Stepping into an old growth forest is like stepping from chaos into an ancient , intelligent environment of cooperation, interconnection and diverse community. Almost immediately I felt the presence of indigenous energy and wished that I had moccasins on my feet instead of bulky walking shoes, or better yet barefoot to connect directly with the earth beneath my feet.
In direct communication and connection with this generative, abundant and lush world teeming with life I crossed over the stream running under the bridge at the beginning of the trailhead and felt at home. The sound of rushing water from the rainfall the night before supported letting go into this fecund world where sacredness is embodied and the wisdom of the natural world was conveyed to every cell of my being.
The air was rich with oxygen given as gifts from the thousands of trees and plants around me. Some remnants of flowers here and there had survived the intense sun that summer can bring as the trees provided the perfect hiding place within their shade. Diversity flourished and a sense of interconnected being reached into my very cells.
As the mind became quiet, orchestrated perfectly by the ancient energies present here, I left the everyday world behind and entered a kingdom of magic and mystery…..a world that was the norm so long ago, not the exception as it is today.
I was here to celebrate 75 embodied years on earth along with three women friends who joined me….and to listen to the wisdom of the elder standing beings – the old growth trees surrounding us…..
The Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest is a remnant of the original Appalachian forest in Western N. Carolina. It is a great example of a cove hardwood forest – a forest characterized by rich soils, abundant moisture and a variety of plants. An original forester in 1935 stated that it was one of the “very few remaining tracts of virgin hardwood in the Appalachians and should be preserved”. The forest service bought 13,055 acres in 1936 for the lofty sum of $28/acre (at a time when most land was going for $3-$4/acre).
Joyce Kilmer is managed to protect naturalness and solitude. Trails are maintained to the most primitive standards. This forest is a living memorial to Joyce Kilmer who was killed in action in WWII. Kilmer’s best known poem is “Trees” printed below:
TREES
I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast.
A tree that looks at God all day
And lifts her leafy arms to pray.
A tree that may in summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair.
Upon whose bosom snow has lain.
Who intimately lives with rain.
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.
~Joyce Kilmer
Joyce Kilmer Memorial Old Growth Forest, N. Carolina, Photo by Margaret Rode
What did these standing elder beings convey to me as I placed my hands, and at times body, on them to intimately commune?
Each tree was uniquely different even though most of them were of the same species of tulip poplar and hundreds of years old – up to 450 years old and beyond. I have been blessed this lifetime to sense, work with, and be aware of energy patterns and flow, so the individual energy flow patterns were to me quite apparent – though at times very subtle.
The oldest trees had a grounded calm flow of rooted energy that immediately put me “in the zone”. They spoke to me of stability and the necessity of community and collaboration as we age. The younger trees held a stronger more intense active energy but uniquely different to each individual tree. Yet still, collaborative community is integral to their continued growth and thriving as is the diversity of life around them which they constantly contribute to.
BLACK COHOSH, a rich medicinal herb
The mycelia fungal root network beneath the ground is a cross kingdom web of interconnection through which the trees, plants and other living beings communicate and support each other. Just as we find that building and maintaining cooperative community is essential for our well being as humans.
Large trees like these that are hundreds of years old can send carbon, nutrients, water, hormones and even alarm signals to this underground network of fungi. These “mother tree” networks are seen to be essential in making forests around the planet better suited to survive climate change…..and hopefully pass their wisdom onto humans.
Part of that collaborative connection is held within the very air that we exchange with trees. They breathe out the oxygen we need and we breathe out the carbon dioxide they need. Sharing life sustaining elements with our DNA encoded family of trees. Miraculously the DNA molecule in plants, humans, and all living things are all the same shape — like a twisted ladder, or a double helix.
They also spoke to me of the importance of consciously integrating being still and taking time out for solitude and silence often. This is a key to their longevity….and ours. Trees can be very busy communicating, as we are when we are younger, yet what I felt in these older trees was a sense of being at peace and one with their forest community as their busy growing time to reach the sunlight was behind them and their roles were well known and innately accepted.
