 comments… read them below or add one }
So delighted to have found your site/work/voice. You are a fabulous writer, the site is beautiful and I love your mission. Here’s to girls who became women who still want to save the world. Grateful to be connected.
Thanks so much, Jen! I’ve found your writing since you came back from hiatus extremely moving. Just joined Comfort Cafe and am looking forward to exploring it more in depth!
Well aren’t you delightful? I’ve totally enjoyed myself perusing your site. And I am smitten! So glad we’ve connected…
Thanks, Jen and likewise! I think I found you through the fabulous Kelly Diels, who seriously should run a matchmaking service.
What a great concept. Love your site. Just subscribed, so will look forward to reading more.
Thanks, Cathy. The stories are a blast to research, and I’ve got plenty more to share!
I found your site by looking up “late bloomers” on google. I am a photographer on hold and am currently working in a high school with troubled teenagers. I see much promise them, though their ankles are tangled in lily pads because of various personal and tragic problems. Surviving these problems, I believe will put them far ahead of their peer group in understanding certain things about life. On the other hand, their problems will likely stunt their growth in various ways and they will likely suffer from low self-worth and have confidence problems.
My concern for them is personal and is therefore genuine. I grew up “rocky soil” with little guidance, not enough food, neglect, abuse, fear and shame. I was raised by an angry, helpless and hopeless, mentally ill mother. I met my father at 14 and really began to get to know him starting at 28. I am now 45 and often sense that people cannot understand why I seem “behind” in certain things, like career and education. I did marry young (18) and am still happily married. We made sure that our two kids HAD a mom and dad. I stayed home with them and raised them and did all that I could. Now that they’ve got the reins to their own lives, I have turned attention to developing myself, which has been on hold up till now. I find it bewildering. With the economy the way it is, I am still in survival mode. I would simply like a job with benefits as my husband is self-empoyed and has no benefits. This troubled world drives decisions based on fear. But along the way, I find that I can live with myself if I absorb myself in work that is congruent with my value system.
I found your blog to be uplifting, inspiring and it offered creative angles to look and and process what has happened to me and what is happening around me. I salute you for your encouraging contributions to us underdogs. Thank you for the food for thought!
One more thing, for almost 10 years now I have been involved in helping out inmates in the prison system. Talk about late bloomers! One particular person has become one of the best friends I’ve ever had. She is serving a life sentence and is 43 years old. Her life is turned around and she is an inspiration to all who meet her.
Sabrina, thanks so much for your heart-felt comment. I’m so glad you found inspiration here! You’re exactly who I’m writing for. I think it would be wonderful if you could find one small way, even weekly, to focus on your photography (do something just for you), since you give so much of yourself to others.
My goodness, Sabrina! You’re an amazing photographer. I couldn’t look at your site earlier because the address wasn’t linking. Just figured it out and corrected the link. Love the vintage stuff. How absolutely adorable is this!
You’re so creative AND doing so much good in the world!
Thank you for the inspiration!
I found you via A-List bloggers and am looking forward to your creativity, inspiration, and stories. Life is chaotic and your approach is refreshing.
Here’s to another wonderful 50 years! Woohoo!
Thanks, Linda! To another authentic and lively 50 years! *Clink*
Such wonderful energy and wit comes through in your posts…Brava, Elle B.
Thanks for stopping by, Sharon! I so admire your work and writing. And yeah, I’m having a great time here!
You left me a helpful comment on AListBlogger’s forum…I didn’t respond immediately because I hadn’t yet read your blog.
I am truly in love with it…your life experiences are rich, penetrating and inspirational…
How you’ve been able to funnel them into ‘Later Bloomer’ is delightful…. I think that all of us in mid-life (even younger) can identify with the theme…
Have subscribed and am looking forward to reading much more from you …am ordering your latest book suggestion (because it only takes 2 days to read!!!) Please don’t offer too many more book suggestions; otherwise I won’t get my work done!!
Warmly, Fran
Thanks, Fran! The forum is a great place to learn. I love your site — gardening is one of my passions. Take care and see you around the forum!
Hi Elle B
I love being a late bloomer & coaching mid lifers who want to grab life. Look forward to more of your posts.
Be good to yourself
David
David Stevens recently posted..It’s hard enough being Me- let alone someone that I’m not
Thanks for stopping by, David. For ages, I’ve wanted to compile a comprehensive list of resources for late bloomers, but by serendipity, resources are now finding me! I love your site and your mission and will definitely include your work in that project.
