35: Fulfilment Later in Life with Sara Eckel

April 9, 2016

Welcome! My guest today is Sara Eckel, who lives in New York state with her husband. She is the author of It’s Not You: 27 Wrong Reasons You’re Single. Sara has been a freelance writer since 1997 and has written for numerous publications.

Sara is a nationally syndicated columnist in the USA and has also written short fiction. She is a student of meditation and Buddhism. Let’s catch up with Sara!

What you’ll hear in this episode:

• For Sara, living without children is a combination of choice and circumstances.
• She met her husband at age 39, but they didn’t marry until a few years later.
• It was a bigger priority for Sara to have a relationship with the right partner, rather than have children, even though they were totally open to it happening.
• She and her husband spent a year “not” not trying, but no pregnancy resulted. They stopped using birth control and so were happy to becoming pregnant at any point. They chose not to embark upon the journey of IVF, which is not without its challenges.
• Sara realised that life was hard enough without putting herself through the uphill climb of making her body do something it wasn't doing naturally.
• Sara discusses the very small percentage of a chance that she would ever get pregnant, either with or without intervention, at this point in her life.
• Since she married later in life (comparatively speaking), there was no pressure from family or friends to have kids.
• Sara enjoys her work, her friends, and spending time with her husband.
• She expresses her creative feminine energy by trying to be useful—not successful--in the world.
• For Sara, writing columns and books and coaching other women is extremely fulfilling.
• Women in this generation have options that those in previous generations did not have.
• “Women today don’t HAVE to get married and are not dependent on men.”
• Sara shares her thoughts on the “child-free vs. childless” terminology.
• Sara has some set responses when people ask if she has kids; she doesn’t go into detail or “take the bait” to get into conversation about it.
• Women should be empowered to define what womanhood means. Relationships are important, but they don’t define who we are.
• The major benefits of a life without children for Sara are being able to continue the work she does and facing its challenges, rather than having a set salary.
• The financial stress of being a writer would have been extremely difficult if her life included motherhood.
• Find Sara at www.saraeckel.com  (Look for the link to download a free bonus chapter of her book, sign up for her newsletter, and click on the link to purchase her book!)

I do hope you enjoyed this episode. Please go to michellemariemcgrath.com for more episodes of these valuable conversations. Thank you!