Spirituality of Aging Resources

23 july 2026 meeting

To spark discussion, I suggested two resources before the Club meeting:

• Buck Center Video: Older People are Happier! By Laura Carstensen, PhD.

• Scientific American article: With Age Comes Happiness: Here's Why, by Marta Zaraska

During the session, I spoke about Mandelbrot Set (fractal) videos. Click here for an example. They've become famous because of how nature displays fractals in many systems (such as the branching of trees, river tributaries, and vascular systems, all of which look similar). I find them instructive because human life repeats so many patterns, with variations, through time and space, on many scales. Watching fractal videos helps put things in perspective for me. So does watching this video of James Webb Telescope images.

Contributions during the preceding week:

Glen suggested a great piece entitled, One Day, You Will Look Back On This Time, And All You Will See Is Magic by Brianna Wiest.

• Pamela provided an inspiring New York Times article about simplifying our mental lives. 

• Jody pointed to the Institute of Noetic Studies (IONS), which opens their About page with this description: "Through modern scientific inquiry, we seek to better understand a timeless truth — humanity is deeply interconnected."  

• Tori shared a soon-to-be-relased PBS documentary about Mary Oliver. 

9 July 2026 MEETING

Today's topic is Faith. I used AI to generate a list of Faiths.

Marian sent an AI-generated list of spiritual needs:

In psychological and holistic healthcare, the concept of the 7 spiritual needs is widely based on the work of Howard Clinebell. These common spiritual hungers act as guidelines to achieve inner wellness, meaning, and connection throughout

life. 

Core spiritual needs include:

1. Meaning and hope: The vital beliefs that give a sense of purpose and hope, particularly when facing losses, tragedies, or failures.

2. Love: The need to both give and receive love unconditionally.

3. Justice, integrity, and love of self: Holding core values and priorities that provide guidance in living a personally and socially responsible life. 

4. Inner wisdom and creativity: The ongoing process of discovering, valuing, and developing one's own inner wisdom and creative potential. 

5. Oneness: Developing an expanding awareness of being connected to other people, to nature, and to the broader universe.

6. Joy, play, and humor: Cultivating the ability to embrace playfulness, appreciate beauty, and find lightness even in difficult circumstances.

7. Growth: The continuous pursuit of self-actualization, lifelong learning, and expanding one's consciousness. 

Marian also sent this charming quote:

"when i was 5 years old my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. when i went to school they asked me what i wanted to be when i grew up. i wrote down 'happy'. they told me i didn't understand the assignment and i told them they didn't understand life." —john lennon

Tori sent this recorded webinar: The Heart of Elderhood: How to Age Consciously and Help Others Do the Same with with Hedy Schleifer & Paul Browde from the Academy of Therapy Wisdom. (Just so you know: the 90 minute video is free to watch, but it also promotes a paid online program).

25 JUNE 2026 MEETING

In today's meeting, we began by discussing how aging is a spiritual opportunity. An essay I wrote about the topic was the starting point, but the conversation ranged widely. We talked about loneliness, vulnerability, bewilderment around the thought of death and 'just ending', etc. We talked also about how we can build community, and how our club is actually doing just that. We also talked about sources of courage, which include connection with others, and much more.

We didn't have a lot of time to talk about death and its implications, but we can circle back to that topic in the future. In the meantime, here are two blog posts I've written about some possibilities:

• playing with the afterlife

• hypothesizing about the afterlife

They were written years ago, and although I've updated them (with some help from AI), they no longer align with my main focus. These days, I believe it's most important to experience consciously directly, in all its dimensions. Theorizing about it or what happens to it after we die is interesting but less valuable than exploring it intimately, personally, and in a spirit of wonder. 

Marian sent the following lovely song:

Based on a Teddy Roosevelt quote, this song echoes my mother's adage: "All you can do is the best you can." Shine and grow right where you are.

SHINE

Shine like a star
Do all you can
With what you have
In the place you are

Shine like a star
Do all you can
In the time you have
In the place you are

Everybody falters, everybody falls down
Everybody feels afraid most all the time
In the dark, bravely, like a star in a stone boat
Like a magic lantern, go ahead and shine

...

Out there, out upon the hard ground
Impossible beauty shines in bloom
Sometimes, somebody try to steal the shine
'Cause they found it beautiful, what you gonna do?

...

It's not fool's gold
Not the Golden Calf
It's the lightning flash
When the love shines

...

*Words and Music by Cris Williamson. Based on words by Theodore Roosevelt Additional lyrics Cris Williamson
© 2009 Cris Williamson/ Bird Ankles Music (BMI)

Link to recorded version.

Barry sent this relevant quote:

So many people gave me something or were

something to me without knowing it... -

I always think that we all live, spiritually, by what

others have given us in the significant hours of

our life. These significant hours do not announce

themselves as coming but arrive unexpected.

We find ourselves in a new movement of thought.

In a movement where, through science and

through the searching of our hearts, everything

has become mysterious. Science has led us from

knowledge to knowledge but also from mystery to

mystery. Mystery alone can lead us on to true

spirituality, to accept and be filled with the mystery

of life in our existence. 

—Albert Schweitzer

11 JUNE 2026 MEETING

We started with an essay, What Is Spirituality?, which provides a nice summary of ways people think about and experience spirituality. We will have many opportunities to share personal reflections on spirituality as we continue to meet, so it’s helpful to consider a range of possibilities. As always, my hope is that our club will create room for us to explore the spirituality of aging in community, according to our individual backgrounds, needs, and temperaments, while remaining open and curious about differing understandings and experiences.

28 MAY 2026 MEETING

We began with a Mary Oliver poem, available at this link, in both written and audiovisual formats. Some resources were mentioned during our discussion, including:

From Barry:

• Here is the link to Marin Villages — a Great Organization.

From Will:

• This talk by Ram Dass explains how religions can support healthy spirituality, when we don't use them to create divisions or self-importance.

• My free video classes explain how biology figures into my spirituality.

14 MAY 2026 MEETING

Our first meeting began witha discussion of what we all hope to get out of the club. 

My personal hope is that the club will emphasize aging's gifts: greater contentment, more wisdom and stability, increased capacity to guide others, more time to explore neglected interests, more space for contemplation and simple being, increased ease around change and mortality, etc. Although ESCOM could use a club about nutrition, exercise, online resources, and other tools for aging well, this club will not focus on the pragmatics of aging, but on its spiritual opportunities. Note that ’spiritual’ can be about secular values like finding meaning and purpose, and it can also be about exploring our connection with mystery and even divinity. The club is meant to warmly welcome all perspectives and needs.

That’s the general idea of the club, and we made a good start in our first meeting. How things unfold going forward depends on our collective experiences, concerns, and aspirations.