Fantastic site, Elle! Definitely an inspiration to me! I understand chronic health issues and the choices set before us. I decided to choose a different way, also. Thank you so much.
Marianne recently posted..Miracle Stories- The Miracle IS You
Thanks for stopping by, Marianne. I’m so glad you find it inspiring, that’s my goal!
I began writing at 36. That made me a late-late bloomer.
Great site.
No way, Vikk! You’re an early late bloomer. I’ve profiled many authors who started at 50 and beyond (and I’m in that group)! Thanks for stopping by.
LOVE this Elle! I’ve been blooming late my whole life, but in one way it’s kept me young. After a wonderful career in nursing, I had my 1st babe at 31 and my last at 41. After twenty more years of bringing up children and family caregiving, I decided it was time to return to the writing “career” I’d always wanted, and at the same time I picked up a camera. I just celebrated my 61st birthday, and I’m freelancing, ghostwriting for a magazine, and doing the photography for a gift book by another author. I’m just getting started. I can tell I’m going to find the encouragement I need right here. Thank you.
You’re encouragement to me, Patricia. I’ll be turning 52 and just embarking on a writing career! Thanks for stopping by. P.S I just checked out your photos — you truly have an eye for detail and beauty in nature.
Oh…thanks, Elle. We can do this!
Hi Elle,
It was SO nice to find your site. I had an idea and wrote my first book, even after my family laughed at me during a family dinner and my wife secretly didn’t think I’d finish it. I finished at age 53. I never in my thought that I’d write a book, never, nope. But let me tell you, what a journey. With today’s POD (Print On Demand) and computer technologies there is not one reason why someone can’t do what Julia Child did, and much easier and quicker.
Along the same lines as Latebloomer.com, did you know that more businesses are started by those over 50 and decreases from that high to the least smallest number of businesses started are those by twentysomethings, although all you hear about is the young ones.
Keep telling the stories, Elle, we need to wake up our society that we’re not goners.
Thanks.
Kevin
Kevin Cullis recently posted..New Apple iWork Numbers Patent
Woo hoo! Congrats on your book. I did read that business statistic somewhere, Kevin, I think from AARP
I checked out your site, and even though I’m not a Mac person, it look like you’ve got tons of great general information for the person wanting to start up. Will definitely peruse it in more detail. I’m looking to put up a resources page for Later Bloomers soon. Thanks so much for stopping by!
What fun to find your great site! I published my debut novel last year at age 65 so I believe I qualify! I hope to have #2 ready for spring publication. Zoomers rock! (Baby boomers with a zest for life!)
That’s fantastic, Patricia! Thanks for stopping by. Going to check out your book now!
Hello Elle…
You’re my HERO.
Love your blog.
Jen
Ah, shucks. You’ve made my day, Jen.
I am so glad I found your site. I am also a late bloomer, as far as career goes. Early bloomer in getting married and having children, but that was my plan all along. I also graduated in ’96 with BA in Anthropology, Archaeology and History. I did archaeology for a bit, but fell back into working with computers in the IT field. Burning out after Y2K I sold cars for a bit and then went back to archaeology. After being diagnosed with two illnesses one causing me pain all the time, I finally decided, after a few years, that I was not going to let these illnesses be the end to everything. Now I am a freelance journalist working on a novel.
Hugs!!!
We have so much in common, Cat. I also did IT work after archaeology, and went down with a chronic pain syndrome about five years ago. Thanks for stopping by (and will see you around She Writes)!
How lucky to find your site, Elle! Thank you for your inspiration about late bloomers and your own story. Brava!
I love being a late bloomer. I was an artist in my twenties, a strategic planner in my thirties and forties, and a writer/novelist in my 50s. It’s my passion and I’m sticking with it! I love to travel, have three granddaughters because in my family we all started early, but as far as the life I’ve always wanted, this is it! Huzzah!
Thanks, Valerie. What an interesting life and love the name of your blog, Gobsmacked. You’re an inspiration!
Inspiring blog and a great story of how you fought back to uncover your creative and adventurous spirit.
I always used to say when my mother asked what I was going to do or be (isn’t that already the opposite of guidance) that there were things out there that she and I didn’t know about, but that I believed existed and that was what I was going to do – not be pigeon-holed!
I’ve changed jobs, careers, countries, languages, cultures and love what it does for the imagination. Late blooming is the ultimate freedom.
Bonne Continuation!
Never made the link between late-blooming and the imagination that you have, but it’s so true! I might have to write about that
Thanks so much for stopping by, Claire, and getting me thinking.
