Day 20: Elder Muse – Carpe Diem

‘None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm’.

Henry David Thoreau

Of Note: This post first published June 2020 on Wildly Free Elder under the title “A Few Words on Aging”. This was the month that this website and community were created, so a bit nostalgic for me. Felt like the perfect post for today two and half years later. I still absolutely love the Green Renaissance video below and adore Maureen and her zest for life. Every time I watch it I smile!

The natural evolution of an embodied human is to change with each year we are here.  Not just physically, but within the heart of our emotions and in the deepest energetic recesses of our mind, thinking and creative potential. 

For some this is a very conscious process.  An unfolding of acceptance, transparency, trust and surrender revealing our life path. Every year brings new opportunities and awareness.

Some accept the societal story and common narrative of aging, or impulsively seek the next “anti-aging” supplement or practice which denies what is a natural process for all living beings.

The continuum of birth to death reveals a pathway uniquely our own.  No one else has our challenges, experiences, opportunities and possibilities. 

For some this is a short spectrum and filled with challenges that can’t simply be overcome with facing them head on.  Acceptance of disabilities, dis-ease and even death are at the forefront during these final embodied years. 

Impermanence beckons us from everywhere.  We see it in nature, our friends and loved ones, the animals special to us and at every turn of life.  Everything ages and dies within the cycles and rhythms of life here on Earth.

What our unique path will be is simply a matter of perception and is revealed in our unfolding life moments. That we will transition in death at some point is inevitable. 

Many of us have been blessed with more embodied life moments to dig deep and have found our passions buried beneath complacency, fixed identities that do not honor the wild soul inside, and ungrounded fears.  Free of the pressures and stresses of youth and mid-life we are invited into the stage of elderhood.

Elder saturated in the experiences, wisdom and innate sense of belonging, woven with an unrelenting sense of humor that surfaces in a multitude of moments during our days no matter what chronological age we are. 

Being an Elder is not defined by age, but rather Elders are recognized because they have earned the respect of their community through wisdom and actions or their teachings; through the vibrancy that radiates out from their presence and the unique artistry that only they can bring into the world.

Let us return to acknowledging elders in the fullest sense of the powerful presence they can be and are becoming.  Respecting the life artistry that has been necessary to bring them to where they are today. 

As we ripen into our aging beauty may we be heard, seen and respected for what we have to offer.  May we trust and respect our own becoming with grace, curiosity and surrender.…and a strong dose of humor!

The time is now to free yourself into the wildness of elderhood.  To ground who you are and what you have to bring into the very center of your being in spite of the challenges, or better yet because of the challenges!

You have stories to tell, wisdom to share and artistry to impart.

Don’t die now….before you die!

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Copyright by Gaye Abbott, 6/2020, Natural Passages Consulting

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You can find ALL of the 31-Days Elder Muse posts in the archives here: https://wildlyfreeelder.com/2022/12/

Gaye Abbott, Wildly Free Elder, 12/20/22