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Dear Friends committed to living and aging consciously. We send you this newsletter during the season of stunning natural beauty when the earth reminds us of the harvests and endings that perpetuate life all around and within us. Here in Northern Colorado where we now live, our local river, the Cache la Poudre, has made a remarkable recovery from massive fires a year ago and resultant mudslides this Summer -- a powerful reminder of the healing and wholeness that the natural order supports within us and on our living planet. May we remember that we have critical roles to play in supporting a threatened natural order, and that growing into a compassionate, caring elderhood is how we can best play those roles.
The purpose of this newsletter, and of the Center for Conscious Eldering, is to support you in growing into the conscious elderhood that is your birthright, but which requires your willingness to accept it as both gift and responsibility. Our lead article, by Ron Pevny, speaks to those choices before us which support and those which preclude this growth. In an article written for this newsletter, conscious aging pioneer Rick Moody speaks to the harm we impose on ourselves by living a version of 'Positive Aging" that ignores or denies the losses that inevitably accompany aging and asks us to let our elder light shine by finding a purpose that our losses need not extinguish. Teacher/healer/artist Wendy Dudley writes of the importance of "Being a Mountain", committed to doing our best to be strong and centered in the deep knowing of our elder souls, as the ground from which we give our unique gifts to a world in need. Our final article is the 2021 Message for Humanity in these times of deep crisis, from Hopi Leader White Eagle
We present poetry to touch your heart and stir your intuition. You will find information about our conscious eldering retreats and workshops as we look forward to post-pandemic life. We also present information about three books we highly recommend as resources for your conscious eldering, as well as two organizations we are proud to have as partners in the work of supporting the development of true Elders. We include information about the inspiring upcoming virtual conference presented by one of them, Sage-ing International.
There's a lot in this newsletter. Take time to savor it, ideally in several sessions. May you thrive this Autumn!
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AGING AND UNFOLDING
by Ron Pevny
If you are reading these words, you likely are a person for whom the fulfillment of your potential in your later life chapters is a priority. You are someone who feels in your heart that your aging can be a journey of ripening—of reaching the pinnacle of your lifelong quest for emotional and spiritual growth—and grounded in that growth, finding the fulfillment that comes from serving the human and earth community as an elder.
You are well aware—painfully aware—that the mainstream culture in which your life is imbedded does not share this vision of the rich possibilities of elderhood. The cultural understanding of the critical value of true elders has largely been lost in most contemporary societies. This has left the vast numbers of us in our 60s, 70s, 80s and older without life-affirming paradigms to inspire, guide and motivate us to do the inner work of bringing forth those personal qualities that naturally seek to emerge as we transition inwardly from mid-life adulthood into that stage in our life’s journey of growth called elderhood.
Beyond the realities of ageism in the work world and the many demeaning stereotypes of older adults, an equally disempowering paradigm tells us that our aging should be a time when our priorities shift from our growth and our contribution of our talents and skills to the community, to having our primary motivations be our pleasure and security. This latter paradigm is rooted in the reality that emotional and spiritual growth throughout the human lifespan, including the elder years, are not understood, valued, fostered, taught and modeled by the societies we live in and are shaped by.
Yet, positive change is afoot. Ageism is increasingly being seen as a blight on society and an assault on the human spirit. Positive Aging, Active Aging, Healthy Aging, Successful Aging and various other models are helping to empower older adults to claim their potential to passionately engage with life. Retirement is a concept that is in the process of being re-imagined. More and more frequently we hear words like “Re-firement” being used to affirm the potential for creativity, engagement and service after so called retirement age. The millions of baby boomers turning 65 each day around the world are beginning to see many things they can be doing and lifestyle choices they can be making that could not even be imagined by our parents.
We celebrate these positive models. However, they are inadequate by themselves and can even be disempowering if they blind us to recognition of the energies, growth, motivations, wisdom and service that characterize the Elder within each of us that seeks to emerge as we age. These models largely focus on “what we can do” as we age. Conscious Eldering focuses on the Elder you can be as you engage with life in your later chapters; on the personal inner work that can bring your passion alive, open your heart and mind, and strengthen your connection to Spirit and Soul; on the inner sources you draw upon as you make choices about how you can best be of service to the community; and on ways to help foster your resilience as you face the inevitable losses and griefs that are part of—but only part of—the incredible journey toward the fullness of elderhood.