Hi Elle B,
Now you know there will be no ” serving of a fine wine before it’s time.”
Love your site. Love your idea and love your “off-your-butt- and-on-your-feet” get it done attitude. After a divorce, cancer and a heart attack I decided to kick it in high gear.
I decided that what ever event was in progress in my life was just the next thing on my to-do list. Sometimes I make the list. Sometimes life throws in a few events to see if I am paying attention. Ain’t but a thang.
I’ve traded “late blooming” for “just-in-time.”
I have noticed that many, if not most of the writing mags have been working in stories of the “older” set. They are not making a big deal of it. Just including it. Let’s face it, Boomers, have raised some serious you know what the whole of our lives. The next leg of the journey will not be any different.
My motto, ” You might as well live until you die”
Hi Curtis, thanks for stopping by. I’ve got an article brewing in my head about all the points you’ve raised here, especially “just in time.” “Late Bloomer” is a gardening term to describe flowers that come up later in the season. However, the flowers don’t know that. As far as they’re concerned, they’re just in time! I like your motto too.
I found your website while googling Ina Garten. I’m still in college, and sometimes I think I don’t have enough time to do all the things I want in life. Reading your blog is very inspiring. Cheers from the other side of the world.
I still feel that way, Jessica, and I’m in my 50s! I’m focusing on keeping my health so I have another 50 to do everything I want to do. I think it’s a great thing to know what you want when you’re younger, but the exploration is fun too. Good luck and thanks for stopping by!
Hi Elle! Just dropped by to tell you about my sites new name and look and what do I behold? A gorgeous new look here as well! Cheers to change
Thank you, Michael! I’ve just dropped by your new site to say hello. It looks great!
Debra,
What is so incrediable about reading your blog, is I feel like I’m reading about myself! I worked for the civil service for many years. Worked my way up, but from this to that; in a zigzag career sort of fashion. I love helping others; it’s a true passion. After a severe nervous breakdown, I found myself pounding on the keyboard! The words poured out of me like a fatal gapping wound! They are still pouring out of me now. I find my brain gets ahead of my fingers and I can’t keep up. Is this normal?
I find I have so much to say. I’m writing on everything, just to write other things later! It’s almost maddening, but I love it! I wake up very early, just to have my 3 to 4 hours all to myself to pour out my heart and soul.
I’m going on like a crazy women. It took many years to find my own voice and now that I have it, I feel like yelling from the roof tops! It was stifled for many years by family members, but my nervous breakdown was my passage to freedom.
Thank you for making this blog and making me realize, I’m just a “late bloomer.”
Suzanne, I am writing for you! I’ve known the darkness and though I don’t talk about it here, someone needs to. Please check out my article “Why Are Some People Later Bloomers, Part 1” where I talk about the effects of post-traumatic stress. It’s real, but it doesn’t mean we can’t bloom. Thanks for stopping by!
This is a wonderful, interesting website. I applaud you for putting it up. I am a late bloomer, because I got married too early, had children too early, and put my many passions aside. Thanks.
Thank you, Karen! Your time will come, always keep that in the back of your mind. Like Grandma Moses said, she always wanted to paint, but just didn’t have the time until 78.
I am late bloomer because one, my name, and two, my tombstone reads: 1949-2032.
Just retrieved this from my Akismet folder, Dan. Apologies. Great name. That’s a nice long life you’ll be living!
is there some reason you do not post my comments here? or are you just a fucked up asshole>?
My apologies, Dan. This is the first comment of yours I’ve seen. Perhaps the spam filter caught it and I accidentally deleted it. I don’t usually check before emptying it.
Thanks Debra Eve, and I apologize for my pardon my French shout out! Sorry for that. I posted six earlier comments, all nice and good, and none of them stuck and i even emailed you and did not reply. Why do people treat other people this way? I never get used to this. Now what i said earlier is that given my last name, I am an honoray late bloomer from way back, 1949 to 2032 is my expire date. SMILE
It’s okay. I knew it was a mistake. Interestingly, your “French shout out” didn’t get spammed, but the comment before it did. Technology for you. Used to scan the spam folder, but I get too much now. Really nothing personal. You are most definitely an original late bloomer!
