|
Dear Friends committed to living and aging consciously:
The season of endings is here. The beauty of Autumn is so bitter-sweet, reminding us that it is time to harvest the life-giving fruits we have sown, and of the inevitability of the endings that must naturally come in order for new life to begin after the world lies fallow for a season. We hope you will find this offering from the Center for Conscious Eldering an inspiring support as you move through the seasons of your inner life.
Our first article, by Ron Pevny, tells of his recent experience of being "cracked open" by a health crisis that has thrust him into a major time of transition and of some of the learnings that are arising as the light shines through those cracks.
In the next article, Jerry O'Neill shares his story of using his rite of passage at Ghost Ranch to shift his identification from pastor to poet.
Then, Kinde Nebeker writes about the importance to our conscious elderhood , of where we place our attention. We have a choice to numb ourselves, or to see our attention as a sacred act that brings us alive.
We also present poetry to touch your heart and stir your intuition. You will find information about our 2023 conscious eldering retreats and workshops. And we share information about books, programs, and partner organizations that can be valuable supports for your conscious aging.
We include a lot in this newsletter. We suggest you not race through it but rather, savor it, perhaps one article or section at a time. May it support your growth into the conscious elderhood that is your birthright, but which requires your willingness to accept it as both gift and responsibility.
|
|
|
Cracked Open
Report #1 from the Front Lines
by Ron Pevny
There is a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.
Leonard Cohen
For quite a while I have felt stuck. I saw myself doing the same things, in the same way. I had trouble seeing any growth happening. I felt that what I had to share with others, while meaningful, was not coming from a place of my own ongoing growth. I often offered the prayer, “please give me experiences that will catalyze new growth in me and help me draw from a deeper well in my teaching role.”
The old adage has certainly proven true for me, the one that warns us to be careful what we ask for, for we may get it in unexpected ways. My prayer was answered on August 18th, when I went to the hospital for a common heart valve replacement in which a new aortic valve is threaded through a vein to the heart. Very non-invasive, with recipients returning home the same day.
I returned home 8 days later, after emergency open heart surgery because a one-in-a- thousand event occurred, and I came close to dying. For a person like me who thrives on physical fitness and outdoor activity, this turn of events has thrust me, teacher of transitions, into my own powerful, life changing transition. I am weak, although getting stronger each day, and recovery will take a long time. My prayer was certainly answered.
From my first conscious moments in the hospital upon getting off the ventilator, I found myself thinking of the Leonard Cohen quote, of the teachings and poetry that have meant so much to me and to my work, and of Elizabeth Lesser’s profound book, Broken Open:
How Difficult Times Can Help Us Grow. And I often offered the prayer, “now that I have been cracked open ( metaphorically and physically), please let long-sought-after inner light shine through, giving me the clarity and new vision my heart so desires.
Major life transitions usually are a process of indeterminent duration. They can’t be rushed to fit the schedule our minds might desire. And most of the time the fruits of transition require time to become apparent. So I feel I am only beginning to understand what this crisis induced transition will mean in my life. However, I am aware of three significant learnings, and trust more will follow. Here they are:
*** I have never been able to fully acknowledge that many people love me, appreciate me, have been deeply touched by my work, and pray for my well being. The outpouring of caring through this health crisis has opened my heart to myself and the value of the work I have long been called to.
***Having a strong sense of purpose is vital to my well being. Being able to do my work (such as creating this newsletter) in a measured way, greatly strengthens my life force and is the most healing thing I can be doing. People advise me to rest. I feel that fulfilling my sense of purpose, without straining myself, is the most renewing thing I can be doing. I understand more than ever the research and spiritual traditions that speak to the importance of purpose for health of body, mind and spirit.