When their time to fall is before them my sense of the absolute surrender they have in those moments was conveyed through those that had already fallen. Knowing on a tree level of consciousness that they would feed and nourish not only the soil but many microbes and organisms as they composted their bodies into the earth. As well as providing the perfect home for insects, mushrooms and other living beings.
A time for birth, growth, learning and activity, elderhood when all quiets down and we accept our role as elders,,,,, and finally death of what was, transformed into other forms that nourish and continue the cycle.
A continuum….
And so I leave you walking along this trail of nature’s relatively untouched fertile bounty one sacred step at a time, through the lushness of a forest home that brings abundant gifts, wisdom and peace…..
Diana Turner-Forte is one of our community whom I connected with through complete synchronicity several months ago now. i have completely enjoyed being present to her journey into wholeness. A professional dancer, you can now find her moving fluidly and attentively through unfolding moments in her 7th decade of embodied life. Thank you Diana! (GA)
This is the day God has made let us rejoice and be glad in it. Psalm 118:24
My days are filled with more wonder and awe since I’ve stepped off the fast-paced train supposedly taking me to success and freedom. I’m referring to the train that offers everything including the objectification of relationships for profit and not too much real value. The train that proposes all the ways to succeed in business and sometimes even in life, but no real tangible rewards. The train that is nonstop until you wake up one day with the word “enough” on your breath and the throb in your heart to do something different.
Initially, in this endeavor I felt rather goalless, but that was not really true as I was paying attention and being moved along by an invisible power. The truth is that I was being re-oriented toward a different plan, a divine plan of which the purpose was much greater than myself. If I might say so, the re-alignment uncovered my unique expression and a deeper meaning in life. And so far it has not required a quest to a far off land doing mission work. Even as it unfolds there is no long-term plan except the constant vigil of being present and aware, and then what I need appears in due course. What is required is full attentiveness to the symphony and playing my own frequency and notes that are in harmony with the cosmos.
From my experience I find myself not where I thought I’d be and certainly my plans have been abruptly adjusted. There is no need for them even in a rough sketch. I can see the trajectory, a golden thread of my journey and not require certainty or approval of next steps; that’s a moment-to-moment venture. And I might add that as it is a new experience I try not to hyperventilate during my lapses into forgetfulness.
For the most part I can dwell in the in-between spaces—not squirming too much— and not grasping for the next project, goal, or event. My senses are acutely awakened for whatever comes next. I discern what is important and what situations or events are worth taking on and not necessarily for the task of involvement, but for service. This freedom is without strings and the reciprocity received through interpersonal relationships are the gift.
Time for contemplation and a willingness to not fill the quiet moments with activity but instead, allowing a sinking into stillness is both captivating and comforting. I sense a wholeness that claims me as I practice just being. Life is the dance and sometimes I’m part of the corps de ballet, sometimes a soloist, and at other times I’m a principal, but the exchange of roles is fluid. When I stay awake there is no confusion, as I move through various responsibilities. I don’t get burnt out by taking on too much, as other players quickly step in and join in the choreography. There seems to be a lot more substance with much less effort.
The awe leads to moments such as one of many described below:
A Swaying Dance
Humbled by their beckoning/ I join the lilting trees/ in rhythm to a soundless melody—on a Spring breeze./ Inspired by their naturalness/ rooted feet, torso fluid, side to side I sway—my body mirrors their movements/ each breath releasing knots of tension/ subtle arcs of soul and body in harmony with nature; then stillness—/ I smile, bow and thank the Longleaf pines for our shared—morning prayer.
Of course, this raises a curious question, a query I bring up often. Are we not meant to live like this day in and day out? I can think of many such instances as I’ve decluttered my life and become more in alignment with the harmonics of nature to discover something unique and special outside of myself, but inside as well. Sometimes it can be captured in words, a posture or music, but often it’s a memory that lingers in the mind received as a gift from God. It’s a realization that I’m not forgotten or separate from anything in the universe.
As an example, driving home from errands I glanced up at the clouds and some had formed into a heart: puffy white outer edges with a blue center. No kidding. What do you do with that? Sigh, smile, and say “thank you.”
Make no mistake, I’m not talking about a direct ascent to this state of bliss. In fact, initially, there were so many moments of doubt and perilous misjudgments that I wondered if I had lost my mind. However, the sweetness of the experiences affirmed otherwise. The act of becoming more intimate — you can hardly do otherwise— when the indwelling Spirit raises you and your fellow human beings to a consciousness of Oneness that saturates all of life, the soft sigh of the breath is almost overwhelming.
As we come to an appreciation that from subtle moments of inner dwelling words like this might arise and start to make sense: Be still and know that I am God, Psalm 46:10.It’s the realm of great poetry, literature, and art. Perhaps, music like Ludwig von Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 “Ode to Joy” got stirred from a flow of “still point” moments.
Without solitude, Love will not stay long by your side.
Because Love needs to rest, so that it can journey through the heavens and reveal itself in other forms.
Without solitude, no plant or animal can survive, no soil can remain productive, no child can learn about life, no artist can create, no work can grow and be transformed.
Solitude is not the absence of Love, but its complement.
Solitude is not the absence of company, but the moment when our soul is free to speak to us and help us decide what to do with our life.
Therefore, blessed are those who do not fear solitude, who are not afraid of their own company, who are not always desperately looking for something to do, something to amuse themselves with, something to judge.
If you are never alone, you cannot know yourself.
And if you do not know yourself, you will begin to fear the void.
~Paulo Coelho, Manuscript Found in Accra
As each precious day unfolds itself filled with first light, and birdsong envelops the ever lightening sky, there is rejoicing. As elders we become acutely aware that we only have so much embodied time left here.
Solitude that was so rare as we raced through our younger years was most often to be avoided at all costs. If we only knew that it was the solitude that would bring us a greater awareness of who we are in our wholeness perhaps we would have welcomed it with open arms.
Leapt at opportunities to bare our heart and soul to ourselves in quiet reflection.
Now as we stand on the threshold of leaving, solitude brings gifts if we would release the need to be seen and amused. To be busy and acknowledged. Just for moments in time.
For it is those moments standing alone in the midst of a temperate rain forest with the color of green permeating so deeply into our cells that we feel as if we have become one with the wildness. In tune with the vibration of nature. Of ourselves.
Or sitting on the shore where the ocean stretches out before us moving towards and away in a lullaby of water that embraces us with longing to love now and forever the one single moment that brings joy woven with awe.
To know ourselves whole and free. To cross over the threshold into the void without fear.
Blue Ridge Mountains, Western North Carolina/Photography by Gaye Abbott
Usually there is a late afternoon walk when I am caring for Reese and her kitty sister Lizzie. However today I decided that we would eat dinner first and then take a gloaming walk on the land tucked into the Blue Ridge Mountains.
This time of day is magical when low light is present in the evening as the sun sets. Soon we will start seeing fireflies twinkling in the gloaming. But not quite yet. Instead ones attention is taken to the intense lush green from millions of trees all in Spring leaf.
As soon as we started out on our walk I knew that this would be different from our more vigorous walk in the morning. There was a different energy in our natural surroundings and within Reese herself.
A slower pace, more intense exploring of one single smell, rustle in the bushes, or piece of earth. A going off the paved driveway down to a creek and into areas that were not visited in the morning. Even a purposeful but gentle disregard of how I was trying to guide her back home.
It was almost like she was testing me to see if I would surrender into the moment. Breathe in the fresh tree air, listen to the birds settling in for the night, simply stand in front of a tree and commune. Allowing the peaceful surroundings to paint me with the color NOW. – this very moment. Trust.
Reese, Teacher & Friend/Photography by Gaye Abbott
But it took me a while to let go of my agenda. To get up and down the steep pathway making certain she followed me back up to home base and didn’t wander off too far in bear, wild turkey and other critters country.
It was like there was an internal battle of agenda versus simply being present. Trusting that this gentle soul of a doggie would follow me when she was ready to do so.
Many stops along the way where the agenda would rear its ugly head and I would call out to her to “come Reese”……disregarding the immersion in scents, sounds, movement and simply being still for moments in time that she was teaching me about.