Many of you reading this are just beginning your transition into elderhood. Others have consciously (or perhaps not so consciously) already begun to manifest the qualities of elderhood. Elderhood is a stage of growth that some people achieve as they age, and is not equated with one’s activity level or state of health. Growth is an ongoing process, and we all have the potential to grow until the day we pass from this life. You may already have developed various of the qualities of true elderhood, but true elders are always growing, knowing that elderhood is a commitment to, and process of, continual unfolding in whatever circumstances life presents us.
The longer lifespans and health advances that make these times unique in human history support this unfolding; support from kindred spirits (friends, teachers, models of aging consciously) who are committed to this vision is absolutely necessary support for this unfolding; the reality of our mortality and its attendant losses also supports this unfolding if we allow ourselves to let go of denial of these realities. A deep commitment to waking with our priority each day being to somehow grow and serve is essential for bringing forth the Elder within.
Striving to hold on to the identities of previous life stages without allowing ourselves to gradually grow into elderhood precludes this unfolding. Buying into the societal belief that the best we can hope for as we age is maximizing activity, pleasure and security precludes this unfolding. Allowing ourselves to live out of habit rather than intentionality
leaves little room for us to perceive and support this unfolding.
Many people reminded me, after reading the many diverse responses to my article in the last issue of this newsletter in which I wondered whether our work is indeed catalyzing a paradigm shift, that we cannot know at this point. I know that cultural tipping points cannot be predicted, but are built up-to and then happen seemingly overnight. The one common message in these responses was that our work and that of kindred other organizations, teachers and mentors, is vitally important to many people who are committed to the ongoing, challenging work of creating a lifestyle that will slowly but surely bring forth those Elder qualities that are their birthright.
Are you one of those people? If so, we look forward to continuing to offer you our support.
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SAYING ‘YES’ TO LATER LIFE
By Harry (Rick) Moody
How long do we have to wait to become old? How long to see things as they really are? When Guatama Siddhartha, who was to become the Buddha, left the protection of his parents’ castle, he found himself on the road. On his journey he discovered three sights that shocked him: a sickened person, someone who was old, and a corpse. Sickness, aging and death were the shocks that impelled the Buddha to seek “something more.” He found it and people have followed that path ever since.
But if old age is a shock, then how can we speak of “positive aging?” I see more and more that the refusal to acknowledge the inevitable losses and diminishments leads to disappointment and eventually denial, even if unrecognized. Ageism is in all of us, and so is denial which fuels it. A prime example of such denial is so-called anti-aging medicine, which promises false hope for avoiding the shock that Buddha and all of us must encounter. A story about positive aging that does not prepare us to face inevitable losses easily becomes a “the power of positive thinking,” which is a recurrent American temptation.
But is there true hope, founded on reality? Viktor Frankl thought so, and he discovered it, not on the road but in a Nazi concentration camp. Frankl learned that, faced with devastating reality, denial and false hope were not an option. But it was, and it is, possible to say “yes” even in circumstances the limit our lives, as we all must discover in later life. He wrote about this in his book, Man’s Search for Meaning, a gift across the generations. He describes those who managed to say “yes” to life:
“We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms -- to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way. I have seen a sweatshirt that has the message: I thought growing old would take longer. As this sweatshirt says, growing old can come as a surprise—even to gerontologists. Have you noticed that doctors get sick, funeral directors die, and gerontologists grow old? Surprise is always the partner of denial, and none of us is exempt from the temptation for denial as well as from the reality of age.
Many have read Rowe and Kahn’s great book, Successful Aging. But, whether they admire it or reject it, they often miss the definition of “successful aging” given concisely in that book: “decrement with compensation.” Just three words. That’s all. Did you get the message? Decrement will come to virtually all of us. But how hard it is to find the compensation without denying the losses. That is the work of Positive or Conscious Aging.
Lars Tornstam, who I met but did not know well, described this path as gero-transcendence. A mouthful of a word, but what it means is stated well by Carol Orsborn in her new book, The Making of an Old Soul. It is both the hunger for, and the encounter with, “something more” than our roles and our egos—that something more which Orsborn discovered in what she calls “the great reveal.” And what is it that will be revealed? We will all have different names for it, because each of us follows a different path. And the path of human development becomes more and more individual in later life, which means that it becomes harder to speak of these things and generally impossible to give advice.