*** People remark about an equanimity I am bringing to this challenging time. Yes, there is some fear, some anger, some emotional distress. But there is much less of these than before I committed to the inner work that is so important to me and to those I am privileged to teach on the path of conscious eldering. The lesson in this is that being able to bring trust and equanimity to life transitions is the result of doing inner work well before we consider ourselves old. In the midst of crisis, it feels like all we can do to just get through each day. We need to focus on transforming ourselves over time so that when crisis comes, we are inwardly prepared to bring to it trust, strength, and strong life force unimpeded by old, disempowering inner baggage.
We experience most major transitions as crises. That’s how it feels when well established ways of viewing ourselves and of living our lives are upended. We are cracked open, our egos are broken open. This seems to be necessary for the light of our inner essence to shine through, giving us glimpses of what we are called to and who we can be in the next chapters of our lives. With trust I open myself to this light.
|
|
No Longer a Rope
by Jerry O'Neill
My rite of passage from midlife to elderhood was actually ten years in the making. There came the sudden death of my first wife Denise in 2010, then a move from Minneapolis to Whidbey Island, Washington, followed by a series of failed attempts to retire from work as a parish pastor. In 2018 I attended a Sage-ing International conference and completed a workbook based on Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi’s sage-ing principles. In spring 2019 I began to learn and play a new stringed instrument, turning to music and poetry to find my voice and the soul of my vocation for later life.
Preparing to go public with a collection of songs, short poems, and intentions, I found myself struggling to let go of my role as a pastor. Just as my book was about to be released I was asked again to consider serving a parish near our home in Oregon. How would I ever find the freedom and energy needed to use and further develop gifts I’d been excited about since childhood if I continued to feel roped into a job I no longer needed or found especially life-giving?
Then I read Ron Pevny’s book Conscious Living Conscious Aging and I realized the missing piece. I needed a wide open sacred space for a public rite of passage led by a skilled facilitator in the wise company of other loving older adults. So, I signed up for a Choosing Conscious Elderhood retreat, led by Ron and Dennis Stamper, at Ghost Ranch, New Mexico. Postponed a couple of times due to Covid, the week-long event was finally held May 1-7, 2022. In hindsight, it couldn’t have been a better time!
On my journey to Ghost Ranch the green forests of the Pacific Northwest gave way to the wide-open high desert of northcentral New Mexico. The stunning beauty of sandstone cliffs and vast canyons provided a sacred portal to peer into the depths of deposition and seismic change that had occurred over the past seven decades on the inner landscape of my life. Surprisingly, very often as the wind blew, I heard nature’s song in my soul and felt right at home. On a late Sunday afternoon the wind blew me like a tumbleweed into the retreat center, eager to help me plant new seed for the next chapter in my life. Circling with others in this strange arid land we faced uncertainty with blind assurance, quickly coming alive amidst the mystery of new beginnings from the Ancient of Days.
Gathered in the Agape Center at Ghost Ranch, we committed ourselves to Love’s way. Each of us placed on a table, which we made our altar, one or more symbols in our lives that have and continue to embody the sacred. Mine was a small tapestry with two figures of Kokopelli—one representing the stir of song and wild innocence in my youth and the other of a new and surprising playfulness of the muse now in my later life. I took off my gold and amber gemstone ring and set it between them trusting that it with, amidst the other signs of the sacred placed by the others, would encourage me to find a fulfilling balance of being and doing in my elderhood.
Intent to make a later life shift from role to soul, I danced with my shadows throughout the week, risking a bold look at my true self and the courage to step out onto a new ground of being. I corraled and tamed a nightmare with the wind of Spirit and found grace to face my fears. Time and again I experienced relief from ego stressers and found a wholesome oneness with what my soul desires.
One morning, while it was my day to hold close to my heart the Cord of Intentions representing the intentions of every elder in our group, I prayerfully walked them into the presence of the sacred deep within the Ghost Ranch labyrinth. As back out I walked, like an onion I pealed all externals away saying on everyone’s behalf, “I am now and to every end forever—Loving Awareness.”
