Midlife Repurposed

In this episode: Learn why repurposing is just a way of appreciating the story in broken things, be inspired to make self-care a regular part of your life with no guilt, and learn more about a new book that's coming out that helps you discover God in the midst of everyday life.

How often do you make time for yourself? And how often do you do that without feeling guilty about it?

Also get Michelle's take on The Ministry of Ordinary Places: Waking Up to God’s Goodness Around You by Shannan Martin.

Show notes and resources

Practical tips for supporting a friend who is sorting through all the emotions that come along with healing from trauma.

Show notes and resources

In the latest episode of "Midlife Repurposed," I had the pleasure of welcoming back Clarissa Moll, whose journey through grief offers incredible insights into resilience and empathy. Clarissa's experience with loss and her dedication to helping others through similar challenges are truly inspiring.

Here are three key takeaways from our enriching conversation:

Grief as a Journey: Clarissa highlights that grief is not a singular emotion or moment but an ongoing part of life. Rather than viewing it as a problem to solve, embracing it as part of our daily routines and personal growth can lead to profound change. She called it a journey.

Empathy in Action: Her own story shows how personal experiences of pain can develop deep empathy and compassion. Clarissa discusses how this empathy empowers her to engage with news stories in a way that connects with the humanity behind the headlines.

Balancing Information Consumption: In navigating midlife challenges, it's essential to recognize personal burdens before overwhelming oneself with global issues. Establishing boundaries around media consumption can reduce stress and enhance our ability to cope with changes.

About Clarissa Moll

Clarissa Moll is an award-winning writer and podcaster who helps bereaved people find flourishing after loss. Clarissa’s writing appears in Christianity Today, The Gospel Coalition, RELEVANT, Modern Loss, Grief Digest and more. She co-hosted Christianity Today’s Surprised by Grief podcast and produces Christianity Today's flagship news podcast, The Bulletin. Clarissa’s debut book, Beyond the Darkness: A Gentle Guide for Living with Grief and Thriving After Loss, was a best-selling new release in 2022. She is the author of the Beyond the Darkness Devotional, Hurt Help Hope: A Real Conversation about Teen Grief and Life after Loss , and Hope Comes to Stay (forthcoming 2025). Clarissa is a remarried widow and lives with her large blended family in the Boston area.

Quotes from Clarissa

Every new beginning comes out of a place of absence, and there is grief attached to that. It requires a reorienting time.

Our woundedness gives us wisdom. . . . You can hold joy and sorrow in the same hand. You can live with both and survive.

We learn how to take our grief to the grocery store, to the office, to the boardroom, to the kitchen table. We let it be a part of who we are and a part of our journey knowing that it isn't the only thing that defines us.

I am a road-tripper, and there is nothing I like more than an itinerary and a map. And the reality is that grief offers us neither of these. Instead, it invites us to a journey that really goes on to the horizon. And when we take that sort of long-game perspective, we can slow down, order our steps a little bit differently, take 40 days, and meditate on what it means to include grief into your life in a way that is honest and sustainable and allows you to grow. And that's what I hope that readers will come away with as they read this book.

For most of us, we've always thought until we interact with grief that it's an emotion. And emotions are something that we sort of process in our heads. We talk about with our friends. We stuff them down and pretend they don't exist. We're not quite sure how to embody our emotions. But, you know, if grief is a companion, if it's sticking around, if it's not leaving you, you can't stay in your head forever. And it helps to have concrete things that you can do that give you a sense of forward motion. Okay. I am making an effort to engage with this unwanted companion. I'm making an effort to rebuild my life.

Links

Clarissa on Life Repurposed (previous interview)

The Bulletin–Christianity Today Podcast

Beyond the Darkness Devotional – New!

Beyond the Darkness: A Gentle Guide for Living with Grief and Thriving after Loss

Hurt Help Hope: A Rea...

Have you ever felt that the busyness of life has dulled your sense of curiosity and awe? It’s so easy to get lost in the hustle and bustle of daily responsibilities.

Balancing work, family, and everything in between can leave us feeling drained and disconnected from the beauty around us. But here's something I've discovered: intentionally seeking moments of wonder can bring a breath of fresh air to our busy lives.

Whether it’s a simple walk in the park, listening to your favorite piece of music, or watching a sunset, these moments can reignite a sense of amazement. They help us to slow down, appreciate the little things, and reconnect with our Creator. It’s in these moments that we can see God’s fingerprints in our everyday lives, and that is incredibly grounding and uplifting.

This podcast episode reminds us of how reconnecting with wonder—in nature, art, travel, and through children's eyes—can shift our perspective, boost mental health, and deepen our connection with God. Rediscover how moments that once seemed fleeting can become sources of inspiration and renewed purpose.

After you listen to the episode, here are a few ideas for next steps and ideas

Cultivate Awe and Wonder

Identify Busyness:

List your top 5 daily responsibilities or commitments. How might these be affecting your ability to experience wonder?

Reflect: Are you making room for moments that "take your breath away"? What gets in the way?

Revisit Childhood Awe:

Recall a moment from your childhood that filled you with wonder. How does it feel to reconnection with the feelings?

The podcast episode mentions childhood delights such as chasing fireflies and rainbows. Think of crunching leaves or northern lights. What childhood wonder would you like to replicate?

Plan Nature Time:

Plan a simple outing for this week (e.g., a walk in the park, a visit to a nearby lake).

Pause on your outing to breathe deeply and notice the sights and sounds.

Appreciate Art and Music:

Choose a piece of art or music to explore today. Describe its elements that stir emotion or wonder in you.

How can you incorporate art or music into your routine to enhance your day-to-day life?

For inspiration, here are a few photos of some of my recent nature adventures that took my breath away.

Are you ready to let go of the mental clutter that is affecting your spiritual well-being? The influences come from outside of us—social media, arguments, political angst, and busyness—but how we allow it to influence our spiritual health is up to us. Perhaps it’s time for spiritual minimalism.

In today’s podcast episode, Michelle discussed the transformative power of letting go of mind clutter and how it can lead to a more meaningful midlife. As life tends to become increasingly complicated, especially around midlife, simplifying both our physical and spiritual spaces can pave the way for clarity, growth, and inner peace.

Time to Redefine

Outdated beliefs, spiritual baggage, and unhelpful thought patterns can weigh us down. Midlife presents an opportune moment to reflect and redefine what genuinely matters, allowing us to shed the excess and embrace a faith focused on love, compassion, and true spiritual alignment.

It doesn’t mean abandoning your core faith. It means extracting it from the stuff that doesn’t belong there. And no, we don’t need to donate this to charity or dump it on someone else. If you have cleaned a closet or a room and dumped the stuff that filled every space, you know how freeing that is. That how it feels to say goodbye to the mental and spiritual clutter.

Key takeaways from this episode include:

Practical steps for spiritual decluttering

Reassessing commitments driven by guilt

Redefining relationships

Simplifying spiritual focus.

I know. Some of your cultural expectations are tied to religious upbringing and the entanglement of political and spiritual identities. You can reclaim those spaces. There is room for even stronger faith when you clear out the stuff that doesn’t belong there.

This is about going deeper, not wider.

Look for bonus resources on Midlife Repurposed on Substack, including a 10-day spiritual decluttering challenge.

Mentioned in the episode: Whiskers, Wags, and Woofs book. A gift for the dog or cat lover in your life. (affiliate link)