Pondering the Concept of Rewirement

On the last evening of our time together in Costa Rica, our guide invited each traveler to share two things: an important memory and some moment or encounter we would be taking home with us that would impact or change us.

For me, the memory was of walking along a boardwalk in the forest in the rain, wondering what new plants and creatures awaited us around the next bend. It was a sense of being in the moment, of curiosity about what would come next. As a desert dweller, I also felt the sense of fecund abundance and the dramatic wetness of the landscape.

The encounter I shared was our visit to Canto del Rio in the cloud forest in central Costa Rica. This small preserve was founded thirty years ago when Edwin Ramirez and his family bought some acres of land that had been cleared for pasturing cattle and intentionally let it rewild. He worked as an English teacher and tour leader, and he has now retired to run this small ecotourism center and bear witness to the possibilities of rewilding to his neighbors in the area.

For Edwin, this is his “rewirement” project. I first learned of this reframing of retirement from CEO coach (and my client and friend) Damien Faughnan, who writes about these concepts on Substack. The idea is that shifting from fulltime work doesn’t have to mean a loss of meaning, purpose, and connection in life—which has been an issue for so many in recent decades, especially men. Instead, it’s about having the freedom to pursue a passion project that makes a difference in the world.

I can honestly say that I’ve not spent a lot of time thinking about retirement. For many years, I presumed I wouldn’t be able to afford it financially. (And now, I struggle to imagine my retirement investments surviving the current chaotic situation in the US—but that’s another topic.) As I traveled with this group of people, mostly a bit older than me, most of whom were retired or about to be, I began to feel for the first time that this could be possible for me—once I found the right “next thing.”

Interestingly, just two weeks after I returned home from Costa Rica, a friend resurrected her email newsletter after a four-year hiatus—and announced the birth of a long-held dream “of creating an actual physical space of my own to bring women together for intentional connection, a space to celebrate creativity and growth.” That space is Parcel North Studio. I don’t know the extent to which it’s a rewirement project for Kelsea and her husband Chris (who has created some incredible woodworking projects for the studio), but it’s certainly a passion project with purpose—and it’s already thriving, as her first gathering got so large she had to create a waiting list!

At this point, I’m letting all this sit and percolate in my back brain, my heart, and my 3 am ponderings. I think there’s something rewirement-y for me about broadening my use of the intuitive muscles I’ve developed over the decades of my spiritual guidance ministry. I’m taking a class in medical intuition, and I’m curious about what else Spirit is inviting me to explore. It’s like being on that boardwalk, surrounded by fecund, new-to-me territory. I’m not sure what’s around the next bend, and I welcome the opportunity to explore—without an agenda at the moment, just with gratitude.

What do you think of this idea of rewirement? When have you encountered, or embraced, such a perspective in your own life?