Content note: this story includes depression and a medical crisis. Margaret Eastman Smith grew up inside a movement that believed giving yourself fully could change the world. In this part of our conversation, she remembers a bike ride down a big hill into the center of Oxford. Somewhere on that…
Margaret was born in Lausanne, Switzerland, a year after her parents were married in an old hotel that volunteers had fixed up after World War II. It hosted conferences where French and German people could begin to repair their relationships. Her parents belonged to a movement that grew out of…
The full conversation with Margaret Eastman Smith: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7MMfebpanc For years, when people asked who Margaret was, she could no longer answer in relation to the movement. She was an undergraduate at Boston University, which she admits did not sound very good. Then she presented her plan for doctoral research in…
Margaret says it took her a long time to understand what real love is. The movement named love as one of its moral principles, but she only came to it much later, when she could see a person as they really are, without a layer of moral expectation on top.…
Margaret was working as a secretary in Oxford when someone suggested she go to some lectures. She sat in classes on Yeats, Eliot, and the American Constitution, and something in her started to open up. I love how ordinary the beginning of a big life change can be. Sometimes it…
Have you ever carried something you were handed, a belief, a role, a way of seeing yourself, and wondered how much of it was ever really yours? Margaret was born in an old hotel in Switzerland, into a community that believed giving yourself fully could change the world. She grew…
Margaret grew up in Moral Rearmament, a community that demanded total surrender. Here is how she finally started over. Margaret was born into a unique world in a Swiss hotel, where the primary goal was to quiet one's own dreams in favor of serving God's will. She spent decades traveling…
Margaret wanted to be a doctor. She loved reading about it. But the kids in the movement were expected to give their lives to it, and anything else just wasn't spoken of. She says the most painful part is what that taught her, that the cause mattered more than she…
When Oliver was three, his mother had to send him away, and he felt abandoned. Years later, in a personal development workshop, he looked at the flip side. He had learned to be resourceful and independent early, and he could finally see how hard that choice was for her.
Soon after starting a new company, Oliver's father became critically ill. Oliver talks about keeping the business going while the family held together, and the new closeness that came out of it.
Oliver's mom told him it was time. He told her he would much rather move in and be with her than have her be gone in half an hour. The full conversation with Oliver Christen is on The Life Shift. #shorts
Oliver tells the story of a childhood competition that shaped his mother for the rest of her life. It taught her to work twice as hard and to put family first, even under heavy pressure.
The full conversation with Oliver Christen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EgymlUVA94 Oliver brought his family home to Switzerland so his kids could know where he came from. It was supposed to last a year. Then a gut feeling told him to stay and keep the family close, and he talks about the hard conversation…
Oliver talks about the conversations with his mother that changed how they knew each other. She told him she felt like she was only just getting to know him. It's a good reminder that we don't have to wait to say the true thing.
Nobody prepares you for loving someone through addiction. This mom doesn't sugarcoat any of it. If this is your story too, you're not alone. #addiction #parenting #shorts
Oliver describes a guided meditation his family used to say goodbye to someone they loved. It gave a gentle way through grief, and it's something I'd never heard about before.
Oliver talks about letting go of expectations and trusting where the journey was taking him, one present moment at a time.
The full conversation with Oliver Christen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EgymlUVA94 When his mother said it was time, Oliver told her he supported whatever she chose. He also told her honestly that he would never choose it himself. He talks about holding both of those things at the same kitchen table.
Near the end, Oliver's mother told him everyone was on their way, she was happy, and it was enough. She spent her whole life feeling she had to work harder, and she got to say those words out loud. Oliver shares what it was like to hear them.
Oliver and I talk about end of life choices and why the conversation so often gets put off. His family had it long before they needed to, and he says that's what freed everyone to be present when the time came.
Oliver's mother looked back on her life and said it was enough. He was there to hear it. The full story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAdDxtQQY8c
Please note: this story includes a chosen end of life and the death of a parent. Oliver Christen's mother sat down with him after lunch, over a cup of tea. She said, "I think it's time." She had been a member of Exit, a Swiss organization that supports assisted dying,…
Oliver's mother let go of her life in layers. A last ten kilometer ski at 82, and then letting go of her identity as a skier. Her favorite soup one more time, a toast, one more sunset. Oliver says that's when letting go finally made sense to him.
Oliver talks about being with his mother as she let go, and how the fear of the unknown slowly turned into curiosity. He says his default is curiosity, because he is about to learn something. I told him to sign me up.