The shift happened in one long exhalation where we locked eyes and I surrendered. Everything expanded and at the same time became still.
Time ceased to exist. We were engaged in the most sacred moments of simply being. Senses were enhanced and the agenda fell away all at once.
I realized the lessons from Reese on this evening walk were all about inhabiting the moments fully with every fiber of my being. Trusting in the unfolding moment to moment with all senses open and aligning with vibrant aliveness.
Thank you sweet doggie Reese. You are a wise teacher….
Writing Space for “Lessons From Reese”/Photography by Gaye Abbott
As I wind my way through recovery and regeneration from a low back injury incurred last year I realize I am on a powerful, and at times challenging, journey towards trusting my bodies ability to not only recover fully but to be stronger, more flexible and resilient than it was before the injury.
As a matter of fact everything in our body is regenerating constantly from skin and organs to bones. Maybe not at the same rate it did when we were younger, but it does uniquely for each person based on many factors such as age, food and lifestyle choices.
Just as we have the power to heal ourselves we also have the power to heal and regenerate the earth. As in the short animated film below we, the “Holy Earth Surface Beings”, belong and are an integral part of this planet we call home.
Indigenous nations maintained balance and harmony with their environment for they knew that their lives depended upon that regenerative relationship being nurtured, respected, connected and understood from a holistic perspective.
A way of living in this world by attending to whole ecosystems and whole communities. Knowing that the root of regeneration is within us.
“The film explores the origins of regenerative agriculture, offering a story that is both new and ancient in its roots. Co-written and narrated by Lyla June Johnston, an Indigenous public speaker, artist, scholar, and community organizer, the film takes a holistic approach to regenerative stewardship, expanding the idea of regeneration beyond the principles popularized in the relatively young regenerative agriculture movement.
This educational, animated short film is designed to inspire individuals to take action around regenerative agriculture and climate change. Audiences are left to answer one of the most pressing questions of our time: if we expand the regenerative mindset beyond farming, what else is possible?
ABOUT KTG Kiss the Ground is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that has become a leading voice in bringing awareness to regeneration through its storytelling, education, and advocacy of regenerative agriculture and soil health.
In ending it felt right to leave you, the reader, with the experience of being one with the earth elements in this stunning music video. Consciously connecting and opening in this way provides grounding for embodying the energy of regeneration and connection.
What would it be like if we told the truth of what it is like to fully be alive? The bare honest truth in any given moment. Not only to ourselves but to others who ask the question, “how are you today?”
Perhaps not all the time, but more often than we do now.
I find that the deepest friendships I have are with those who are transparent about their life experience in a sensitive and perceptive way. It not only allows me to know them in all their beauty and at times pain, confusion and sadness of what they may be feeling, but it also gives me permission to do the same with them.
It is the crack in our facades where the light of reality of “being” alive gets in. Living in a dance between “joy and sorrow, dark and light, bitter and sweet”.
Every time we shut down on our moment to moment being and awareness we are hiding our wholeness . To fit in? Belong? Not seem fragile and vulnerable? For survival? To be loved and admired? Fear that we will burden someone? And it goes on….
Yet it is from this ever changing flow of emotions and deep longing through our life experiences that we can perceive the “insane beauty” of life going on constantly around ….and within us.
To be fully present with each other in any given moment is the greatest gift we can give and receive.
In the video below Author Susan Cain explores how being attuned to the “bittersweetness” of life — and being fully present for both the happy times and the sad times — helps us navigate love and loss and connect to the “insane beauty” of the world.
To keep our hearts open is probably the most urgent responsibility you have as you get older.
As an adult when was the last time you played? No, I don’t mean a card game or backgammon. I mean a lost in time spontaneous, noncompetitive activity stimulating unbelievable energy, excitement, and joy.
Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul.—John Muir
BLUE RIDGE MOUNTAINS POST RAIN STORM, WESTERN N. CAROLINA (Photo by Gaye Abbott 4/2023)
The occasions in which I took myself way too seriously or I was on the edge of an insightful idea trying to break through and allowed myself to play some interesting things happened. By doing something as carefree as doodling—taking out a pencil and a blank sheet of paper, making squiggly lines all over the page, no format, design or pattern—thereby freeing thoughts, tension and stress; I actually became more functional. After the brief respite in apparent idleness, I experienced clarity, lucidity, and became a vessel for profound information—even I was surprised. Everything came to me as needed. The doodling relaxed the nervous system, turning off the mind chatter and temporarily releasing the brain circuitry for ideas to flow. It was like unclogging a sink.
I’m not sure when I lost the ability to lapse into unsolicited moments of imagination and intuition but in the past few years I’ve reclaimed the skill of “play.” I’m healthier, happier, and more inclined to truly connect with others as the result of that decision. When I spent a year with Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way a couple of decades ago I don’t think I realized the impact it would have as a place holder for ongoing transformation in my life. One of the practices was “Morning Pages” which cleared and opened the mind first thing upon waking up. I still engage in this process in a somewhat diluted manner through morning journaling. I begin the day with a clean slate.
Another part of the process that was just as important was the “Artist Date.” You take yourself on a date, yes, to experience something unique and meaningful. This does not have to cost anything; a walk in nature will do, and often does. The point is to commit to being present with yourself in a light-hearted, open, and unencumbered way. This happens weekly. I’ve renewed that practice, as well.
It turns out what children need to grow and develop, adults need as well to harness ongoing imagination and intuition. And this state of creativity comes about through play!
Ah yes, I can hear it now: “Nonsense, I’m an adult. Who has time for play?” But, it seems as we get older play becomes even more important to support our well-being by releasing healthy chemicals our bodies thrive on—oxytocin, dopamine, serotonin, and endorphins. Play Therapist, Theresa A Kestly has this to say:
Our brains are built to benefit from play no matter what our age.”
But of course that would mean stepping into our fears and releasing the baggage we carry around with us from past experiences that keep us trapped in habitual patterns of which we are often unaware. It would mean that we would have to change the rules we have set for ourselves eons ago and step into new territory. And it would mean ignoring those who love to hobble at our insecurities and lack of personal faith. Or we can do as Kyra Davis proposes, face our true selves:
Sometimes we have to step out of our comfort zones. We have to break the rules. And we have to discover the sensuality of fear. We need to face it, challenge it, dance with it.
Like everything else in our toolkit for healthy living, play requires making time for it and ensuring that it has priority in our lives to aid us in becoming who we want to be. Yes, I know sometimes it seems like all hell is breaking loose, but the element within that springs from the depths of your heart is still alive as long as you are breathing and merely needs to be tapped. And perhaps that is what Ralph Waldo Emerson was referring to when he said:
It is a happy talent to know how to play.
Especially in adulthood, play needs to be cultivated and nurtured like a plant. It needs to be given attention, time, and diligence. This pays off in enjoying more of life and it keeps the world beaming with light. Joyful people reflect Light.
Whether your “play” is improvisational dance, contemplative walks, a leisure stroll through an art exhibit, tending a rose garden, strumming a guitar, attending a live concert—whatever it is, consider setting a play date with yourself this week.
Biltmore House Conservatory, Asheville, NC/Photography by Gaye Abbott
“Humans are great at running from truth, but in the garden you can’t hide. Life and death, vitality and decay – it’s all there happening before our eyes.“
The first streaks of light beckon to a fresh virgin day to begin. Songbirds fill the air with their Spring melodious, and at times chaotic, sounds of new life, connection with each other….. and of course nest building.
There are no worries or pressure to “do” within this sacred time. Birthing into the unfolding moments we are gifted with when we take our first conscious inhale and exhale of the day. That is if we can banish the thoughts of what this day is “supposed” to be.
We have a choice as we pause at this intersection of dark and light, the space between inhale and exhale. Allow daily unconscious patterns of doing to take root and direct the choices we make.
Or accept the mystery and beauty of unfolding life and death moment to moment. As an elder, being willing to step over the threshold into new territory and creation – even though we don’t know the way..
Nature is a wise guide in teaching us how we shall spend our time. A reminder that everything is born, unfurled for a period of time…..and then passes it’s essence to the life that is to come.