As we entered the life review and repair leg of our journey we shared painful memories, hurts and fears giving those opportunity to be deeply heard. We encouraged each other to trust and bear fruit the truth of soul generates. At a letting go ceremony early one evening I buried a rope I had worn with clergy garb for years as a parish pastor. As I cast it into the “grave”, putting the role of pastor behind me, I heard our co-facilitator and colleague Dennis Stamper cry out, “Well done, good and faithful servant!” And as though from on high his words helped turn my tears of grief into laughter and great joy!
The following day we left the security of our circle in order for each of us to experience a twenty-four hour solo in the wilderness. Nature mirrored on my inner landscape the vast canyons caused by my first wife’s death and now the letting go of my career. As I communed with colorful sandstone cliffs the wind blew again and again enlivening me with grace and assurance.
Upon return to the circle we all pondered how we’d continue to be conscious elders back home. I began and have since further refined ten intentions for the next seven years covering practically every known aspect of my later life. Shown a myriad of ways to grow more conscious, I am now applying what I’ve learned and experienced at Ghost Ranch. As stated in my first intention, I will practice being present in every circumstance to observe all thoughts, feelings, and relationships first and foremost in the light of my soul.
Perhaps the biggest surprise upon my return has been discovering my need for inner work to help develop a healthy and life-giving relationship between my inner elder and child. So, I am happy to announce, given the conscious elder I’ve become, that I will now take up writing songs and poems with my inner child for a book we might simply call “Child Alive!”
Jerry O’Neill was an ordained minister for more than 40 years. In 2022 following a rite of passage ceremony at Ghost Ranch and the release of his book ”Called to be Alive!” he launched a ministry for later-life wellness using his signature gifts of poetry and music. He can be reached at jroneill@whidbey.com
|
|
|
Your Attention is Sacred
and Critical for a Conscious Elderhood
by Kinde Nebeker
I heard this phrase recently on a Rebel Wisdom podcast, quoting technology
Tristan Harris who is calling for our awareness about how we use social media.
It struck me hard, having just come from three days out on Boulder Mountain, Utah, with a small group of young people, on an experimental program led by a couple of young wilderness rites of passage guide friends*.
I was recovering from a bout of COVID. Turns out that driving up an un-maintained mountain road in my good but not all-wheel drive SUV, unpacking water jugs and gear and trying to establish a camping ‘home’ for myself was beyond my energy limits. The next day I had a smack down and spent the entire day supine, deeply tired, watching the clouds and looking at the big ponderosa that rose into the sky across the field from where my car was parked.
As well as having zero energy, I felt myself in a grey, dead world that day. I had no trace of life spark. I felt nothing. No response to anything. No inspiration for anything. I wasn’t upset, or wishing I was feeling better, or anything. I can’t say I’ve felt quite like that before. It felt, as the beautiful young woman who gracefully tended to me that day said, “like absolute apathy”. She knew because she felt that way when she had COVID last year, and her apathy lasted at least a month afterward. “There is something else going on with COVID that people aren't talking about . . ” she said.
In this utterly grey dead world, all I could pay attention to was eating when I was hungry, drinking when I was thirsty, peeing when I needed to, and when I wasn’t sleeping, just looking out of my eyes. It was weirdly neutral, and a little scary.
I have a habitual practice when I’m out in the wilds, which is to slow down and open to let the world into my pores. I sense the trees watching me. I notice the coordinated movement of ants. I used to ask existential questions and listen for answers, which often came in signs and symbols. More often now, I am just in relationship, paying attention to what and who is around me — wind, rock, hummingbird, aspen. And receiving attention back, in some primordial, undefinable way.
In my grey death state of apathy however, I noticed my capacity and my even giving a damn about paying attention was significantly diminished. I really didn’t care. That was the most terrible thing — far worse than feeling deeply physically tired — the emotional not-caring.
