FootprintsintheWind.com

The New Elder

:- Doug.

Look in on the aging, you see loss
Look out as an elder, you see growth

:- Doug.

Take what you wrote, go deeper.

:- Doug.

The invitation is our initiation
into ourselves
into intimacy

:- Doug.

The losses of life are organic, the gains meta-organic.

:- Doug.

Perhaps a good term would be geroescence.

:- Doug.

Early, we are human becomings
Eventually, we are human beings

:- Doug.

The circle in which we feel at home widens as we age: a womb, a crib, a room, a house, a neighborhood…perhaps a religion, a membership organization, the universe.

:- Doug.

Aging is when light comes to your head.

:- Doug.

Aging takes everything from us
Eldering asks everything from us

:- Doug.

Life softens. For years we think we win at life by hardening. Then comes our untying.

:- Doug.

I am studying how to walk into deeper waters.

:- Doug.

Footprints in the Wind^sm # 1731

I have taken just the right amount of time reading, conversing, and meditating this morning, leaving just the right amount of now for the others I need to meet.

Please pass it on.

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Elderescence is a process, not destination, an inception, not end.

:- Doug.

Are you gonna be broken down
or broken up?

:- Doug.

Issues and Opportunities could become Adventures and Uncertainties.

:- Doug.

When was the last time you played with a grandparent?

:- Doug.

Be open wide when you call the elders; call them to open.

:- Doug.

Intimacy with the generations: elders approach.

:- Doug.

Reach in and grab this desire to thin oneself and hook others, hook those who come after, human or otherwise.

:- Doug.

Concentrate on the others, relieving suffering. Engage openly. Be engaged outside yourself, ask nothing for yourself.

:- Doug.

Drill down. Take them deeper. Ask them to take us deeper.

:- Doug.

On losing memory: it can be a good thing when it would have kept you stuck in misery (If only I hadn’t gotten sick), or when it would have consigned you to relive bad times, or when it would have hidden from you today and here.

:- Doug.