August 10, 2021
A weekly curated collection of essays, poetry, and reflections for your spiritual journey. From The Wisdom Years.
There is no telling where God may turn up next–around what sudden bend of the path if you happen to have your eyes and ears open.
-Frederick Buechner, Eyes of the Heart
From Well for the journey
This Week:
- Bodies may give out, but souls don’t wrinkle
- Elders can bring a divided world together
- From the Olympics, keep running
- 70 as a welcome time
- The brain helps us age
Souls Don’t Wrinkle
Older women have the luxury of shedding excess baggage: pride of looks, what others think, looking foolish. But the biblical Sarah and Elizabeth show us that souls don’t wrinkle. Read more.
From Joanna Seibert in Daily Something.
Elders Are Bridges
The archetype of the elder – who stands with one foot on the ground of survival and the other in the realm of great imagination – is needed more than ever as the world becomes increasingly divided. Read the essay.
By Michael Meade in Mosaic Voices.
Get Up and Go On Together
The take-away from the Olympics for Diana Butler Bass was when Sifan Hassan fell, got up, kept running, and finished first in the qualifying heat of the women’s 1,500 meter race. Our communities need that kind of resilience, says Bass, if we are going to meet the crises of these days. Read the essay.
From The Cottage.
The Joy of Being a Woman in Her Seventies
When we say, “I’m not old,” we generally mean, “I don’t feel old, I don’t fit the stereotype of what it means to be an old woman.” We hesitate to admit we are old in the ageism culture of our society. Read the essay.
By Mary Pipher found in Daily Good.
Keys to Aging Well
Aging does not have to be a period of decline and loss and irrelevance, says Daniel Levitin in a PBS interview. It can be “a period of potentially renewed engagement, energy and meaningful activities.” Levitin, a neuroscientist, examines what happens in the brain as we age and finds good news. Watch the video or read the transcript.
Gathered Wisdom is an offering of The Wisdom Years, a ministry devoted to the spiritual journey of the last third of our lives. Sign up to subscribe to Gathered Wisdom and learn more about us at The Wisdom Years. Or send an email to Marjorie George at marjoriegeorge62@gmail.com.
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