There was one moment when I roused my attention to see the ponderosa tree across the field. The young people were out wandering solo on the land, with the invitation from the guides to “witness the world” and feel it looking back. So I figured I’d do it from where I was lying.What caught my attention was the shape of the tree’s branches. They’d start from the trunk in a slightly curved uplift, and then the long branches would drape downward, only to lift again at the ends, where bursts of long needles spouted in fanlike clumps. The wave shape of the branches looked like waves, or flowing clouds. The patterns of such graceful beauty glimmered something in me. I thought “only Ponderosa has this shape. It’s like no other tree.” I allowed Her to look back at me, but only halfway and only for a moment until I heard the buzz of a ruby throated hummingbird who appeared and hovered, eying me.
Then I lapsed into not caring anymore again. A day later, recovered from grey death and sufficiently energetic to pack up and head for home where I could fully recover, I was driving when I heard this phrase, “your attention is sacred”.
Wow!
In my state of grey death, nothing mattered, nothing was relevant to me. My attention lay dormant like some useless and discarded tool with nothing to rouse its purpose. There was no life spark to animate it. I couldn’t care less about ANYTHING. I understood why people could want to end their lives.
The only reason to live is so you can be called to something you care about, something Good or True or Beautiful; when your attention is seduced by something that sparks your uniquely human capacity for deep meaning-making. . . like the particularly gorgeous shape of Ponderosa branches and why they might look like waves, (or why hummingbird should hover as if to say ‘hello’). And then in response to the meaning you've made, to create, to contribute in some way, to ease anothers’ pain.
What we’re doing in our contemporary materialist culture is allowing our attention to be hooked to the the small screen of a phone, flipping idly through images of who’s on vacation doing what, or who is posing with the lowest cut crop top and the biggest lash extensions, going mindlessly to the next thing and the next, without any connection or care. We’re being taught in pervasive and subtle ways that everything exists to be consumed by us, with very little connection to what is really Good or True or Beautiful and so is without any nutritional value to us at all. This is how the soul starves to death. If that’s as deep as meaning gets, we end up living in a world of grey death, without any idea that there could be anything more to being a human on this planet.
What if we realized that our attention is sacred? That our capacity to focus on a thing of our choice, to look deeper and to stay, unwavering, and to make meaning that satisfies us at our core is something miraculous? After all, what else in creation can do this? It is a uniquely human function; one that the world needs. Without our attention, the world cannot see itself. Our job is to see the world, which includes each other, and to know it matters profoundly. Beautiful Bree’s attention when I was sick; her full-bodied presence and heartfelt care was absolutely sacred, and healing. Our attention, given thusly, is healing . . . for the melting glaciers, the displaced people, those dying in war, the chaos and pain we can see all around us. It allows our elder gifts to flow freely to a world in need.
What could be more sacred than this?
Kinde Nebeker is a certified Integral Coach. She is available for coaching in developmental work and in ritual for grief and other aspects of personal and group transformation. Learn more at her website, Nee Moon Rites of Passage, or email her at kinde@newmoonrites of passage.com
|
|
|
Born with Wings
by Rumi
You were born with potential
You were born with goodness and trusr
You were born with ideals and dreams
You were born with greatness
You were born with wings
You are not meant for crawling—so done
You have wings
Learn to use them
And fly!
Forgiveness
by Jeff Foster
Don't try to forgive.
Forgiveness is not a 'doing'.
Simply accept that this moment is exactly the way it is right now.
And the past was the way it was.
Accept your non-acceptance in the present. Forgive your inability to forgive.
Feel your breath, the sensations in your body, the life that burns brightly in you.
Everyone is doing their best, even when it seems like they are doing their worst.
Everyone is dreaming or having a nightmare, battling with pain you may never understand. You don't have to condone their actions.
You may not be able to wake them up.
You don't have to like what happened.
Simply let go of the illusion
that it could have been any different.
You are different now, anyhow.
Don't focus on something
you have no control over.
The past is a distant land.
