We can help you with that. It’s time to go directly to the best and most comprehensive resource on your situation: You. A long list of life lessons is at your disposal to draw upon and learn from. Ultimately, all experiences that have been woven into your life can become part of the essential fabric of your second act.
Read how one woman’s second act was woven together through years of her fascinating life experiences:
Her name is Penny Cedel. Forty-six years ago, she had a brand-new nursing degree and a brand-new husband, Tom. “Right from the beginning our life together has been an adventure,” Penny said. “We graduated from college, I took my nursing boards, Tom was commissioned into the Air Force, we got married and moved to Del Rio, Texas for Tom’s pilot training—all within two weeks!”
From the start the Penny and her husband worked as a team, complementing and supporting one another in every place they lived and praying for guidance as each change came their way. “Our faith has supported us through 18 moves in the United States and around the world, into such exotic places as Pakistan, Korea and Japan,” she remembered.
“The military sent me to Langley Air Force Base to learn to be the lead in supporting the wives, families and those left behind as Tom took the pilots and flew abroad to protect our country,” Penny said. This great experience became one of the first blocks of the “quilt” that is her life.
“Every time we moved for Tom’s career I prayed for the chance to grow and experience some new way to serve,” Penny continued. Those prayers were answered, and new blocks were added to the “quilt” of her life. “When we moved to South Carolina, I was approached by a church member who asked if I was a nurse,” Penny explained. “I was subsequently hired as the director of an all-volunteer hospice.”
The job duties there would later expand. “While at the helm, I took them through licensing and Medicare certification, and I eventually petitioned the medical center to make the hospice program a part of their services,” Penny revealed.
Penny’s work experiences broadened even further from there during the years when she and her husband lived overseas. “While living in Islamabad, I teamed with a British physician and went out into the villages to serve through Save the Children,” she stated. “We were able to serve their medical needs,” Penny said, “and we also witnessed by giving wind-up cassette players and Bible story books to families we met and treated. I continue to pray that some of the seeds we planted could foster faith in the children who heard God’s Word.”
After the completion of a distinguished career in the Air Force, Penny’s husband began his second act by serving as President of Concordia University-Texas, making Penny “first lady” of the school. In that role, she helped represent the school to the Austin, Texas, community. “I was part of the outreach team that helped our community realize that Concordia had much to offer our young people as they continued their education,” Penny said. “I was blessed to sit on the Girl Scout Board, the Assistance League Advisory Council and the board of RSVP, later called Coming of Age, a national service organization for those 55 and over.” She also taught classes to seniors through Agency on Aging and the Alzheimer’s Association. All the while, more and more blocks were being added to Penny’s life “quilt.”
Each step along the way, Penny said she has been able to draw from the many responsibilities that each undertaking brought her way. “All of those pieces help you have an understanding of who you are,” she said. “I have been doing an awful lot of introspection—about who I am, what I believe, and how I know what I believe—discovering how I can take what I believe and use it to serve others.”
And now it’s time for her second act: a career as a deaconess. Deaconesses are women who are professional church-workers, trained to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ through a ministry of works of mercy, spiritual care and teaching the Christian faith.
After much soul-searching and reflection, “I started to feel God moving in my life, leading me to begin a commitment to train as a Lutheran deaconess,” Penny said.
This was not a decision made lightly. There is a comprehensive discernment process that involves self-study, then an intensive learning schedule of courses that cover theology, psychology and sociology, and the program includes additional coursework, work-study programs, attaining CPE credits and completing a year-long paid internship. Once the commitment is made, it is like pursuing an advanced degree. “It’s not easy, it’s huge,” she says. But Penny is confident it is her calling. “God calls you to become a deaconess,” Penny said. “You have to want to know what God wants you to do with your life, wherever you are, and then you need to make sure that God is calling you to do this.”
“As I continue down the path towards consecration, I am already finding new ways to expand my tool kit of service as a nurse in my service as a deaconess,” she smiles. “I am not sure exactly how this chapter will unfold—but isn’t it great where we can go when we are led?”
Penny found a way to tie together all the varied and unique blocks of experience into a cohesive pattern that fit perfectly a second-act career as a deaconess.
What does your life “quilt” look like? Your past is a precious resource. Take a look back for the support and answers you need as you move forward to the future and begin weaving together your 2nd Act.
Want to get started? A great way to capture and preserve your experiences is through a legacy narrative. Telling your story and having it written down can be a rewarding, eye-opening experience. Articulate your values, share your life-shaping events, or set the record straight–and create a tremendous resource for yourself as well as a precious legacy to hand down to the people you love. Best of all, you may find your future while looking at your past. For more information on our Legacy Narrative service, visit us at Legacy Narratives.
Marcia Janssen
Executive Vice President – Legacy Division
2NDACTLIVES, LLC
Thank you for visiting our website. I hope you found the information provided beneficial. To subscribe to our weekly blog: