Full Moon and Mythic Presence

FULL MOON

 The door is open,
the cricket is singing.
Are you going around naked
in the fields?

Like an immortal water,
going in and out of everything.
Are you going around naked
in the air?

The basil is not asleep,
the ant is busy.
Are you going around naked
in the house?
---Juan Ramon Jiminez

We are living two lives at the same time, the inner life and the outer life. This beautiful Jiminez poem speaks to the lyricism and nakedness of the inner life at the time of the full moon. Two days ago, I saw the moon rise big in the sky even before darkness fell. What a beautiful sight it was.

Then two days of rain and clouds obscured its display. I hope that the weather clears and we are granted a sight of its rise and the sweep of its arc tonight and tomorrow night. It is a big moon on both outer and inner levels.

Today we are filming a 4-5 minute video that will be used on Indie GoGo. Our goal is to raise $15,000 to produce and film A New Wrinkle, our paradigm-shifting musical revue. Have you ever heard of IndieGoGo? It  is an Internet-based crowdfunding platform. That's a mouthful of a new term if you've never heard it before. IndieGoGo and Kickstarter are both wonderful ways that artists, activists and individuals are raising money for all types of projects and causes.

We are excited to move toward our own IndieGoGo campaign launch. Once we finish the video, we will be assembling a variety of perks for donors, a great way to say thank you and provide folks with more pro-aging messages. We're in the process of gathering a group of helpers that I call the Sagesse Squadron to support this effort, which will include a local launch event in Ashland, Oregon. I will continue to post information here about this effort as it develops.

I hope that you will be inspired to help us shift the current paradigm on aging with all of its noxious stereotypes and prejudice. You can support our effort to broadcast the pro-aging messages of A New Wrinkle widely. In fact, we are depending upon your help to spread the word and meet our fundraising goal. Your help might also include connecting us with possible radio show appearances and telling local theater companies, philanthropists and elders about our work.

Riding the Age Wave


That's one way I like to think about the aging process.  I like the playfulness and pleasure of the phrase.  I celebrated my 71st birthday the other day. My daughter Sophia brought me this extravagantly lovely bouquet and baked delectable little truffle cakes. She presented them adorned with a few sliced strawberries, a dollop of whipped cream, and a bit of coffee ice cream. We enjoyed each other's company and I thought to myself, "This girl of mine sure does know how to do it up right."

I had a long conversation with my friend Angie the other day. Her birthday is a few days away from mine. Our talk ranged, but its main theme was our engagement in actualizing our work as we age. We've slowed down some, but both of us feel vividly involved in our work. Angie developed Kentro Body Balance, a wonderful system of postural healing and integration. (Visit her website to be inspired, and learn more about how to maintain a healthy back and body in later life).  Angie writes poetry and paints, too--she appreciates the beauty of the artist's life.

In the Works, the Whole Works

I met with another Taurus, Steve Scholl, whose birthday is one day after mine, and as usual got excited by our exchange. Steve is the founder of White Cloud Press, a mid-sized publisher of some wonderful books. Steve told me about A Branch from the Lightning Tree: Ecstatic Myth and the Grace in Wildness, a book by Martin Shaw. I have nearly finished reading it. What a wonderful book! One of my favorite quotes from it is this one:

"The job of the elder is to be nuttier, more curious, occasionally fierce and more connected to the eccentricities of wildness than the youth every dreamed. More than anything,the elder has seen some  rough patches to their life and knows how to express it in a story. This carries tremendous hope with it."

The other thing that I got excited about in my recent meeting with Steve was his other venture, Imagine Adventures.  Do you imagine adventures? I sure do. And the notion of developing a creative aging adventure to be offered through Imagine Adventures definitely appeals to me considerably. I am hoping to do just that. What would a creative aging adventure be like? Wonderfully relaxed and enriching, with movement, voice, story, swimming, contemplation and the surprising and marvelous qualities that arise from the field effect, when a group of us gathers the resonance of our accumulated experience and knowing. It would take place in a wonderful setting, either a retreat center on Molokai or one near Tulum, Mexico. This imagined adventure is imagining itself into life....can you imagine being with us on it?  Isn't that fun?  It tickles me just to imagine it and I imagine that bringing it to fruition will be a great pleasure.