Marlow's Musings 8/9/26

Audio narration by David Marlow

Of Endings and Beginnings: An August Remembrance

One wonders how you can hold the feelings of happiness and sadness at the same time. August has had many such moments for me these past many years.

A weird amalgam of merriment and melancholy, joy and sorrow, loss and gain, endings and beginnings.

The most recent was this past weekend. The Wisconsin State Fair ended, and with it, summer for most. School starts soon.

It also marks the end of an almost nine-year journey for my wife and me.

Nine years ago, we thought we were becoming empty nesters for the first time since our first child was born.

My daughter, our youngest, was away at school and in her final year. She’d be home only briefly in the summer before getting married and moving to Chicago for Law School.

Instead, our daughter-in-law threw us a curveball that became one of the greatest gifts I’ve ever been given.

We found out our first grandchild was on the way, and Caitlin asked if we’d be willing to watch him three days a week when she returned to work.

There was a commercial a while back where a guy retires and finally has the means to buy his dream car, a vintage Datsun 280Z.

Unexpectedly his son gets a job transfer, and his granddaughter comes to live with him to finish high school.

Though he loved his granddaughter, her presence disrupted his plans and finances.

Over time the joy of having his granddaughter helps him forget his initial frustration, and at the end of the commercial, he hands her keys to a new car.

“Wait…Grandpa, what about your dream car?”

This is my dream now, he says, handing her the keys.

Mine was a similar journey, minus the dream car.

First came E, who stayed with us, and then his sister C. Last year for a while, we added granddaughter number two, our daughter and son-in-law’s first baby, S, to the mix.

Pouring love into them became my dream.

And now, as the state fair ends, summer ends, and so does this chapter of that dream.

Both of the older kids will be in school full-time. They won’t be staying with us regularly.

As I mentioned in the opening sentence, one wonders how you can hold feelings of happiness and sadness at the same time.

I wrote that in my journal the day after my daughter’s wedding, which also happened in August.

My corporate career ended in August with an early retirement.

Over and over again, August seems to be a mix of sad endings and hopeful beginnings.

I’m looking forward to more time to write and get some things done around the house. It will be nice not to be stepping on Lego pieces left after a day of play.

At the same time, I have barely been able to write this, thinking of not having them here as often.

I’m also excited about our daughter’s baby number two, who is arriving…in August!

Solomon said, “To everything, there is a season and a time to every purpose under the heaven.”

This season is passing, and a new one is beginning.

Now is such a time for me.

🌀I wrote that three Augusts ago, and an expanded version of it appears in my book that I finished the following year in… August.

The August baby, M, is almost three now, having surprised everyone by arriving in September instead of August. E is eleven. C is eight. S is four.

The older ones don’t stay with us the way they did. That part happened the way I thought it would. What I didn’t see coming was how much of it would still be here.

Last week E and C helped me plug stumps with mushroom spores. A maple, a birch, and a couple of pines we had taken down. We drilled the holes, tapped in the plugs, sealed them over with wax. Eighteen months from now, maybe twenty-four, we will have marvelous mushrooms helping stumps break down naturally.

The kids did most of the work. They love learning and doing, which is what we do most often. That and take walks on the nature trails, or shuck August sweet corn.

We watched the younger kids, S and her baby brother M, not long ago. Mom and dad were out late, and there was a family activity in the morning, so we stayed over and enjoyed breakfast with them.

The next time we babysat, Alicia and I went home when my daughter and son-in-law arrived.

Got a text the next morning from Helaina that M came down the stairs in the morning looking for me. He wanted to eat cereal with Grandpa and was sad when he realized I wasn’t there.

Today is the state fair. All of us are going. School starts up soon, and our Summer with them is almost over. The dream continues.

/IM-uh-nunt/

1: Indwelling; remaining within
2: Inherent in the thing itself, not arriving from outside

From the Latin in-, "within," and manere, "to dwell." Medieval philosophers set it against transcendent, which reaches beyond and above to speak to what is already there.

Its near twin, imminent, means about to arrive. One letter apart, and they point in opposite directions. Imminent is on the way. Immanent has been present the whole time.

This week’s Ikigai Thought for Today: Orwell’s Roses

There is constant pressure to optimize and make efficient all that we do. Overlooked is the value of moments of creativity and genuine connection.

Even in the midst of these hectic days of business to be done, there are opportunities for moments of creativity and connection.

This week’s Coffee Contemplation: There is Always a Call

I mentioned last week, I’m feeling the early nudges of a new adventure, a new calling. Oftentimes when we feel that spark of inspiration, the nagging voices in our heads start to chime in to discourage us.

The good news is that nagging voice, demanding you prove who you are will begin to fade once you know who you are.

Ikiquest+ subscribers can always listen to it in audio narration or read the transcription.

If you aren’t yet an Ikiquest+ Subscriber, give it a try for free by clicking the box here. The choice is yours.

Try Ikiquest+ for Free

This thought is from Giovanna…

“There’s something to be said about being in the most beautiful bookstore in Tuscany and thinking of David Marlow in the foreign language section. You have perfectly become synonymous with IKIGAI whether or not it’s your book. Bravo!”

That she thought of me is such a gift, and that she shared the moment with me (in video) provided an even greater blessing.

This thought is from Artist John Baldessari1…

“I set out to right all the things wrong with my own art education. But I found that you can’t really teach art, you can just sort of set the stage for it.”

Endings and beginnings and everything in between. As I’ve pondered my ‘next’, I’ve reached out to friends and mentors. In talking it through, one friend asked me if my goal was to be a writer or if I wanted my grandkids to grow up in a world influenced by my ideas of Ikigai and beyond. My heart leapt before he finished the question as I realized it was the latter more than the former.

Quest well!