 By Shae Hadden | Bio
Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat Pray Love
contains an interesting perspective on aging. For the Balinese, it is
more important what day of the week you were born on than the year you
were born in. One of the characters, a Balinese medicine man named
Ketut, knows only that his birthday is on Thursday and that he was an
adult in WWII. His estimates of his age vary daily, depending on how
tired or upbeat he's feeling. Imagine what life might be like if you didn't know what year you were born in.... [ Read More]
Written by admin at Fearless Aging
Tagged with:
age
 By Jim Selman | Bio
One
of the central tenets of my work is that everything happens in a
context of relationship—a shared background of concerns, commitments
and practices—what I call a background of relatedness. We may make
commitments as individuals, but we always fulfill them in networks of
relationships with other people. The other day I was asking,
“What does it mean for an economy to collapse?” What is the worst-case
scenario of the current ‘meltdown’ and ‘freezing of credit’?
(Interesting that these two most frequently used metaphors, extremes of
‘hot’ and ‘cold’ are referring to the same thing and both are ‘state’
changes.) My conclusion is that...[ Read More]
Written by admin at Wisdom in Action
Tagged with:
economy
elders
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privatization
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trust
By Shae Hadden | Bio
Several years ago, a wise 93-year-old man
named Hayden shared with me his principles for living life “at the
growing edge”. He had printed them on cards, in the shape of a
bookmark, and distributed them to everyone who engaged in meaningful
conversation with him. Today, as I’m recovering from the first major
surgery I’ve ever had, I was drawn to reflect on a couple of them
again. I’m sure he wouldn’t mind if I shared them with you now:[ Read More]
Written by admin at Fearless Aging
Tagged with:
choice
compassion
growing
health
letting_go
responsibility
The Gerontological Society of America will be holding its 61st annual
scientific meeting in National Harbor, MD from November 21st to 25th.
The theme this year is " Resilience in an Aging Society: Risks and Opportunities". Research presented at last year's meeting led to articles published in the NY Times on Walking Faster to Outpace Death, in US News & World on how Jobs Don't Stress Most Older Workers, and the Washington Post on Farming, Fatherhood Hallmarks of Men who Live to 100.
This year's meeting will close with a congressional briefing on civic
engagement with policy makers, civic engagement experts, advocates and
volunteers. With both presidential candidates supporting expanded
federal commitment to support volunteer service, Congress will be
looking to move forward legislation in this area early in the 111th
Congress.[ Read More]
Written by admin at News
Tagged with:
aging
civic_engagement
By Jim Selman | Bio
You hear about it and know it is true—the
body breaks down as we grow older. Naturally there are lots of
exceptions. If you take really good care of yourself, you might make it
to the end of the game without any major physical impairment. However,
for most of us we’re going to encounter some life-limiting change in
our bodies. I encountered my first this week.[ Read More]
Written by admin at Health
Tagged with:
breakdown
denial
growing_older
physical
The Second Annual Positive Aging Conference
will be taking place November 12, 2008 in Minneapolis. The conference
intends to promote a national conversation around positive aging, and
will share important tools and resources for exploring purpose,
vitality and meaning in the second half of life. This day-long event,
featuring world-renowned experts and authors including Richard Bolles ( What Color is Your Parachute for Retirement?), Richard Leider ( Something to Live For), Dan Buettner ( The Blue Zone), AARP's Director of Academic Affairs Harry R. Moody and Director of The Centre for Spirituality & Healing's
Mary Jo Kreitzer, will be broadcast live online. Organizations are
invited to host an online site broadcast to spark conversations in
their community. Visit the University of Minnesota's website for more information about attending the conference or hosting the broadcast.[ Read More]
Written by admin at News
Tagged with:
positive_aging
By Jim Selman | Bio
I’ve been thinking about aging and
observing the human phenomenon for a long time and I know that most of
the chatter in my head isn’t ‘me’—it’s just the tapes of my past and my
ego playing the tune to which my culture expects me to dance. For
example, I believe and know from experience that the key to health and wellbeing is “participation”—staying
engaged in whatever games I choose to play. Yet, that little voice in
my head insists that I should rest more, take it easy, slow down and
just enjoy life. I can observe myself being seduced by the reasonable
and conventional wisdom that as I get older I should participate less. [ Read More]
Written by admin at Retirement
Tagged with:
energy
health
participation
retirement
time
wellbeing
Serene Ambition will be unavailable for an hour on October 23rd,
sometime between 12 am and 6 am Central Time, while our web hosting
service performs system upgrades. We apologize for any inconvenience
this may cause.[ Read More]
Written by admin at News
Tagged with:
By Jim Selman | Bio
It’s getting hard to stay ‘upbeat’ in the
face of all the economic news. The line between a recession and
depression is blurring more and more each day. It seems pretty obvious
that we’re entering what will be a long road to some sort of
prosperity. The old joke about a recession is when your neighbor loses
his or her job and a depression is when you lose your job isn’t so
funny anymore. I learned today that China is embarking on an official
policy of selling directly to U.S. consumers bypassing the
middlemen—and that means even more pressure on the economy if they pull
it off. The bottom line is that the American Dream will evade more and
more of us and, in particular, the dream of living a life of leisure
after retirement will evade most Baby Boomers. [ Read More]
Written by admin at The Great Turning
Tagged with:
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boomers
community
elder
recession
By Jim Selman | Bio
Think about the positive attributes of
growing older, and ‘wisdom’ will always appear near the top of the
list. Until recently, I had assumed ‘wisdom’ was a kind of ‘right
knowledge’. Every time someone says the Serenity Prayer, I am reminded
of this attribute again.
“God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot
change, the courage to change the things that I can, and the wisdom to
know the difference.”
I wonder if I do know the difference.[ Read More]
Written by admin at Wisdom in Action
Tagged with:
action
change
choice
judgment
serenity
service
wisdom
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