What does it mean to be an elder in the 21st century? Do we have a place and purpose as elders? What is your experience of becoming or being an elder?

Due to medical advances and improved living standards, we all have increased longevity and a vastly extended time between our adult years and reaching old age.

Elderhood has emerged as a new life stage of about the same time span as adulthood -twenty-five to thirty years, from around fifty-five onward. As we move into elderhood, our spiritual life and insight become more significant. In fact, I don’t see it is possible to grow as an elder without developing our spirituality and appreciation of life’s mysteries.

“When we have lived enough life, experienced enough love and enough wounding and repeated the pattern of loss and renewal enough times, we become skilled at healing. Always this starts with your self first, through a deeply focused inner cycle of reflection and application. This cyclic practice builds the wisdom arts. It builds the elder.”
– The Elderhood Epiphany, Di Percy

The Elderhood Series consists of three Interactive Presentations. They are designed as consecutive sessions but also work as stand alone single presentations.

The Presentations are structured to include some time for reflective discussion, to explore your own experiences and insights of elderhood. Come curious and open to a small group conversation about becoming or being an elder and to reflect with others on this.

Limited to 40 participants

Meeting 1:
Becoming An Elder

As we move to the third life-stage, our idea of ageing starts to shift as does our view of the self, of who am I, and what I am here for.

The third life-stage is no longer viewed as a decline into old age and fragility. Becoming an elder has shifted from becoming old to a vibrant time of life, distinct from adulthood, providing us with new doors to open into worlds.

Elderhood is no longer a problem to be solved, a condition to flee or fight. It is a time to explore the deeper questions of self and meaning, and to refresh and engage our life in a new way. These are themes we will investigate in this presentation.

Meeting 2:
Death As A Teacher

Most people have an awareness of death from an early age. The knowledge that life is finite can raise fears as well as a sense of awe and mystery.

As we move further into elderhood from our 50’s onwards, we start to have more exposure to friends and family dying. It is on the radar.

An encounter with the death of a loved one or the threat of your own death is a confronting human experience, but one seldom talked about in much depth.

This presentation contemplates what the presence of death can teach us about life. There will be time to exchange some of your own experiences, thoughts and insights about death and the way to make it a deepening and integrating experience.

Meeting 3:
On Purpose

Purpose is the why with soul. When we have purpose in elderhood, we flourish. Without purpose, we can flounder and fade.

There’s a lot to being on purpose. It may sound simple but it can be hard to do. The first part is to have a purpose, and it may be completely different to your purpose during the adulthood years.

The second part is to stay on purpose, to be on course. Extraordinary and respected elders do this. They stay focused on their purpose, even in times of turmoil demanding detailed attention that causes distraction.

This Presentation will investigate having purpose and being on purpose. There will be time for reflective discussion in small groups.