Creak, crack, groan. These are the sounds my aging body makes while following Adriene, a bendy young woman who provides free online yoga classes that get me through my day with less back pain and tinman-like stiffness. And don’t even get me started about the constant need to pee!
I turned 65 in April and, while in my soul I’m 29, my creaky body tells me otherwise. My 86-year-old mom says “Oh you don’t know anything about it! Wait until you’re my age!” A common refrain. Janey Talbot, a certified sage-ing leader and hospice volunteer, told me, “You proudly own your age, you’re willing to publish it in a newspaper, admitting all the creaks aging brings!” I am certainly blessed with good genes (thanks mom!) and physical health that, despite some past unwise choices, doesn’t cause me too much trouble (yet!). And I’m inspired by older adults I know, including mom who golfs, attends aquafit classes, and goes on long walks.
Janey, certified by Sage-ing International, provides guidance that focuses on “aging consciously through life’s transitions and challenges in a community with like-minded older adults.” She will lead a seven-week program “Ageing to Sage-ing: Conversations about Ageing” at the Sechelt Activity Center on Fridays, 9:30 to 11:30 a.m., from Oct. 13 to Nov. 24. The program will include conversations about “harvesting wisdom, mortality, forgiveness, and legacy. Five of 12 seats remain ($95 payable by e-transfer to [email protected]).
A former participant confided to Janey, “I think about aging all the time but have never had the opportunity to talk about it in a safe environment.” Janey believes that “when we have the opportunity for these conversations, it makes a big difference. One of the thoughts that causes fear of is that we tend to collapse aging and death. Now, more than ever, if we are fortunate, we have an extended life, with reasonable health and mobility. Often the active dying stage is only a small portion of our life. When we separate the two, we realize we have the gift of time. So how do we make use of it?”
In her book The Gift of Years, Sister Joan Chittister writes: “The number of our years does not define us. There is a life force that never dies, that proves to us that age does not fossilize us. Down deep, where our souls live, we stay forever young. It is this driving force that brings us to the bar of life every day, whatever our age, however much we have been through, prepared to live life to the hilt again.” Put another way by Hunter S. Thompson, “Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming ‘Wow! What a ride!”
Let us all embrace that ride!