Bring your attention back to this moment,
Your source of true power.
Your place of connectedness.
Wake up from the dream
That anyone has any power
To take away your inner peace.
Drop the need to be right.
Embrace the need to be free.
Come out of the story of 'my life'.
Reclaim the moment.
Be here, in your new life.
Show up for this brand new day.
This is forgiveness.
Asking for What We Want
by Bob Calhoun
When life offers up
What we have been asking for
We often walk right by
Looking in other places
Instead of what lies right in front of us
Our hearts desire
Blocked by the curtain
Of habit and duty
Or clouds of fear, doubt
Or some shiny shouting thing
With neon faces made up
Scarcity lures us
Right past the honey
Of our need
And we chase its siren
Blind to the beauty
Of calm knowing
And deep rivers,
We hear the fog horn
In the distance
Singing “follow this
And be saved”
The cup to fill us
Still appears in the distance
To the eye disconnected
To the nerve of our
Birthright
Stop, be still
And know
Stop, be still
And see
The Truth of Growing Older
by William Martin, in
The Sage's Tao Te Ching
The truth of growing older
cannot be described,
only experienced.
We are unaware of becoming sages,
we just know that we are at peace.
We are unaware of being wise,
we just know that we are content.
We are unaware of being generous,
we just enjoy giving ourselves away.
May your coming years be filled
with all the blessings of the sage.
May your live your years
with peace and joy.
May you die content and happy,
knowing all is well,
that it has always been so
and will always be so.
|
|
|
Threshold
by Mark Coleman
If you knew you were about
To step off the cliff of the known,
To slip from the safety of the familiar
Into the womb of darkness
That has no names,
Would you still cross that threshold
With confident steps,
Or hasten back to the old small house
That lies tight and cramped
Like an old snake skin around you?
The call of the abyss
Looms like a reapers shadow
And looks annihilating
From the telescope of the mind,
But there secret treasures
Are sewn in the fabric of your skin.
To cross that line
Sometimes we have to trip and fall,
Lose ourselves like mist at dawn
Or take the hand of a friend
As we enter the uncharted realms.
What happens there is hard to say,
Layers of silt are removed,
Our palette gets washed away
And the house of familiarity
Feels hauntingly different.
Roles and routines no longer fit
As we are cast like spawn
Into the ocean’s mouth
Or like light hurled in a starless sky,
Where there is nothing to do but
Yield to the tug of waves.
Trust the path that takes us to the edge,
To the place where we can break open
And discover ourselves anew.
On Aging
by Rumi
Why does a date-palm lose its leaves in autumn?
Why does every beautiful face grow in old age
Wrinkled like the back of a Libyan lizard?
Why does a full head of hair get bald?
Why is the tall, straight figure
That divided the ranks like a spear
Now bent almost double?
Why is it that the
Lion's strength weakens to nothing?
The wrestler who could hold anyone down
Is led out with two people supporting him,
Their shoulders under his arms?
God answers,
"They put on borrowed robes
And pretended they were theirs.
I take the beautiful clothes back,
So that you will learn the robe
Of appearance is only a loan."
Your lamp was lit from another lamp.
All God wants is your gratitude for that.
Elder’s Commitment
Created for the Elder Rites of Passage 2018 at Ekone Ranch, Washington, by
Ned Abenroth—convener for Illuman of Washington
We stand on common ground, honoring the presence of the Wild One in all that is,
We join with all creation:
In grieving the wounds of this world,
In celebrating the beauty of all,
In welcoming all beings and their place in the world,
In yearning for the healing of all,
In acting for the good of the world,
In loving all, especially the broken and marginalized
As elders, we commit:
All that we are, and
All that has been granted us:
our time, our energy, our money, our talents, our bodies, our wounds, our breath
To be used as Spirit calls us.