Connie Zweig, a long-experienced Jungian therapist, writes about this task in her new book The Inner Work of Age, where she defines it as a “shift from role to soul.” I’ve called Connie “The Queen of Shadow” because she is willing to look where few others have wanted to look, into the Shadow. Why look where there’s no light? Because for our society, aging itself remains forever in the Shadow, just as it was in Buddha’s time. If we don’t look, we won’t see.
So let us celebrate positive aging. Let us care for our health, let us help others around us, for as the Sufis say: “Those who God wishes to bless, God puts in their hands the means of helping others.” But even as we summon our strength and help those around us, let us also recognize that strength does not endure and that helping is often beyond our power. Seeing is believing, and I have seen a few of those who followed the path of conscious aging. They have inspired me. I saw Viktor Frankl only once, at a conference, where he stood up on stage before a crowd, a frail little old man. But when he rose up to speak, the world was lit up.
Can we, too, light up the world?
Harry (Rick) Moody teaches in the Creative Longevity and Wisdom Program
of Fielding Graduate University. He edits the "Human Values in Aging" newsletter.
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BE A MOUNTAIN
By Wendy Dudley
"I Am Mountain. I Am Ocean. I Am Sky. I am Sun. I am Moon. I am Pachamama, Mother Earth.” Standing at the Highwood Pass in the northern stretch of the Rocky Mountain Cordillera in Alberta, Canada, I spread my wings, declaring who I Am, and also who I am Becoming. This is a grounding exercise, a way to root my soul in the soil. Having recently suffered a family loss, I am vulnerable, and so seek the stability of the mountain.
This Misty Mountain range keeps me centered, the position of an Elder.
We stand in our space, hold our ground, and let world events swirl around us, for we have weathered many storms. Let the winds of change blow, let the wild rivers flow. We have lived through many challenges, we have witnessed many losses, we are aware of the bigger picture of where humanity fits into the history of the planet. There is so much more than just Us. Let such wisdom not fade from civic culture.
I believe it is from this position that we listen, support and guide those who are having difficulty navigating testy waters. Humanity is in transition, and we all know someone who is struggling to find her or his way, while trying to dodge the dark rabbit holes.
As Elders, our life experiences and compassion have given us the wisdom to stay centered, to not drift into divisive polarities. As a retired newspaper reporter, I know there are more than two sides to a story; often there are dozens. So many opinions, so many perspectives. No one position is absolute.
Coming from a place of compassion, we take the time to understand the stories behind multiple points of view. We model acceptance, equanimity and calmness. Wisdom is not intelligence, expertise or moral superiority. Elders know better than to focus on being Right, at the sacrifice of building Relationship.
And we, perhaps more so than many generations, should be grateful. Today, I am full of Gratitude, for having survived this long. For being able to say I have fewer years ahead of me than behind me. I am grateful for these wild mountains and rivers, for family, for friends, for my purpose. But I am especially grateful for the time in which I have lived.
Our generation slipped in between the Second World War and the ongoing pandemic that has no end in sight.
I think of our parents who toughed out the Depression era, who experienced the despair of a World War that lasted six years, who endured food rationing, and who in later years found themselves confused by a fast-paced generation that spoke in technological terms they could barely understand.
And so today, I stand in the mountains, giving gratitude that the greater portion of my life has been without life-threatening hardship. Most of us had it pretty good, when it comes to avoiding global crises. We’ve had a good kick at the can.
I think of the young ones, looking ahead, whose beginning years are now rooted in Fear, something we know will affect them for years to come, and take years to heal.
Unlike us, they have most of their lifetime ahead of them.
Will the Peace that we marched for in the ‘60s ever be found, in a world that presently seems to be more divided than ever, a world racked with cruelty, angst, anger, frustration and fatal overdoses? I offer this sentiment by the late theologist and physician, Albert Schweitzer: “Constant kindness can accomplish much. As the sun makes the ice melt, kindness causes misunderstanding, mistrust, and hostility to evaporate.”
