Came across this interesting post about an interview with Ram Dass on growing older conducted after he had his stroke in 1997. Make sure you read the second half of Sara Davidson’s interview as well…!
Patience, Pace and Push
By Shae Hadden | Bio
Every day this past week, I’ve been exploring the question of “What can I do?” It’s been an interesting inquiry, with the answers varying each day, sometimes each hour, based on the state of my physical body. =&0=&My Father in His House of Logs
I was in a conversation the other day with some friends. It wasn’t long before we were bemoaning the ‘state of the world’. We moved from politics in Washington DC to global warming and the Middle East, then took on the environment, the media and the latest arrest of suspected terrorists in Spain. In a few minutes, we were feeling a bit of despair at the seemingly endless list of intractable problems, most of which are threatening our quality of life—if not the future of our entire species.
Overwhelming Choice
By Rick Fullerton | Bio
On reflection, I see several factors that contribute to this expanding range of interests:
- As a self-employed and seasoned professional, much of my time is unstructured
- The more I learn, the more I see connections and linkages with other areas
- Being encouraged to live ‘in the moment’ legitimizes attending to whatever is present
- I have earned the right to pursue “what interests me”, not what I should do
- Media and technology constantly remind me of new and important areas to explore
- The clock is ticking.
So
for me (as for others), life occurs as this continuing stream of
experiences where we respond to what shows up for us and what interests
us moment to moment within the structures we find ourselves. The
challenge, it seems, is to gain a different perspective and
relationship with what’s happening.
To complicate things
further, along with the barrage of information and options
Mirrors
I was having a conversation today with the Board of a not-for-profit organization and one of the participants noted that they “needed to have more younger people” on the Board. I asked “Why?” Her response was that she was at an age (which I judged to be around 60) when she had a lot of commitments, she needed to keep earning money and just didn’t have as much time and energy to give. She went on to say that younger people had more time, less need for money, and lots more energy
The Joy of Pain
By Shae Hadden | Bio
It might be said that existence isn’t possible without both pleasant and unpleasant experiences—without pain and pleasure. They are like a guidance system, helping us navigate through life and orienting us away from illness and danger and death.We have pleasant, positive
emotional states like love, joy, sympathy, affection, self-confidence,
happiness. And we have unpleasant emotions like boredom, loneliness,
jealousy, fear and sadness.
I’ve been relating to the physical
pain I’m experiencing since my car accident as a source of learning.
I’m actually living ‘in joy’ with it —you might say ‘enjoying’ the fact
of being alive and being in pain. Many people I share this with seem
surprised,
The Four Horsemen
I was playing a trivia game and had to answer what the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are. I got three out of four, but had to go to go to Wikipedia to get them all — War, Famine, Conquest and Death. These traditional Biblical symbols mark the ‘end of time’, when all things are put right and presumably all karma is erased and this journey will be complete. In researching each of them, I learned that ‘conquest’ is best translated in today’s language as ‘corruption’. The ancient
Saving the Best for Last
By Don Arnoudse | Bio
In his wonderful book From Age-ing to Sage-ing, Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi notes that the Bible is lavish in its praise of elders. ”It considers gray hair a crown of glory and wrinkles a mark of distinction.” This really got me thinking. What if we regarded the last part of our life—let’s just say the years after our hair goes gray—to be the “crowning glory of our years”? Wow! What would be possible from that perspective?On my 50th birthday, I
received cards, intended to be funny, about how I was now a member of
the “over the hill gang”. At 50! This year I will be 60. What if I
picture myself at the top of the hill—with the full intention of
staying up there for a good long time? What would be possible?
If our gray-haired years were truly our “crowning glory”, we would:
- Be thrilled at finally being old
- Continue to be curious (but with great calm)
- Be free from striving and trying to prove ourselves
- Take the time for deep reflection and contemplation
- Be busy distilling wisdom from a lifetime of experience
- Generously offer our legacy to younger generations
- Be grateful for this stage of life
- Make our peace with our mortality
- Be quick to forgive and slow to blame
- Often take the perspective of the “greater good”
- Value a good dialogue without concern for who’s right
- Leave the world a better place than we found it
My
mind is brimming with possibilities. The crowning glory of my years.
Not the fading remembrance of
Surrender
If I could give one gift to my children, I think it would be “acceptance”. It isn’t too hard to understand intellectually that we should simply accept life on life’s terms and not try to control what we can’t really control. Yet, it’s a hard lesson to learn. I think not accepting may be the source of most, if not all, suffering. When we live with the view that reality ‘should be’ other than it is, we are living in a dream (at best) and a state of self-deception and denial (at worst).
At the End of the Day
The Christmas season is behind us and everyone is heading back to work. For many (including the self-employed), this has been a two or three-week holiday from before Christmas until the Monday following New Year’s Day. It isn’t always easy to get refocused and get back into gear. Nonetheless, inspired with new (or old) resolutions, I join the millions who are now focusing on what lies ahead.
I predict that 2008 will be the Year of the Optimist. I don’t know why. Not much has changed in the