Thanks for your understand, and I love your blog and concept, and this be a book someday, major publisher Random House. For me, I am late bloomer in Taiwan of all places, where i retired to in 1991. my late bloomer work is about “polar cities” — google the term and see the work i am doing, and nobody takes me seriously, but i trudge on because I know this work is important, despite the almost total rejection of my ideas……SMILE
RE: “Great name. That’s a nice long life you’ll be living!” re my 1949-2032 tombstone dates. Well, who knows? In fact, i had a massive heart attack in 2009, age 60, and should have died then and there. Good docs and nurses in Taiwan brought me back to life with stent in my ticker now, and when I woke up frm all that i decided then and there to 1. show more gratitude for being ALIVE, and 2. make my late bloomer career as a polar cities pioneer all the more meaningful. but 3. i am ready to die anytime and expect it soon. my days are numbered. all our days are numbered but i know the numbering system a bit better now. sigh. but happy man i am
Hello Dan, I read your blog on polar cities and found it completely fascinating. It looks like you’re currently collecting research, but a blog written for the general public would be well-received, I think. When I was studying anthropology, we read Thomas Kuhn’s “Structure of Scientific Revolutions.” He basically posits that all mainstream scientific thought started out on the fringes, and incrementally moved toward center as conjectures built on each and became incontrovertible, which in turn changed people’s thinking. His big example is the idea of a sun-centered universe. It’s a dry read, but you might see an application to polar cities. I commend your late-blooming endeavor!
Dear Debra Eve,
thanks for kind words and positiev view of things. re:
“I read your blog on polar cities and found it completely fascinating. THANKS. It looks like you’re currently collecting research, but a blog written for the general public would be well-received, I think. YES STILL IN RESEARCH PHASE. THE GEN PUBLIC ACTUALLY THINKS I AM NUTS! SMILE. ASK ANYONE. When I was studying anthropology, we read Thomas Kuhn’s “Structure of Scientific Revolutions.” I WILL READ IT THIS MONTH. THANKS. He basically posits that all mainstream scientific thought started out on the fringes, YES YES YES and incrementally moved toward center YES YES YES as conjectures built on each and became incontrovertible, THIS IS THE TRICKY PART AS MY POLAR CITIES IDEAS ARE MORE OF A WHAT IF WAKE UP ALARM THAN SCIENCE TRUTH…which in turn changed people’s thinking. I WANt to WAKE PEOPLE UP about excessive co2 emissions! ….. I commend your late-blooming endeavor! THIS IS MY SWAN SONG. IT IS LIKE A JEREMIAD CLIMATE CASSANDRA cri de cour that we must stop our lavish CO2 emitting lifestyles or ITS CURTAINS for future genetaions in about 300 years….i care about the distant future. weird i know. that’s my EQ at work. today life is wonderful and i am happy camper. i worry about life for human species in year 2222 and 2323 and 2424…..i fear the worst IF WE DO NOT stop depending on oil and coal. I MEAN IT. this is my message. But so far it is falling on deaf ears. POLAR CITIES is a wake up call message. I do not ever want polar cities to happen. if it comes to that, it’s all over for humanity. we must stop c02 now. SIGH…..still, a late blooming late bloomer of the Bloom clan, I remain eternal optimis and positive. so this is not science so much as ACTION CALL! you should see my virtual graduatuion speech to the class of 2099…..really! 2099….it got 8000 hits so far on youthbe, coming next: or google on Youtube “Graduation speech to the class of 2099″
”A Graduation Speech to the “Class of 2099″ on Climate Change and Tightening the Noose around Coal” is the title on Youtube, just 4 minutes, a real speech created for the ears of kids in the year 2099.
Thank-you so much for your site, it just help me to find clarity again as today I was ready to ‘chuck it in’. Today I said to myself “‘self’ who the hell are you kidding’ you haven’t achieved very much – just throw in the towel, it’s just getting silly and you look stupid, you can’t stick to anything.
Part of this lousy self talk was because it is my birthday tomorrow and at the ripe old age of 42 I thought my life would look ‘better’ – I have been a designer, commercial illustrator, artist, volunteer councelor (grave-yard-shift on telephone lines is great – you get the best calls at that time!). Personal trainer (had one ‘client’ and decided I’ll rather run myself-over with a bus (it’s do-able if you park a bus at the top of a hill, let off the hand-break and whilst you can still out-run it – throw yourself in front of the spining wheels – you can actually run yourself over with a bus – ahem!… I really do need to get out more
) than watch other people lift dumbells, and count in sync – they pay for that?….yawn). I’ve written articals for magazines, mostly observational humor – had loads of fun doing that, joined several multi-level marketing companies and networking groups – it’s not really about if I can make loads of money (my team will be ‘sooo thrilled’ to know that 
– there is just a lot of exciting, fun people to be around at these events, not to mention great story telling to listen to – a dying art that is being revived it seems. I am now a full time life coach (yes, yes I know my self speak earlier today wasn’t too brilliant for a coach) and for the first time in my life feel like I’m very much on purpose, people seem to respond to the coaching environment with me in a surprising way – something (still not really sure what) seems to really motivate them – it surprises me that people are so courageous to make those kind of changes (some really major) and I have a front row seat to witness this magical transformation – it quite unreal, not always pretty, but something they have really wanted to change or do for such a long time.