This is not to say that we too do not feel the intensity of these current times, from political turmoil to concern about the state of the planet. We may not always remain calm, but we do know emotional balance. We make the journey from Head to Heart, where we find inner peace, contentment, and compassion. We act wisely, because we do no good if we too fall off the rails. To take on anger and hate is to give power to those emotions. Humanity desperately needs healing. If we do not mend our divides, we will dwell forever in tribalism. And healing cannot take place when each side is trying to out-shout the other. Why feed divisiveness, when we can still be activists or pacifists without being pulled off-center.
If we succumb to the push-and-pull dynamics between polarities, we risk our mental, physical and spiritual health. And how well can we serve if we are not well? Is our purpose not to show compassion and a will to help others? So we ask: “How best can I serve, and in turn, what serves me well?”
To cite the Serenity Prayer: Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.”
Find what works for you, as only you know what makes you feel good, what helps you feel centered, and who makes you smile. Work and play within your circle to maintain your social health and sense of community and belonging. As elders, we know there are no problems, only solutions. Walk and talk with Presence.
We all know wise ones who say little, but whose chosen words say so much.
Their confidence is palpable, their posture one of confidence. They know who they are. They know why they came here. They know life. They stand as Mountains.
Wendy Dudley is an eco-spiritist, visual artist and writer, shamanic practitioner and spiritual healer. Her website is www.wendydudleyart.com. She can be reached at dudleyart1@gmail.com
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Hopi Leader White Eagle’s 2021
Message for Humanity
This moment humanity is experiencing now can be considered a door or a hole. The decision to fall into the hole or walk through the door belongs to you. If you consume information 24 hours a day, with negative energy, constantly nervous, with pessimism, you will fall into this hole.
But if you take this opportunity to look at yourself, to rethink life and death, to take care of yourself and others, then you will go through the portal. Take care of your home, take care of your body. Connect with your spiritual home. When you take care of yourself, you take care of everyone at the same time.
Do not underestimate the spiritual dimension of this crisis. Take perspective of an eagle who sees everything from above with a wider view. There is a social demand in this crisis, but also a spiritual demand. Both go hand in hand.
Without the social dimension, we fall into fanaticism. Without the spiritual dimension, we fall into pessimism and futility.
You are ready to go through this crisis. Grab your toolbox and use all the tools available. Learn resistance (to falling into the hole) from the example of Indian and African peoples: we have been and are still being exterminated. But we never stopped singing, dancing, lighting a fire and having joy.
Don't feel guilty for feeling lucky during these difficult times. Being sad or angry does not help at all. Resistance is resistance through joy. You have every right to be strong and positive. And there's no other way to do this but to maintain a beautiful, joyful and bright posture.This has nothing to do with alienation (ignorance of the world). This is a resistance strategy.
When we walk through the door, we have a new world view because we faced our fears and hardships. That's all you can do now:
- Serenity in the storm
- Keep calm, pray daily
- Make the habit of meeting the sacred everyday.
Show resistance through art, joy, trust and love.
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More Love, More Love
by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer
If sorrow is how we learn to love,
then let us learn.
Already enough sorrow’s been sown
for whole continents to erupt
into astonishing tenderness.
Let us learn. Let compassion grow rampant,
like sunflowers along the highway.
Let each act of kindness replant itself
into acres and acres of widespread devotion.
Let us choose love as if our lives depend on it.
The sorrow is great. Let us learn to love greater—
riotous love, expansive love,
love so rooted, so common
we almost forget
the world could look any other way.
Praise for the Older Woman
By Mary Costanza
She is powerful beyond measure; she has an essence about her that screams strength, wisdom and knowledge. She is a role model, she has many stories to tell. She shines where she stands. She is outrageous, she is wild, but most importantly she is free of the demands that society puts on her.
She is confident; she believes in herself, she lives her life by her own set of rules. She finally becomes comfortable and settles into her life, she gets this time to experience things that she felt that she never could before because now the rules have changed. Her life is written on the lines on her face, the grey in her hair, and the age on her hands, and the shape of her body changes but it doesn't mean that it cannot be loved.
Why do we not look up to these women? We can learn from them and be inspired by them, and understand that age only strengthens beauty. It’s time to praise these women for what they have been through; they have survived life, for they are the brightest shining lights leaving their mark, with grace, charm and elegance. So here’s to the older woman, may she continue to shine.