We step into our call as elders to live on behalf of the whole
We step into death,
into life,
into growth,
into joy,
into beauty,
into relationship,
into leadership,
into holy folly,
into nothingness,
into everything
For the sake of our ancestors and descendants,
For the sake of the more than human world,
For the sake of each other,
For the sake of ourselves, and
For the sake of the Beloved Friend, in whose beauty, we pray.
|
|
|
Upcoming Conscious Eldering Programs
Our 2023 Schedule is in the process of being finalized. In addition to two of our signature
Choosing Conscious Elderhood retreats, we will be offering a new retreat focused on Conscious Elders in Service to Community, a weeklong retreat amid the emerald green of Ireland, and our Next Step retreat for graduates of Choosing Conscious. And we are always eager to present customized shorter introductory workshops for organizations that invite us and will handle the logistics.
Please consider joining us if you seek an empowering vision for your elder chapters, tools for helping make that vision reality, and the warmth of a supportive community of kindred spirits. Our programs provide a powerful opportunity to have your idealism acknowledged, your hope rekindled and your dreams for a vital, passionate elderhood supported? They offer you the wisdom of skilled guides and the heart-and-mind-opening energy of the natural world, to open you to the rich possibiities of your later-life chapters--for growth, purpose, spiritual deepening, and giving your elder gifts to support a healthy society and planet.
|
|
|
Choosing Conscious Elderhood
May 14-20
Ghost Ranch, New Mexico
and
October 3-9
at Ghost Ranch, New Mexico
Next Step
for graduates of Choosing Conscious Elderhood
April 11-16
at Hope Springs Retreat Center
in the Appalachians of Ohio
Choosing Conscious Elderhood
in County Wicklow, Ireland
September 8-14
Conscious Elders in Service to Community
March 30 - April 2
at Buckhorn Springs Retreat near Ashland Oregon
in partnership with Cascadia Quest and Rites of Passage Journeys
For Organizations, Faith Communities, etc:
We are available to present our weekend workshops or custom designed programs for groups who would like to sponsor one in their area. Contact us to explore possibilities.
for details on our programs and registration information, please visit
www.centerforconsciouseldering.com/events
after November 1st
|
|
Nothing inspires and motivates like poetry and song that arises from the heart of one committed to living in gratitude, presence and joy. Jerry O”Neill’s beautiful collection of original poetry, lyrics, affirmations and short vignettes is a gift to all who share his commitment to being truly alive as they grow into the fullness of a conscious elderhood. This book is infused with spirit and is best savored rather than merely read—I suggest one poem or song every morning—as a call to honor each moment, each experience, as a gift that can bring us alive if we are open to its rich possibilities.
Ron Pevny
|
|
|
"A beautifully written and important book about aging and elderhood. Pevny reminds us that consciously moving into our greater years is a major rite of passage, and he offers skilled guidance through the many questions and challenges, endings and new beginnings, that arise."
Meredith Little, Co-founder of the School of Lost Borders
Since Ron's book was released in 2014, many elder wisdom circles and discussion groups have found it to be an excellent resource around which to center their discussions and group practices. A facilitator of several of these groups has created a study guide for this book. Contact Ron for information on how to obtain this guide.
|
|
|
Our lives have their seasons as does the natural world. Twenty Acres Deep by Bob Calhoun offers a collection of poems and reflections from a lifetime spent on his family’s twenty acre plot in the Colorado Rockies, a collection encouraging us to embrace the beauty and depth of this life journey through time. As we look deep into nature and its seasons we are drawn deeper into our own soul journey.
Bob is a past participant in Center for Conscious Eldering retreats. He found the wisdom gained from the retreat experience to be helpful in embracing his own elder season of life as well as courage and momentum to publish his first book of poems.
(Copies of Twenty Acres Deep can be purchased online at firehousebooks.com or by contacting Bob at bob@bobcalhounpsychologist.com)
|
|
Online courses taught by Center for Conscious Eldering guide emeritus Anne Wennhold
Memoir Writing
Wednesdays beginning September 21 – November 23 at
2 – 4 pm EST Fee: $190.