like the creative fields (22 years and Life coaching 2 years 2 weeks 3 days and 21 hours, and 2 minutes)) – but after reading various things on your site about late bloomers – I realise we’re a pretty elite bunch, and we’re damn fun to be around, we have a un-A-typical experience to life- we are multi-directional thinkers and for the most part we can live with, even look for, uncertainty because these is so much out there to learn and discover and try – we only get to be born and die once that’s a given… so why stick to one thing throughout this life, when we have endless oportunities, moment by moment for adventures.
Recently someone said to me that I was a jack of all trades and it was said in a very unkind way and it kind of ‘affected’ and ‘infected’ me for these last 6 weeks (- now I’ve been very good at the things I did for longer than a day
- thanks so much for your bloody brilliant site, mwah!!! (will forward my web address when it goes live – soon they tell me)
Joy, so glad you enjoy the site. I can see you doing observational humor articles. I just wrote about Grandma Moses. She went at 101, still painting. And didn’t start until 76. You could have another healthy 50-60 years, the way medical advances are going! It’s mind-boggling. Why do one thing?
My niece, at six, announced she wanted to grow up to be a policewoman and a nurse, or maybe an actress and a nurse. I remember all the adults in the room explaining why she couldn’t do both and how confused she looked. When we’re kids, we don’t know societal boundaries. Looking forward to receiving your site address!
Hey DE your niece is a old soul, late bloomer in training – how lovely!, you know, I think she could do some of those things simultaneously (this may confuse the adults in the room – yay!)- If she becomes an actress she can play the role of a nurse or/and police woman all in one season, therefore she can be an actress and a nurse at the same time, if fact she can be anything her young beautiful heart desires
Joy,
as a late blooming late bloomer of the Bloom clan, now happy camper in Taiwan, i loved your comments above, and Debra Eve’s note to you, too, and one thing that struck my eye and ear, is this phrase you wrote: “….for the first time in my life I feel like I’m very much on purpose, people seem etc etc….”
That term “on purpose”, did you use that way on purpose, as in to have a purpose in life, to be on message, to be on your way to success, or what? I have been out of the USA for 20 years, so some English words are new to me. I know about books like “The Purposeful Life” etc, and that the word “purpose” has taken on new meanings over the past 20 years, and i LOVE the way you used, to be ON PURPOSE, meaning, I assume to be fulfiling your purpose in life, to be aware of your purpose in life, and i wonder if you coined this term or did others coin it that way? I want to submit it as your term to the Urban Dictionary people in Mtn View Calif, as i love the term and the way you used it. Maybe definition would be: (verb) – ”to be aware of and at the same time fulfilling as best one can one’s purpose in life” — tell me more here in comments about how you came across the phrase, and is it common now in USA to use it that way? maybe YOU coined it? I love it
So sorry you keep getting spammed, Dan. There doesn’t seem to be a setting to say “this is never spam” like on email. I’ll have to look deeper into Akismet.
Hey Dan, thank-you for the comment you are thoughtful, when I say I feel ‘on purpose’ it has multiple contexts for me. I finally have a real purpose in this world/universe, as in a square hole in a square peg fit – which is a first for me ever in my 42 years (it seems so long since I wrote my last posted, I was 41 then – how time flys). Every day feels purposeful (even the tough ugly ones – and purposeful is not to be mistaken for easy – I’ve done far easier things, got paid more and felt like a genuine fake), I’m not simply drifting or merely observing the passage of time to pass time and hoping for the future ‘cos I can’t stand to be in the present – in that way I feel very ‘on purpose’ daily. It is as if time slowed and I am ‘meant’ to be here fully foccused for each day and each day is here for me. Being on purpose prevents me pretending, I can just be quirky, eccentric, fun, direct, lateral, slightly ODC, slightly OCD and just in case you were wondering the real purposeful me is not scary to others – I think – well no-one has backed against the wall whilst I’m talking to them or run into the traffic screaming, and they all come back willingly – so I recon it’s all good in the land of late blooming coaching. Now where the turn of phrase came from – I really don’t know but I noticed every day feeling that way when I woke up and that is the way I’ve expressed it ever since.