Receiver of Doubt
by Bob Calhoun
(written during Choosing Conscious Elderhood
at Ghost Ranch, N.M in 2014)
Spirit of the East,
For the transforming power
Of your presence,
I am forever thankful.
I entrust in you,
The doubts that block
My Eldering journey.
Into your care,
They are lifted by gusts
Of evening wind,
Beyond the towering red walls.
I now embrace my truth,
And doubt myself no more:
Free to live and walk
The Elder journey.
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Trail Sign
by Geneen Marie Haugen
Just around the bend,
pastthe bog if you’re not sucked in
turn into the darkest tangle.
Keep going.
But beware.
If you’re seeking safety:
Turn around.
You’ve come the wrong way.
If you dare this crooked path
prepare for landslides, lightning,
ravenous beasts, sneaker waves,
raven disguised as people,
people disguised as raven,
soulweavers, dreamlisteners,
ceremonies from the holy Earth,
stars landing in your cupped hands,
and the most amazing views.
When the trail disappears,
as it does — often — remember
our teacher who said:
you make the trail by walking.
Beyond this sign
your customary currency
has no value:
Here, no one wants it.
Are you sure this is the way?
You can still turn back.
Farther down this tangled trail
love will crack the guardhouse
of your heart until you wail
with Earth’s pain — or weep
with the ecstasy of angels.
In the least presence you will find
unspeakable cosmic glory.
In the night sky you will
recognize ancestors.
The dead will come in dreams.
The living are everywhere,
wearing the faces of clouds,
water, sequoia, granite.
If you want searing aliveness
there is no safe route.
There is no safety.
You don’t believe it.
See for yourself.
Just around the bend, past
the bog if you’re not sucked in
turn into the darkest tangle.
Follow the barely heard call.
Sometimes it will seem
the singer is beside you —
or ahead — or behind
— or inside.
Keep going.
Sorrow Prepares You For Joy
By Rumi
Sorrow prepares you for joy.
It violently sweeps everything out of your house
So that new joy can find space to enter.
It shakes the yellow leaves from the bough of your heart
So that fresh green leaves can grow in their place.
It pulls up the rotten roots,
So that new roots hidden beneath have room to grow.
Whatever sorrow shakes from your heart,
Far better things will take their place.
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Upcoming Conscious Eldering Programs
Our Fall Choosing Conscious Elderhood and Next Step retreats were fully enrolled (with many people on the wait lists) and participants and facilitators alike were so very eager to join together in person on sacred land, to share stories of the difficult journey of the past 18 months and to explore the possibilities and challenges of aging consciously in the crisis-and-possibility-filled world that lies before us. After many months of people seeing each other on screens, we were all yearning to touch each other, sit in circle on the land sharing with each other, create sacred space around group-created altars with each other, and share energy with each other in ways that are only possible when we are together physically. And then....
As breakthrough Delta Variant cases were exploding across the country (including in the Pevny family) we made the difficult, painful decision to postpone these retreats until next Spring. We did this for the well being of participants and leaders and for the integrity of these retreats which rely on focused, undistracted energy for their power. We were imagining the impact on this energy field if anyone in the group became ill, and decided this risk of proceeding was too great.
So, as we look forward to next Spring's retreats, Ron Pevny and Katia Petersen will focus on writing their unique "The Art of Conscious Eldering: a Yearlong Growthbook for Aging with Passion and Purpose", which we feel needs a more creative, compelling, catchy title. We know an author whose excellent book in the conscious aging field was rejected by publishers until she came up with a title they felt was compelling. We would love to receive suggestions from you.
In 2022, pandemic conditions permitting, our schedule of retreats and workshops will include two Choosing Conscious Ekderhood retreats, our new Aiming High retreat focused on Purpose and Intentionality, and some online offerings. We would love to again present weekend conscious eldering workshops, but probably will do so only if invited by an organization that will handle promotion and registrations. Completing this new book precludes spending lots of time on logistics and promotion beyond that required for our longer retreats.
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 for in-person retreats, 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.
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Choosing Conscious Elderhood
Ghost Ranch, New Mexico
May 1-7, 2022
This retreat is nearly full with participants from the postponed Fall retreat. If you are interested, pease contact us soon.
