04-09-25 Sangha Meeting Invitation

Life Provides A Major Change -

Navigating The Experience of Accepting, Feeling and Coping

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At the Contemporary ElderSangha, we’ve been discussing the unsettling experience of learning about a serious diagnosis for yourself or a loved one. As elders we all will come to the inescapable reality that everything in life is impermanent. As we age, our chances of encountering significant losses are increased, and the impact of the loss can be felt more intensely.

But when faced with an overwhelming loss of health, of financial security, of a life partner or friend, how do we react?

On Wednesday, April 9th we will continue our inquiry and discussion into the experience of the range and nature of responses that are possible and pose questions regarding the values associated with whatever response you discover.

Items for consideration are:

• How and what do we acknowledge when our sense of loss is overwhelming?

• What are our emotions and feelings with what’s acknowledged?

• Is acknowledgment the same as acceptance?

• Is there meaning to be found in facing traumas?

Please join us for this continued deep dive into one of life’s most complicated experiences.

In Blackwater Woods

(by Mary Oliver)

Look, the trees

are turning

their own bodies

into pillars

of light,

are giving off the rich

fragrance of cinnamon

and fulfillment,

the long tapers

of cattails

are bursting and floating away over

the blue shoulders

of the ponds,

and every pond,

no matter what its

name is, is

nameless now.

Every year

everything

I have ever learned

in my lifetime

leads back to this: the fires

and the black river of loss

whose other side

is salvation,

whose meaning

none of us will ever know.

To live in this world

you must be able

to do three things:

to love what is mortal;

to hold it

against your bones knowing

your own life depends on it;

and, when the time comes to let it go,

to let it go.

The Sangha call is April 9th

7:00pm EST / 4:00pm PST / 1:00pm HST

Please join us for this Sangha meeting

using the LINK below.

The Sangha is a community examining how to live our best expression of wisdom and Elderhood. To be this expression, we must shift our way of thinking so that we transmute information and insights into wisdom. In this Sangha we offer experiences and discussions that inform the process of becoming Elder. We draw from the rich traditions of Eastern and Western practices, philosophies and psychologies.

With Gratitude - The Contemporary Elder Sangha

Zoom link:https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83175189150?pwd=uRg7DVFH3R5Qf6JZNbt7bd1VwLE5uk.1