The Artistry of Aging
“It happened in a state of complete surrender as my body fell backwards without any fear into the waiting arms of another behind me. Awakening from this dream of last night I was immediately immersed in memories of the many years I spent in the free form dance (ecstatic dance/contact improv/partner dance improv) communities of wherever I happened to be living.”
“Watching the sunrise with orange tinting the sky over the Blue Ridge Mountains from my bedroom window, where I sit warm beneath a comforter, I realize that sunrises are more significant than they used to be. More beautiful and precious. The sound of geese flying overhead now contribute their presence. I smile.”
“For most of us there have been – and will be – challenges in our lives that simply take away our ability to see and embrace beauty in any given moment….and to be unerringly grateful for it. We may lose our way for a time.
These moments of perceived beauty can be a potential light in the darkness we find ourselves in….”
“Adversity and the exquisite vulnerability of being human is a reminder to extend compassion and kindness. To return to a conscious relationship with a natural world that gives us life. To participate fully in our lives even within the inevitable challenges.”
“Mindfulness in the breadth of its practice could be one of the most important tools we have for the art of being peace in a chaotic world. Attention to the present moment as a way of life – attentive living – shows us our own ungrounded perceptions and old patterns of being that harm self and others. Then there is the opportunity to change them.”
“Reclaiming our sense of wonder in the everyday, ordinary moments of life” is something that often happens to us as we reach elderhood. Capturing that sense of awe that was a given for many of us when we were a child is now our precious gift in the latter years of life.
“”You do not belong to you. You belong to the universe. The significance of you will remain forever obscure to you, but you may assume you are fulfilling your significance if you apply yourself to converting all your experience to the highest advantage of others.”Buckminister Fuller
“Throughout most of my life the elders in my village were honored and respected. Without them the community would not have substance or grounding. Vision or wisdom. Rites of passage for the young, or awareness of the life beyond this one.
We were the chosen ones….”
“Crossing over a threshold from one stage of life, or even in one single moment, can be disorienting. It may be a subtle transition over time or a sudden wake up call that you are now in Emerald City, like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, and nothing is really the same.
Once you decide to avoid your comfort zones and take off into unknown territory the next story of your life begins….”