In embracing nature’s wisdom we become “the constant gardener”…..and nourish beauty, love and joy.
The Green Renaissance video below arrived in my inbox at exactly the right moment to remind me of the preciousness, beauty and mystery of life. When in the midst of the inevitable challenges of life….I sometimes forget. And by the way I talk to plants/trees/flowers too…and listen to what they have to tell me! Enjoy…..
“Humans are great at running from truth, but in the garden you can’t hide. Life and death, vitality and decay – it’s all there happening before our eyes.
The garden is a space defined not by it’s physicality but by the emotions it evokes and the connections it provokes. And the act of gardening can change the way we relate to the world around us for the better, giving us perspective and teaching us lessons about life.
Do we choose to plant seeds of fear or love? Do we fertilize anger or harmony? Do we water the connections we have or let them die of thirst?
Our souls are gardens. Our hearts are flowers. They need to be watered, tended, fertilized and loved. Happy gardening! “
Filmed in Riebeek West, South Africa. Featuring Corné Pretorius.” Humans are great at running from truth, but in the garden you can’t hide. Life and death, vitality and decay – it’s all there happening before our eyes.
The garden is a space defined not by it’s physicality but by the emotions it evokes and the connections it provokes. And the act of gardening can change the way we relate to the world around us for the better, giving us perspective and teaching us lessons about life.
Do we choose to plant seeds of fear or love? Do we fertilize anger or harmony? Do we water the connections we have or let them die of thirst?
Our souls are gardens. Our hearts are flowers. They need to be watered, tended, fertilized and loved. Happy gardening! “
Filmed in Riebeek West, South Africa. Featuring Corné Pretorius.
The wild winds, pounding rain, thunder and lightening lashed out across the landscape. It was enough to make the dogs I was caring for while their owner was gone seek my touch and calming presence as the power to the house suddenly went off leaving us in a twilight space without electricity.
It was enough to simply be present to the power of nature and be still.
And then, as the storm passed and all was quiet the dogs and I stepped out into a world of fresh moisture laden air, fallen limbs from trees, water soaked earth….and the most glorious celebration of light and sunset clouds.
There was something about the landscape now that had transformed within the vibrant life of the storm.
It was like experiencing with all senses engaged the same landscape, that had been there earlier in the day, yet from a different perspective.
Fully communing with this unique nature choreographed beauty for the first time.
It struck me in those precious moments that one of the joys of aging is that you have more time to be still. To explore once again your essential nature that perhaps had been left behind in the business of the earlier stages of your life. To approach the inevitable ups and downs of elderhood placing attention on the possibilities hidden there.
Sometimes our lives feel like that storm, or variations there of, as we face challenges, make mistakes, end relationships. Yet when that has passed through, and it always does, you can be left with a new perspective and awareness that is often times quite different from when and where you started.
Our bodies have landscapes too. Over the last many months I have been working with a physical therapist to guide and support healing of several injuries to low back and hips. The mobility, fluidity and resilience I had always taken for granted was severely compromised. This transition from fully functioning elder to daily pain and compromised mobility was the path I was to walk. Death does not scare me, this did.
Through physical, mental, emotional….and spiritual…..exploration, entering into a deep respect for the intimate and infinite processes that as a whole keep us functioning. If not at optimal levels like we did in the earlier stages of our lives, at least providing a solid foundation for living fully.
My awareness now months later is that I am inhabiting my physicality in a more grounded and enhanced way. In other words I have greater awareness of the functioning whole than before the injuries, and the failures and mistakes in the recovery process that followed. Knowing and listening to what the body is communicating. Not as segmented separate parts but as an astonishing resilient whole.
What if we did celebrate our mistakes and failures as Margy Malan suggests in the short video below?
“Keep moving from a place of failure or brokenness, to be able to find that something new.”
– Margy Malan
“It’s time to abandon your ‘perfect life’. It’s time to admit that we all fail – it’s universal. Yet we’ve been taught to think of failure as something shameful, something we should silently carry around with us.
Instead, we need to know that the failure story ends with some sort of resiliency – I’ve picked myself up, I’m still going. We need to own our failures, celebrate them, share them, and learn from them.