September 25 - October 1, 2022
Next Step
for graduates of a Choosing Conscious Elderhood retreat
April 10-15, 2022
Hope Springs Retreat Center, Ohio
This retreat is also nearly full. If you are interested and have participated in Choosing Conscious Elderhood, let us know soon.
Aiming High
Cultivating Purpose and Intentionality in Life's Later Chapters
Fall, 2022
Location and dates not yet confirmed
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 Information about our 2022 programs will be on our website in late Fall.
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I feel so very grateful that in the past several years many excellent, inspiring books have been written to show the vast numbers of people nearing and beyond “retirement age” the rich possibilities that can await them while also acknowledging the many challenges of life’s elder chapters. I see Connie’s new book as a meaningful new resource that is unique in this genre in some important ways. Primary among these is her wisdom about the human shadow and the shadow work” she has developed over many years as a therapist and writer. In addition to compellingly describing the fulfillment and growth that can result when we choose to “Shift from Role to Soul” and presenting many powerful practices to help us do so, she focuses heavily on those internal “shadow” dynamics that stand in the way of our doing so. Strong among these shadow energies are attitudes, beliefs, behaviors, wounds and stories we tell ourselves that leave us feeling disempowered, irrelevant, unworthy, regretful and depressed about our aging. Age discrimination is as much an internalized phenomenon as a social reality. This book offers powerful, practical wisdom for transforming these shadow energies into the energies that can empower a conscious, soul-sourced elderhood, and weaves in with this inspiring stories of people who have undergone such transformations. Another uniqueness of Connie’s book is its skillful inclusion of sections of many interviews she conducted with prominent guides to the inner realms of psyche and soul.
Ron Pevny
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"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.
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Nan Narboe's 56 thoughtfully selected essays offer an intimate and lyrical account of aging through the decades. Authors Judy Blume, Andrew McCarthy, Gloria Steinem, Donald Hall, David Shields, Ursula K. Le Guin and others draw from their own experiences, describing a specific decade's losses and gains to form a complex and unflinching portrait of the years from nearing fifty to ninety and beyond. In six sections, these detail-rich essays paint an accessible picture of nearing 50, the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, the 90s and beyond with equal parts humor and insight.
Drawing on seven decades worth of experiences, the selected essays offer a clear-eyed composition of narratives, each narrative as important as the one before it. In Paul Casey's "Katie Couric Is No Friend of Mine," a colonoscopy, not a red convertible, marks his initiation into mid-life. Germaine Koh, in "Thoughts on Aging," is the oldest player in her roller derby league, confounded by her changing body. Ursula K. Le Guin's "Dogs, Cats, and Dancers: Thoughts about Beauty" meditates on human self-consciousness--it is aging humans who find their bodies surprising. And in "Death," Donald Hall rejects euphemisms: he's not going to "pass away;" he's going to die.
I have just become aware of this book and am eager to read it in the coming weeks. iI was featured in Sage-ing International's online book discussion group last Spring.
Ron Pevny
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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
To learn about EAN and its initiatives and programs, visit www.eldersaction.org
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Another of our partner organizations is Sage-ing International, the pioneering organization in promoting the principles of conscious aging, or "Sage-ing". Their work 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.
Sage-ing International is excited to announce their International Online Summit which will be presented October 29-31, 2021. The Summit's theme will be "Evolving Elders: Shifting from"I" to "We". It will feature several excellent keynote speakers as well as a variety of engaging online workshops, all centered around the theme of recognizing that our well being and fulfillment in our elderhood, as well as at any age, depends upon the well being of all humans and the earth community of which we are members.
To learn about Sage-ing International and their greatly expanded offerings of online workshops and seminars, Elder Wisdom Circles, and their training program for Certified Sage-ing Leaders, visit www.sage-ing.org. To learn more about their upcoming Online Summit and to register, click here: Learn more and register. You can benefit the Center for Conscious Eldering if you place Ron10 in the block that asks for a Promo Code.
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Ron Pevny, Founder and Director
970-223-0857
3707 Coronado , Fort Collins, Colorado 80526
ron@centerforconsciouseldering.com
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Ultimately, we have just one moral duty: to reclaim large areas of peace in
ourselves, more and more peace, and to reflect it towards others. And the
more peace there is in us, the more peace there will be in our troubled world.
Esther Hillesum (a young Jewish writer who died in the Holocaust)
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