Dan, I hope you feel that way too as a blooming bloomer, I’ve enjoyed your posts, you are loads of fun and smart, super glad the ticker is no longer attacking you (yay modern medicine!) and you have committed to such a worthy cause, you seem so happy …. I just love that !! Everyone should experience life like that.
Just curious Dan, any reason why you chose 2032 to to ‘hop the twig’?
Btw I get the feeling you think I’m from the States. I’m originally from what was know as Rhodesia (it was when I left as a little girl with my folks) but I have made my home in South Africa for the last 30 odd years.
Hi Joy in Nan-fei, as we say here in Taiwan, re South Africa, Nan means south in Chinese and Fei stands for Africa or A-fei-rica in mandarin language. !!!
Great note and go go go, late bloomer you! I am a proofreader copy editor in my spare time, although I make more typos than anyone else on the planet and i love language, all of them. When i spotted you using that phrase “I feel on purpose” the phrase struck me at very INTERESTING, because usually we say “to do something on purpose” or “he hit me on purpose” or “she drove the car into the lake on purpose’ etc etc. and there ON PURPOSE means to do something intentially.
But the way you used it reflects modern phrases such as “A Purposeful Life” or “living a purposeful life” in some book written by some American pop preacher guy, Warren someone, or Someone Warren, brains cells forgetting his name now, but the way YOU used in your comment last month “I feel on purpose” — I love it! a great way to use the word. and good to tell other people around the world about it.
So i have an idea. I want to submit the term to the Urban Dictionary at Google HQ in California, they are always looking for new words, and i often submit things, and have a 50/50 batting average of getting them accepted. Not bad. Given the odds. So i want to submit this one to them with a code to give credit to you, such as “submitted by onpurposejoy” since they do not allow real names in submissions, and that way, you will know that was YOUR word. How about it? may I submit?
I want to say something like “to feel on purpose” means to feel that one is living a purposeful life full of promise and purpose” and sample quote: “Wow, when I woke up this morning I felt so on purpose, and just knew that this was going to be a great day!”
Joy 2: re ”Just curious Dan, any reason why you chose 2032 to to ‘hop the twig’?”
1. I had a dream when I was 13 that I would die when I was 83. I am still sticking with that time table. God-willing. SMILE.
2. What does ”hop the twig” mean? I never heard that idiom before, but I guess it’s like kick the bucket etc. By the way, the movie THE BUCKET LIST, i loved it.
3. Bonus Trivia question: to subtract the prefix “over”, we are left with the verb “to whelm” – what does it mean?
1. Dan, 83 is a lovely ripe ol’ age but I think if you ask, you could squeak out a few more decades from God (If you don’t ask the answer is always no)
2. Hop the twig, fall off the perch or kick the bucket, either way you die.
LOVED the bucket list – my favorite line in that movie is when Morgan Freemans character said to Jack Nicholsons character “I’ve taken baths deeper than you” !!
3. You are now testing my limited skills in the english language Dan – keep in mind that english was never my favourite subject but I had to speak something – to whelm = to evoke or bring about responses or feelings….? (crossing fingers, rubbing faux rabbits foot and doing interpretive dance).
“For the first time in my life, I feel that I am very much on purpose” — i love the way you reworked this phrase…..LOVE IT
Danny sent this to Urban Dictionary, but it is not yet published.
PHRASE: to be on purpose
MEANING: to be living a purposeful life, to be living a life with a purpose, to be on top of things, to know where you are headed in your life
SAMPLE QUOTE: “You know, things are going well for me now, and at age 45, finally, for the first time in my life, I feel that I am very much on purpose. It’s great to be on purpose, for once in my life!”
– overheard at a watercooler in Cape Town, South Africa,
January 1, 2012
SUBMITTED by danny bloom aka by ***onpurposejoy*** 101 on Jan 26, 2012
tags: life, purpose, meaning, fulfillment, happiness
Dan, sounds good to me – thank-you – you are very perceptive, I’ve never really thought about the way I use that phrase at all – I just feel it.
Okay, Joy, 2042 will try.
as for overwhelm, seems that “whelming” already meant over-doing something, but the over-whelming word is like over over doing something, according to my language sleuth friends….me? i dunoo. i can barely type
2042… better
got to run … coaching is calling, have a great day Dan
Whelming ?? I feel whelmed? nah …
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