Reclaiming elderhood

Lisbet,  Age 69
I’m thrilled to know about your blog!
I work in a part-time position as Development Director/Community Liaison for www.NeighborsWhoCare.net, a small nonprofit who cares for impoverished elders who still live at home but are isolated, lonely and often depressed. They have fallen through the cracks for social services. That’s how I came upon this blog.

Trained in opera, theatre and dance, I’m a performance artist, writer, teacher of sacred circle dance, practitioner of Zen Shiatsu and Heart Mind Integration Healing (ww.HMIHealing.com), Lover of Life.

Born to a family of wizards, my grandfather was an “American illustrator” who painted glorious canvasses for Saturday Evening Post, among others. My brother was a classical dancer. My dad a hardware salesman. My Mom, now 97 with early stage Alzheimer’s and a live-in caregiver, a Mom.

My son is a 27-year-old Indigo, becoming a Crystal. He has his own wisdom, but he is not yet an elder. I told him early on that he was from a family of wizards; that the muggles would not understand his passionate, outside-the-box nature. He graduates from college in 2 days. He’s jittery, excited, contemplative, wise.

It has long been my contention that we “older people” should be called “Elders,” as in “tribal” or “of the church,” people with experience, knowledge, wisdom, love and compassion to share. “If you call me elderly, I’ll take away your library card!” is my favorite line for making the point.

I feel we need to change the paradigm of eldership.
Stephen Jenkinson does too. He has written “Die Wise: A Manifesto for Sanity and Soul” for death-phobic North America. He runs his Orphan Wisdom School with his wife. They are Canadians.
(www.orphanwisdom.com/shop/die-wise/).

And I will be attending his upcoming 4-day workshop:
“OLD TIME: Learning Elderhood” ~ Rowe Camp & Conference Center
June 9 @ 6:00 pm – June 12 @ 12:00 pm
The Rowe Center, 22 Kings Hwy, Rowe, MA 01367 United States
“Getting older is inevitable. Getting to be an elder is not.”

It’s time we reclaimed elderhood!! Yes, I’m feeling aches and like the tin man, want some oil for my joints. Yes, I gained 8.4 pounds on a 10-day spiritual Ireland tour led by a magnificent spiritual elder who’s spry and was jumping over fences to lead us past cow pastures to sacred Druid sites.
Yes, I’m having the best physical pleasure I have ever had in my life.
Yes, yes, yes! I “flourish” and see the glass as half full. Oh yes, I am “living peace into being” as Thich Nhat Hanh, celebrity Vietnamese Buddhist monk who just suffered a brain aneurism exhorts us to do, through “engaged Buddhism.” We have so much to give and experience and live.

And as Barbara Marx Hubbard says, because of the planetary shift in 2012 we are evolving as a human race. I feel so very blessed to be alive at this moment in time!

Blessed be,
Lisbet

This entry was posted in 70candles, About turning 70, Family matters, Goals ahead, Gratitude and Spirituality, Looking ahead, Our bodies, our health, Resilience, Stories and tagged , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

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