Tell me, what is it that you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?
~MARY OLIVER
Isabel Allende is a Chilean-American writer. Allende, whose works sometimes contain aspects of the “magic realist” tradition, is famous for novels such as The House of the Spirits and City of the Beasts
, which have been commercially successful.
She is 71. Yes, she has a few wrinkles—but she has incredible perspective too. In this candid talk, meant for viewers of all ages, she talks about her fears as she gets older and shares how she plans to keep on living passionately
Isabel Allende tends to live passionately
We are aging right now, and we all experience it differently. We all feel younger than our real age, because the spirit never ages.
What have I lost in the last decades?
People, of course, places, and the boundless energy of my youth,and I’m beginning to lose independence, and that scares me.
What have I gained?
Freedom: I don’t have to prove anything anymore. I’m not stuck in the idea of who I was, who I want to be, or what other people expect me to be.
I feel lighter. I don’t carry grudges, ambition, vanity, none of the deadly sins that are not even worth the trouble.
And I also feel softer because I’m not scared of being vulnerable.
I’m aware that before, death was in the neighborhood. Now, it’s next door, or in my house. I try to live mindfully and be present in the moment. By the way, the Dalai Lama is someone who has aged beautifully, but who wants to be vegetarian and celibate?
How can I stay passionate?
I have been training for some time, and when I feel flat and bored, I fake it. Attitude, attitude. How do I train? I train by saying yes to whatever comes my way: drama, comedy, tragedy, love, death, losses. Yes to life. And I train by trying to stay in love. It doesn’t always work, but you cannot blame me for trying.
I have chosen to stay passionate, engaged with an open heart. I am working on it every day. Want to join me?