This will be Anne's 3rd year teaching her ten-week, 2 hour a week, Memoir Writing class on Zoom.
Each class session will feature actual writing practice and includes information about improving writing skills, developing depth of content and ending with organization of material.
Aging Into the 80s
Coming in January
This is an eight-week Zoom seminar focused on the continuing transitions of growth and development beyond the active 70s. The focus off this seminar is to identify and develop ways of managing the unexpected turns taken by the transitions of later elderhood and to provide windows into topics and fears often hidden by cultural denial such as Balancing Life Style, Continued Growth Practice, Letting Go and facing our mortality. Now in her 80’s and no longer co-guiding conscious eldering retreats, Anne will be bringing her own aging experience to this unique class.
For more information or to register, Contact Anne annewennhold@gmail.com.
|
|
|
Metabolizing The Apocalypse
An Introduction To Weathering These Times of Crisis
Facilitated by Kinde Nebeker and Jenny Myogetsu Lambson
Fridays at 10:00 am on October 7, 21 & November 4, 11
on Zoom
In this practice-based minicourse we will strengthen our capacity to be in the midst of personal and global tragedy. Life can be overwhelming when we are exhausted from our incessant thought loops, from caring so much, from the high alert of our nervous systems, from our sense of disconnection. The tool kit we will develop together in this course will support an aware, internal, connected place of peace accessible to each of us anytime.
|
|
|
The Human Values in Aging Newsletter
The newsletter you are reading is not intended to provide a comprehensive listing of workshops and other resources available these days to help support people in aging consciously. That job is well done by Rick Moody in his monthly Human Values in Aging newsletter. To receive it on the first day of each month, send an email to hrmoody@yahoo.com
|
|
|
One of our partner organizations, the Elders Action Network is an educational non-profit organization fostering a budding movement of vital elders dedicated to growing in consciousness while actively addressing the demanding social and environmental challenges facing our country and planet. They work inter-generationally for social and economic justice,environmental stewardship, and sound governance. They offer their multiple talents and resources in service to the goal of preserving and protecting life for all generations to come. Anyone committed to living and serving as a conscious elder in invited to join them in this critically important endeavor. EAN offerings include, among others,
* Bi-weekly Elder Activists for Social Justice Community Conversations
*The growing and influential "Elders Climate Action" initiative
* The Empowered Elder--EAN's foundational program
*The new Sunrise Movement - an intergenerational collaborative effort between EAN and Sage-ing International
*The Elders for Regenerative Living initiative
To learn about EAN and its initiatives and programs, visit www.eldersaction.org
|
|
|
Another of our partner organizations is Sage-ing International, the pioneering organization in promoting the principles of conscious aging, or "Sage-ing". Their greatly expanded offerings of online workshops and seminars, Elder Wisdom Circles, and training program for Certified Sage-ing Leaders is grounded in the work of Rabbi Zalman Shachter-Shalomi, who introduced conscious aging to the world with his workshops at Omega Institute with Ram Dass and others and via his seminal book, From Age-ing to Sage-ing.
Beginning in February, Sage-ing International will present a unique monthly online program called Turning Points. Ron Pevny and Katia Petersen, co-chair of Sage-ing International, will interview leaders in the conscious aging/personal transformation field, with the focus being on those times of darkness and challenge, as well as inner breakthrough and new beginning, that have shaped and informed the work of these leaders. Details will be available in late October on the Sage-ing website and our website.
To learn about Sage-ing International, visit www.sage-ing.org
|
|
|
Ron Pevny, Founder and Director
970-223-0857
3707 Coronado Ave, Fort Collins, Colorado 80526
ron@centerforconsciouseldering.com
|
|
|
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. It was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness. It was the season of light, it was the season of darkness. It was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.
Charles Dickens in a Tale of Two Cities
It is the human journey through life!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
