I made the above picture (with cloth, glue and cardboard + butterflies) as a way of expressing the importance  of that time in our lives beyond 45 years of age.

The bottom purple rectangle represents our youth up to around 21 years old where we are in a phase of learning about ourselves and the world around us.

The cream rectangle with three gold butterflies represents the years from around 21 to around 45 years. These are usually very productive years for most people – hence the gold butterflies.

The blue rectangle represents that span of our lives from around 45 years to around 80. This is a time when we have a lot of life experience, knowledge and skills – hence the abundance of butterflies.

The top purple rectangle represents those lucky enough to live a long life beyond 80 years.

What I was trying to portray was that the 45-80 years + is a very dynamic phase full of great potential. Notice how this phase is actually bigger than the other three rectangles. I am suggesting a new way of looking at this time in our lives – not of reaching retirement, putting the feet up and waiting for the eventual decline.

This is just my perspective and I would be interested in other people’s ideas and feedback 🙂