My Father Turns Eighty
We’re in Pennsylvania, and the whole family has gathered to celebrate my father’s 80th birthday.
My father has lived in the same city his whole life.
He’s been married to the same woman his whole life.
He worked at the same job for close to thirty years until he was laid off.
He’s had the same friends and gone to the same church every Sunday for decades.
He’s walked with the same friends at the same mall, at the same time, six days a week, for years.
One time, my family played a game. We went around the circle, and everyone had a chance to answer the following question:
If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you live?
Everyone took turns harnessing the far reaches of their imagination to mention all kinds of exotic, luxurious, spectacular locations.
The question finally came around to my father, who said: “Berks County, Pennsylvania. Best place in the world.” The place he was born and lived his whole life.
Every time I ask my dad if he’s happy, including today, he immediately says yes.
When I work with clients, I work both on the external level and on the internal level.
Some clients need to make major external changes. End relationships. Change jobs or start a new business. Move to a new place they’ve always dreamed of living. Make big lifestyle changes. Break addictive habits.
And sometimes all that’s required is a change of perspective—finding the gratitude and appreciation for what one already has and what has been there all along.
The simple beauty of being alive is always here and now if we’re present enough to notice.
The way the big glow of the sun gently rises over the trees, the flowers smile with the new dawn, and the birds gently sing in the morning twilight.
Happy 80th, Pops!
We’re grateful for you.
-Brian Piergrossi
An Invitation:
If you’re in a season of reflection on your life, what matters, and how you want to live—I work privately and selectively with a small number of clients each year.
Sometimes the work is about making meaningful external changes.
And sometimes it’s about seeing clearly and learning to fully inhabit the life that’s already here.
Almost always, it’s both.
For the first time in several years, I have space available for new clients.
If you feel called to explore that, reply to this email and we’ll schedule a conversation.