Some of life’s biggest changes don’t announce themselves with trumpets. They happen through a layoff, a health crisis, a changing relationship, a role we’ve outgrown—or simply the realization that what once mattered doesn’t matter quite so much anymore.

Chip Scholz has experienced more than a few of those shifts. After years of professional success, a later-life layoff gave him the opportunity to start over. A stroke in 2012 made recovery a matter of one small decision after another. And 42 years of marriage have taught him what it means to “choose us.”

In this warm and thoughtful conversation, Agnes and Chip explore:

• Why letting go may be the necessary first step toward starting over
• How easily our identity can become tangled up with roles, titles and status
• Why small daily decisions can matter more than dramatic changes
• What 42 years of marriage have taught Chip about partnership and “choosing us”
• Why he now values usefulness and authenticity more than recognition
• How lived experience can turn knowledge into wisdom
• Why legacy lives in people rather than résumés or accomplishments
• What woodturning has taught him about change, relationships and paying attention
• “Semper Gumbi” — staying flexible while knowing the guardrails created by what matters most
• Why remaining curious may be one of the keys to growing older without getting old

Chip and Agnes also talk about the danger of believing our own importance, the identities we eventually need to release, and the difference between simply performing a role and being genuinely useful.

Even Chip’s woodturning becomes a metaphor for life. A finished piece of wood continues to move and respond when its environment changes. Relationships do too. So do we.

Perhaps that’s what makes Semper Gumbi more than a funny little phrase. Life will change. Plans will change. We will change. The challenge isn’t to remain rigidly who we’ve always been, but to stay flexible without losing sight of what matters.

And maybe Chip’s simplest advice for our next chapters is also some of his best:

Don’t give up on yourself. Don’t lose your curiosity.

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