Failure makes us – but only if we accept it as part of life. It’s time that we start to love all the pieces of life’s journey, because it’s through the struggles that we discover our strengths.“
“Wisdom, then, is the art of balancing the known with the unknown, the suffering with the joy; it is a way of linking the whole of life together in a now and deeper unity.
John O’Donohue, Anam Cara
The landscape of aging into elderhood. Navigating the terrain is indeed an art. The artistry of finding ones unique way in an unknown never been there before choreographed dance of light and dark, sadness and joy, sickness and health, belonging and aloneness, sacred and mundane, acceptance and rejection…..living and death.
Each one of us walks a unique path. Yet we yearn to reach out to others, to feel that we too may be a wise elder built upon the experiences and knowing of our lives. Every culture has their own path towards elderhood. Some honor their elders and look to them for wisdom and guidance while other cultures ignore, reject and make invisible.
What would it be like to tell your story? Told in words, poetry, art, music or dance. To share it out into the world. Perhaps you are already doing so….or perhaps you don’t think you have anything to contribute.
Here is where I invite you into a circle of global elders to speak out through your offering. To contribute to the voices that will be passed down to other elders, and to generations to come, of crossing over the threshold into elderhood – your unique journey and destiny this lifetime .
A simple story, an experience that shifted you and woke you up, a poem that simply emerged one day, a challenge that you never saw coming, dance celebrating an aging body, a journey into the shadow, connection with nature, ceremony and ritual, relationship transitions and transformation, honoring the dying process, a moment filled with laughter and connection, wisdom or guidance you wish to share with those younger and/or other elders…..the possibilities are endless.
As many of you know I often use the short films from Green Renaissance and share them through blog posts. Here is one I shared in the past of one beautiful elder woman who is not reticent to share her grounded nature based wisdom. You can’t help but smile with her….
Wrinkles, lines, scars – there are many ways that time leaves its mark on our bodies. Yet mainstream culture dreads getting older – we are urged to fight the ageing process, and many feel pressure to lie about their age. But as Betty Friedan famously said: “Ageing is not ‘lost youth’ but a new stage of opportunity and strength.” With age can come confidence, and freedom to realize who we really are.
As we age, we grow into a deeper kind of beauty, one which works its way from the inside out. It’s a more authentic beauty because it radiates from within. So let’s celebrate lives well lived. And feel lucky to wake each morning to appreciate what the new day has to offer.
Filmed in McGregor, South Africa. Featuring Annie Norgarb.
This is where the Wildly Free Elder global community comes in.
Wildly Free Elder community birthed during the pandemic in June of 2020. A time when virtual connection was all we could manage. A time of great upheaval, fear, loneliness and death….and at the same time an open space for creatively connecting with each other any way we could.
It was the intention at that time to have a global community of elders, some spotlighted on the website, and others simply interested in communing with those who were at the same stage of their lives. Since that time we have lost some of our community to death and the original purpose has been left fallow for awhile as life presented challenges and periods where attention was taken towards the unique ups and downs of life.
Over the past two and a half years others writings, stories, poetry and art have been posted out into the wider community of elders. Now I hear the strong call to extend an open invitation to the wider global elder community, as well as those spotlighted on the site, to contribute their elder wisdom, challenges, stories, poetry, humor, and joys…. onto this web space.
“Wisdom is a deeper way of knowing. Wisdom is the art of living in rhythm with your soul, your life and the divine. “
John O’Donohue,
I learn from, and am richer for, the wisdom of others life path. Their fears and joys, their creativity and experiences of navigating this last stage of a human lifetime. There is much out there already including the sacred teachings of indigenous earth based humans and the ever present wise guidance of the natural world.
I say let’s add more by contributing to “Elder Voices” and see what emerges. Please submit stories, poetry, art or even short videos to be part of this collection. Others will benefit from your contributions!
Fill in the Contact Form below and let me know what you have to contribute. I will send you an email address to send your submission to if you don’t already have it. Thank You!! Gaye Abbott
WILDLY FREE ELDER 